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EPIC - Backfocus Adjustment Tutorial

How do i know when i am out of backfocus?

If you set your properly calibrated known good cinema lens at a given lens marked distance e.g. 6ft exactly, and place the camera at exactly the same chosen distance from the focus target to the camera sensor plane (the little circle with a vertical line through it on the side of the camera body) and it is not in focus (check by rocking through the sharpest focus a few times), then your camera back focus (actually Focus Flange Distance FFD) needs adjusting. Ideally you use your widest focal length lens, wide open aperture as that will be most affected by an incorrect back focus (use NDs to avoid exposure clipping).

If the lens is not a cinema lens, or hasn't been checked for proper back focus then it may be the lens AND/OR the camera that needs adjusting.

Check with multiple lenses and at other distances and focal lengths. If multiple lenses show the same amount of being out of focus in the same direction, then that would tend to point to the camera being wrong. Although it's still possible all the lenses were set to an incorrect focal plane instead.

Another sign would be inability to reach or pass through focus at infinity (most lenses allow the focus ring to go beyond the printed infinity mark to allow for thermal & manufacturing variations, so the infinity mark is often not a precise point).
 
Is setting the back focus necessary when using primes?


Yes.

The key, as eric mentions in this thread is looking for consistency. If they are all spot on at six feet from a chart six feet away from the sensor mark, then you are in focus. It should be the same for zooms. Once you know your sensor plane is spot on then perhaps your primes need to be shimmed.

Battistella
 
Basically, you use a set of pre-cut shims specifically for the given lens mount. They have pre-cut holes for the screws and are usually color-coded for thickness. Check back focus and if it's off, keep adding different shims until it's right. You have to be very careful not to crimp them as that will change their thickness and make them useless. Some lenses now come with a back focus adjustment built in so there's no need to shim them anymore.
 
Having trouble determining my focus issues. Don't know whether the Dragon needs BF adjust or what. I shoot natural history, so I'm shooting everything from wide angle scenics 21mm to animal portraits at 300 and 500mm. Since I've moved from Sony to RED "everything" tight or wide seems soft. I'm using EF mount glass (some new, some legacy), canon, zeiss and nikon converted. If someone could help I would be greatly appreciative!!
Thanks
Doug
 
Having trouble determining my focus issues. Don't know whether the Dragon needs BF adjust or what. I shoot natural history, so I'm shooting everything from wide angle scenics 21mm to animal portraits at 300 and 500mm. Since I've moved from Sony to RED "everything" tight or wide seems soft. I'm using EF mount glass (some new, some legacy), canon, zeiss and nikon converted. If someone could help I would be greatly appreciative!!
Thanks
Doug
 
That's not necessarily back focus. What are you comparing the images to? It could be camera setting (strong OLFP non sharpened RED images are usually quite bit softer than equivalent Canon Nikon same Mpix sensors), it could be buzzed focus.
There are only a few scenarios that back focus is crucial:
1. prime lenses at infinity (if the lens is "long" meaning too far from the image plane you'd never reach infinity)
2. Prime lenses using footage marks to set object distance (if the back focus is off the marks would not match actual object distance)
The most important mission of the back focus is for zoom lenses :
1. (focus on the) wide and long ends of the zoom lens does not match.
This is the most important aspect of back focus for motion acquisition IMO:
A slew of errors occur from it: one of the most popular and mistakenly perceived is the parfocality of a zoom. If the back focus is not correct the image gets soft almost immediately upon zooming.
Believe me I've tried to educate the public here and elsewhere about it since 2008 to no avail. I'll keep trying...
Hope it helps...
 
Back Focus

Back Focus

I've only had my Scarlet Dragon a month or so, and I have been having focus issues. At first I thought that it was just the fact that I wasn't used to seeing the raw images coming out of the camera, but after further inspection, I believe it is my Back focus. I'm shooting with a Canon Mount with a Canon 14mm f 2.8 II prime. Infinity focus is soft.


The biggest thing that confuses me, is how do I know for sure if my back focus is out or not?
 

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Daniel, where are you located? My suggestion is try and get your camera into a rental house and have them check it out for you.
 
I've only had my Scarlet Dragon a month or so, and I have been having focus issues. At first I thought that it was just the fact that I wasn't used to seeing the raw images coming out of the camera, but after further inspection, I believe it is my Back focus. I'm shooting with a Canon Mount with a Canon 14mm f 2.8 II prime. Infinity focus is soft.


The biggest thing that confuses me, is how do I know for sure if my back focus is out or not?

You should be aware that most lenses GO THROUGH infinity to allow for thermal variation and manufacturing tolerances. So just turning the lens to the far end does not mean you are focused at infinity!

You need to rock through best focus to see if you've got it as well focussed as possible at the infinity end - Magnification & focus assist/peaking on your monitor will help.

[Edit: And as Jacek said above in an earlier post, if your FFD is too long, then your infinity focus will always be soft]
 
I have a question for those who know way more than me on this subject.
On my Canon 5DMkiii there is a menu item that allows for an individual lens micro focus adjustment. when you go through this process (which is very similar to adjusting for back focus) it then records how much that individual lens is out by. When you remount that lens, on the camera the camera reads the serial number and automatically "micro adjusts" back to the value that you set for that lens when you went through this micro adjustment process. I have been through this process with all my EF (L) glass and there was a huge variance. Some of my lenses were bang on and needed no micro adjustment "0" however there were some that were way out needing as much as + or - 15 units of micro adjustment to get them to there optimal sharpness.
Questions
1) Now does this mean that when I mount these lenses (the ones with + or - 15) on my Epic i should expect them to be on the soft side if my Epic's back focus is correctly calibrated ?
2) Is there any thing that I can do to bring these lenses back to the "0" point for optimal sharpness on my Epic
Thanks
 
I think that AF works with Contrast detection on Epic, so it shouldn't be an issue.

And usually at infinity you have some margin left by Canon, on the ring I mean.

The only thing inaccurate would be the info about distance on the LCD.

BTW, Canon can recalibrate the lenses for you, usually for a (relatively) small price.
 
1) Now does this mean that when I mount these lenses (the ones with + or - 15) on my Epic i should expect them to be on the soft side if my Epic's back focus is correctly calibrated ?
2) Is there any thing that I can do to bring these lenses back to the "0" point for optimal sharpness on my Epic
Thanks
That data is saved on your 5D. Your lenses remain untouched, nothing gets changed (only how your 5D focuses with them). The whole thing has zero effect on working with those lenses on your EPIC.
 
Resurrecting this thread from the dead....

Just want to be completely clear about what the repercussions are of back focus being off:

- the focus distance markings on the lens barrel will be incorrect
- you may not be able to focus to infinity

anything else?

I ask because shooting on Canon L glass, the distance markings are next to useless, so I mostly focus by eye, rather than by measuring distance to subject and turning the focus ring to the marked distance.

So in that case can I assume that back focus being off isn't really an issue - except if it means I can't focus to infinity?

Or is there something else I'm missing?
 
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