Datacolor Spyder-Lens-Cal Autofocus Calibration Aid

2022-03-09T18:01:24

Absolutely essential for me as a pro photographer, as I always want to make certain my lenses are at their sharpest. Over time, Lenses can loose sharpness, and as I discovered, and some lenses are sold with less than desireable tolerances - that can be improved if tested and sharpened thru you camera menu. Save time of manually focusing to assure sharpness by testing your lenses once a year or so. It's not that difficult and saves you time and money for having someone else do it.

RICHARD B.

2022-02-10T08:05:31

Works as expected.

Tyrone L.

2021-08-06T10:31:14

Works as described. For the price, I expected something with slightly better construction but it serves its purpose

Christopher F.

2021-03-30T08:57:29

The product is pretty basic, but it doesn't need to be complex.

MATT K.

2021-03-26T11:08:22

Good service. Great lens

Drew Y.

2020-10-02T18:19:41

The calibration aid was easy to use. It helped me determine that my lenses were properly calibrated.

William T.

2020-09-02T13:21:35

The degree to which your camera needs to be parallel with the camera is ridiculous, and the scale does not match the adjustment scale in my Nikon D3.

Darci B.

2019-05-15T10:02:10

The Lensecal arrived and I was eager to try it out. However, no instructions were included in my package. I checked on the internet and found several videos that were fairly good. One video mentioned a distance chart and suggested downloading it from DataColor. I found the Lenscal on their site but no instructions or distance charts were shown. I called the company and after a little bit of a run-around was told by the person I spoke with that he did not know of a chart but that they typically recommend a distance for lens testing of 25 times the focal length of the lens. About a week later I tried again to find the instructions on the Datacolor site and this time found them. The instructions were fairly clear but their system would not let me print them out. Luckily I am retired and have a little extra time on my hands but if I needed this product for professional use, I probably would have just reached a little deeper into my pocket and purchased a competitor’s product.

JACK E.

2019-01-01T09:38:55

I had had my lens calibrated before, but needed to double check because I had quite a few missed focus shots and wanted to be sure it was me and not a broken lens. It was so easy to use. Love that it stores flat & that it is simple to put together and it is also sturdy. Very convenient that it has a bubble level and that it has the female portion so that I could screw it onto a tripod to keep it secure. It ended up being me that caused the missed focus. I am very happy about that as it is my favorite lens. Now I know what I need to work on.

DIANA K.

2018-12-30T16:10:06

Excellent, if overpriced focusing tool, but the results are worth it.

Marvin H.

2018-06-28T09:15:33

Excellent tool and value.

Timothy F.

2018-02-13T10:54:23

Very useful tool

DEAN C.

2018-01-26T10:58:09

Great tool for calibrating focus; woks as expected

MATTHEW H.

2018-01-25T13:23:49

I like this lens calibrator. Easy to use and and more rugged than the completion. Glad I got it because a couple of my lens needed adjustment.

SCOTT M.

2017-11-07T09:22:46

Due to the really small size of the plate, i’d say that it may only work well for short focal distance calibration. When you’re trying it from distance, it’s becoming almost impossible to try to tell the difference between a few micro-adjustment.

Yongqiang L.

2017-03-09T00:57:31

Yes you can see the front to back focusing issues with your camera using this device. You could get the same results using a ruler laid at an angle similar to that on this device; so why spend $ for something which will end up in a bag after your done and rarely come out again? Well it does have 1/4 X 20 mounting screws so I was able to attach a arc mounting plate and easily place this on a tripod and leveling bubbles to get it horizontal and vertical. Using the built in level indicators ( a Pentax K-1)in the camera I felt confident that the alignment of camera and focusing screen was correct. So if convenience, and confidence in results are worth $ go for it. 4 stars rather than 5 because of the expense

Michael S.

2017-03-05T15:55:02

I found it is a great scale, but being the user manual is very vague on measurements points. There is to many 3rd parties having different points where to measure from, lead me to confusion and bad calibrations. I contacted Datacolor Tech Support and all they did was referred me to the user manual that did not answer my questions. If you are new to lens calibration, I would recommend a different brand. Not due to the quality of the Datacolor products, but to the very poor and lazy Tech Support. I would have rated it a 5 star, but I had to go through a lot of trials and errors with different 3rd party suggestions, before I got my lenses shooting sharp.

MICHAEL L.

2017-01-18T04:11:50

Item as described. A useful tool to accurately measure lens performance.

Scott J.

2016-12-19T03:43:54

When you get to the point where you expect your images to be spot on but you still have some that are soft and wonder if it is you or the camera and lens. This is the product that will help you figure that out. I love the way that you can check your equipment to make them as good as they can be in just a few minutes time. That piece of mind when going to a shoot or just shooting for yourself is something that is so nice to have. It is worth the time, effort and money to have one of these system.

Ron L.

2016-10-14T09:03:40

This device might work with some lens/camera combinations, but I was not successful using it. I could see no appreciable difference from one end of the scale to the other.

JOHN C.

2016-09-27T08:51:23

Spyder Lenscal is one of the fastest ways to check you lens and camera to ensure a Tac Sharp image every time. Very easy to set up, to calibrate your equipment, and to pack away and store.

jeff l.

2016-08-27T06:32:21

simple and easy to use . best one i have to date . pop up shoot fine tune fold down back in the box for next time !

phillip j.

2016-08-08T09:08:08

Worked Great, just a little pricey.

THOMAS H.

2016-07-21T19:15:35

Easy to set up, use, and will deliver a calibrated lens with improved focus results.

BILL N.

2016-06-03T12:41:12

There's not a lot you really can say about this product except that it really is a good target for perfect AFMA. There are cheaper alternative and there are more expensive alternatives. I was well pleased with the results after I used tis to micro adjust all of my lenses. Found that the third party lenses I had needed the most adjustment (not really a surprise) but every lens I have now is spot on and producing crisp, clear, sharp results. If I had to criticise one aspect it would be the cost. For what it is it really is a little spendy.

Roger V.

2016-05-15T10:03:32

As I said, this tool is helpful but, I think a bit over priced for a piece of plastic.

Larry M.

2016-04-07T01:23:52

Wow that a difference fine tuning made, simple and easy to use. Should of bought one sooner.

Michael S.

2016-02-22T11:31:35

Good unit; does the job fine but way overpriced at ($) I expected more at this price point.

Shawn T.

2015-04-12T21:00:00

Prior to purchase I read a variety of reviews about this tool, a number of which complained about its being made of plastic. That is most certainly not an issue. This is not a flying machine, it's simply a gizmo that you set up and photograph so you can establish the point of focus for a lens, versus the point of focus at which you instructed the camera/lens to shoot. The plastic is very good grade material and the fitting that attaches the tool to a tripod head is made of metal. Plus, the bubble level built into the base plate is good quality and suprisingly helpful. This gizmo is well thought out and quite well engineered. It serves its purpose nicely. I built the same sort of gizmo myself a few years back, spending the better part of 2 days doing so, and in the end I'd created a "tool" that was so bulky and awkward that I only used it once before discarding it. This Datacolor tool is easily set up and used and folded away until you want to use it again. It's well worth the money.

THOMAS S.

2014-07-01T21:00:00

I had tried gerry rigging several things to adjust my many lenses. Helpful (at times), but never terribly accurate. This design brought me that accuracy & the cleverness of the design made it very practical as well. The only thing that kept it from that 5th star was the price is a bit steep. But ultimately it's cheaper than an expensive lens that isn't focusing correctly.

Edward M.