Reikan Focal 2.9

1. Reikan Focal 2.9 Review
2. Reikan Focal 2.9 Download
3. Reikan Focal 2.9 Laser
4. Reikan Focal Pro 2.9 Full.rar
5. Reikan Focal 2.9 Lesion
6. Reikan Focal Pro 2.9

Reikan Technology Ltd FoCal 2.6.0 Introduction 11 1 Introduction FoCal is a software utility designed to control a Canon or Nikon DSLR camera and automate the process of choosing the perfect AF Microadjustment/Fine Tune value for the attached lens.

• Reikan Technology Ltd Reikan FoCal 2.9 11 To run the checks, hit the Start button. FoCal will take a shot and show you anything that might need attention in the panel on the right of the window.
• Reikan FoCal is a software tool that takes control of your camera, guides you through the setup and fully calibrates your camera autofocus with minimal interaction from you.
• FoCal reference manual: FoCal 2.13 Manual (also supplied within FoCal software package download) Check out the Comprehensive online reference manual which is also accessible via context sensitive help within FoCal. Reikan FoCal - Target Downloads, Documents and Useful Links Amplifier Focal SOLID 1 User Manual.

In depth

The Nikon Z 35mm f1.8S is a mild wide-angle prime lens for Nikon's full-frame Z-series mirrorless cameras. A popular focal length for street photography and general-purpose use, it features an f1.8 focal ratio and joins the Z 24-70mm f4S as the first Z-series lenses on the market; the Z 50mm f1.8S will be the third at the end of 2018. Nikon's Z-lenses may be the only models currently available with a native Z-mount but thanks to Nikon's FTZ adapter, existing F-mount lenses can easily be used on their new Z bodies. So the new Z 35mm f1.8S faces competition from a host of other wide angle lenses with the F-mount, most notably Nikon's own AF-S 35mm f1.8G.

As the Z 35mm f1.8S is a member of Nikon's high-end 'S' line it is expected to perform on a very high level. To find out whether the new Nikon Z 35mm f1.8S rightfully carries the 'S' moniker I tested its optical qualities on the 46MP Z7 body against a few other lenses of which the Zeiss 28mm f1.4 Otus is my current reference wide angle lens. So if you're interested in how Nikon's first prime lens for their new Z system performs, you've come to the right place! PS – if you're interested in the other Z lenses in Nikon's line-up check out our in-depth reviews: Nikon Z 14-30mm f4.0 S review / Nikon Z 24-70mm f2.8 S review / Nikon Z 24-70mm f4 S review / Nikon Z 50mm f1.8 S review / Nikon Z 85mm f1.8 S review.

Facts from the catalog

As usual I'll have a look at the technical data of the new Nikon Z 35mm f1.8S first. I've rated the features with a [+] (or [++]), when it's better than average or even state of the art, a [0] if it's standard or just average, and [-] if there's a disadvantage. For this comparison I use the Nikon AF-S 35mm f1.8G ('F Nikkor' for short) and the Tamron SP 35mm f1.8 VC ('Tamron').

Size (diameter x length): 73 x 86mm (2.9 x 3.4in.). The lens hood adds 48mm which is pretty deep for a wide-angle lens and gives good shelter in inclement weather. It is 89mm in diameter. The F Nikkor is 72 x 72mm and the Tamron is 80 x 78mm (both without lens hood). For an apples-to-apples comparison one has to allow for the differences of flange distance between the Z-mount (16mm) and the F-mount (46.5mm). So these 30.5mm (1.2in.) have to be added when using the F Nikkor or the Tamron – either on an F-mount DSLR like the D850 or by mounting it via the FTZ adapter on a Z7. Only the diminutive Nikon AF 35mm f2.0D with its stubby 44mm length is shorter even when mounted on the FTZ adapter. [+]

Weight: 364g (12.8 oz.) plus 30g for the lens hood. The F Nikkor is 305g (10.8 oz.), the Tamron 450g (15.9 oz.) plus 27g for the lens hood plus another 133g (4.7 oz.) for the FTZ adapter to use it on a Z7. Only the Nikon AF 35mm f2.0D at 205g is lighter even when mounted on the FTZ adapter. [+]

Optics: 11 elements (including 2 special dispersion and 3 aspherical elements) in 9 groups which is similar to the F Nikkor and the Tamron. The new Nikon Z 35mm f1.8S uses Nikon's Nano-Coating to reduce flare, glare and ghosting. [+]

Closest focus distance is 0.25m (9.8in.) with a magnification of 1:5.3. In my test I was able to get down to 1:4.8 at 0.25m with manual focus. The magnification of the new Nikon is not bad but you have only 15cm (5.9in.) of working distance at minimum focus distance. A magnification of 1:10 is achieved at 0.42m giving a working distance of 0.27m with lens hood attached. The F Nikkor achieves 1:4 in manual focus and the Tamron goes down to 1:2.5 but has only 7cm of working distance. [+]

Filter-thread: 62mm. The F Nikkor has 58mm, the Tamron 67mm. [+]

Image stabilization: The lens offers no optical stabilization. But the Nikon Z bodies provide built-in sensor-shift stabilization over 5 axis – plus an optional electronic stabilization in video mode. The F Nikkor has no optical image stabilization built in but the body-based image stabilization of a Nikon Z7 body provides roll, pitch, and yaw correction. Only the Tamron offers built-in stabilization (pitch/yaw) with the Z7 body adding roll compensation. [0]

Auto focus: Yes with built-in AF drive. Manual-focus override is by simply turning the focus ring – if you didn't assign another operation to this multi-function ring. The focus ring has a variable gearing that allows for very precise manual focus when turned slowly. Unfortunately this feature cannot be switched to linear gearing which makes smooth focus pulling for videographers almost impossible. Focus on the F Nikkor and the Tamron works similarly with the only differences being a linear gearing and that the focus ring does only that: focusing. [+]

Covers full frame/FX or smaller. Same with the alternatives. [+]

Price: The lens has a list price of 949 EUR (incl. 19% VAT) / 850 USD. The F Nikkor goes for almost half the price (500 EUR / 530 USD), the Tamron is at 600 EUR / 600 USD. [+]

Comes with a soft pouch and the lens hood is included, reversible for transport. That's similar to the F Nikkor but I must say the new pouches for the Z lenses so far are disappointing: the material is flimsy and the pouch has no strings to pull it close. So if you put the lens in your bag it might easily slip out of its pouch and bang around unprotected. That being said, the Tamron does not even come with a pouch. [0]

Distance information is relayed to the camera, so the camera and flashes can do all the advanced exposure-related stuff with this lens. Same for the alternatives. Except that the new Nikon Z 35mm f1.8S does not have distance scale. Do I miss it? Well, sometimes. But you could shoot perfectly without one. [+]

Aperture ring: the multi-function control ring of an S-lens can be assigned to operate the aperture, exposure compensation or focus. It automatically falls back to its customary focus control when the lens is switched to manual focus. Although the lens control ring has not the same benefit as having a focus ring plus a dedicated aperture ring on the lens it gives you more flexibility to control one of the more important shooting parameters directly from a nice ring on the lens. The F Nikkor and the Tamron don't have an aperture control ring. [+]

Sealing: yes, a rubber grommet at the lens-mount plus further special weather-sealing throughout the construction. Both the F Nikkor and the Tamron only have the sealing at the lens-mount [+] Winkawaks free download with roms.

The score in the 'features-department' is 0[-]/2[0]/11[+]. So the lens has a very good feature set. It offers the nifty feature of the multi-purpose control ring and is sealed against the weather like Nikon's pro lenses.

Three wide angle prime lenses for Nikon

Above from left to right: Zeiss 28mm f1.4 Otus on Nikon FTZ adapter, Nikon Z 35mm f1.8S, Nikon 35mm f2.0D

Alternatives

The market for wide-angle prime lenses is pretty crowded but no other manufacturer offers any lens for Nikon's Z-mount so far. So for alternatives we have to look at F-mount lenses which can be used mounted on Nikon's FTZ adapter – adding another 31mm in length and 133g in weight:

• Nikon has the AF-S 35mm f1.8G ED from 2014 for 500 EUR / 530 USD. For more information see my Nikon 35mm f1.8G review where it got a recommendation. You can still get the older AF 35mm f2.0D version from 2003 which is the cheapest, shortest and lightest alternative and sells for 320 EUR / 390 USD. But it doesn't autofocus on the Z7 and its optical performance is no match for a full-frame 46MP sensor.
• Tamron's stabilized SP AF 35mm f1.8 Di VC USD goes for about 600 EUR / 600 USD. It's the only stabilized lens of the alternatives earned a Recommended in my Tamron SP 35mm f1.8 VC review. Its optical stabilization was good for 2 stops on a D810. The Z7 adds roll compensation – which from experience takes a little jitter away but does not add another stop of stabilization. But you might try the Tamron with optical stabilization switched off in which case the Z7's built-in stabilization should also compensate for yaw and pitch which may be more effective.

That's it regarding 35mm f1.8 alternatives. The other choices include either going wider to 28mm (offering 12 degrees wider angle of view) or getting lenses with a 2/3 of a stop brighter focal ratio of f1.4 which are all bigger, heavier and normally more expensive than their f1.8 counterparts:

• Nikon offers the AF-S 28mm f1.8G from 2012 (650 EUR / 700 USD) which earned a recommendation in my Nikon 28mm f1.8G review. The problematic focus shift of this lens should be eliminated by the feature of the Z7 to focus stopped down.
  They also have the AF-S 28mm f1.4E ED from 2017 which came Highly Recommended in my Nikon 28mm f1.4E review but costs 2000 EUR / 2000 USD. Plus there is the AF-S 35mm f1.4G from 2010 for 1750 EUR / 1700 USD.
• Sigma offers the AF 35mm 1.4 DG HSM Art from 2012 for a relatively low price of 750 EUR / 900 USD. See my Sigma 35mm f1.4 Art review where it came Highly Recommended when tested on a Nikon D800. Its weak spot is the performance at the border of the APS-C/DX image-circle where residual spherical aberrations and astigmatism mar the otherwise impressive performance even up to f4.0. If you use it on a 46MP sensor this problem is only going to get worse. Btw.: Including the FTZ adapter the Sigma has a diameter of 77mm, a length of 125mm and a weight of 800g.
• The Zeiss 28mm f1.4 Otus from 2015 is my current reference wide-angle prime lens. But it costs a whopping 4000 EUR / 5000 USD – and it's manual focus only! But its build quality is unsurpassed and the optical performance is top notch. It earned a Highly Recommended in my Zeiss Otus 28mm f1.4 review.

Another alternative?

Above: Nikon Z 24-70mm f4S vs. Nikon Z 35mm f1.8S on Nikon Z7

Finally you might also consider the new Nikon Z 24-70mm f4.0S as an alternative. It has the benefit of covering a 2.9x zoom range reaching 2x further at the long end and going 21 degrees wider at the short end. It does offer only an f4.0 focal ratio but is of similar size and weight as the Z 35mm f1.8S, doesn't need an adapter like the other alternatives above, and offers very good optical performance. Plus it comes pretty cheap if you buy it in a kit together with the Z7 camera (600 EUR / 750 USD). It got a Highly Recommended in my Nikon Z 24-70mm f4S review.

Focus

Focus accuracy and repeatability is critical to consistently produce sharp shots especially with large aperture lenses. Repeatability (the accuracy of focus on the same subject after repeated focus-acquisition) of this lens is very good (measured 98.5% in Reikan FoCal) with no outliers over a series of 40 shots. There is no focus variation whether the lens focuses from a closer distance or from infinity. Interestingly I had to set AF fine-tune of -3 to achieve the best results as my sample exhibited a little back-focus. This sound at odds with a camera that focuses with an embedded phase-detect system on the sensor, but may be influenced by the longitudinal colour aberrations of the lens where the focus of the colors red, green, and blue are slightly different.

The lens focuses in around 0.5 sec from infinity to 0.42m (1:10 magnification), which is pretty fast. Hunting didn't occur under the well-lit test conditions but under real-life conditions I saw the lens hunt on occasion. The focus/control ring is 38mm wide. Its surface is not rubberized but as it moves super smooth and can easily be operated even with your pinky the finely knurled metal surface is well up to its task. The ring has a slight play.

AF-operation of the new lens is barely audible from the outside. But if you record video with the built-in microphone the AF-drive still produces a slight buzz. This lens is clearly not as quiet as the Nikon Z 24-70mm f4S. If you use the control ring on the lens to change the aperture this works smoothly and without noise.

As you pull focus, you'll notice a very slight focus breathing: the image becomes less magnified at closer focusing distances. When I adjusted the focus from infinity to 0.42m on the new Nikon, I measured a 0.7% decrease in magnification. This is totally inconspicuous and should please videographers.

Image stabilization

Reikan Focal 2.9 Review

To test the effectiveness of the image stabilization with the Nikon Z 35mm f1.8S on a Z7 body, I did a series of 140 test-shots hand-held. I tested with shutter speeds from 1/40 of a second down to 0.8 sec. Shots at 1/40 sec with VR=OFF are used as reference of how good my hand-holding was at the time of the test and Reikan FoCal did the chore of evaluating the sharpness of all shots. Here're the details: With VR=ON (in camera) the combo produced results down to 1/5 sec (3 stops) which were better than 1/80 sec with VR=OFF. At 0.4 sec there were 40% clearly blurred images and 0.8 sec produced hardly any usable results. This is a 3-4 stop advantage from stabilization. The Nikon Z 24-70mm f4S I had tested earlier had a 4-5 stop stabilization from the Z7 at 70mm focal length.

Next check out my quality results!

(See Chart Features for general chart features - changing scales, copying to clipboard etc)

Reikan Focal 2.9 Download

The Lens Profile chart shows how the image quality changes as the AF Microadjustment/Fine Tune value changes. The following is an example of the Lens Profile chart:

Key:

• Red diamond: unoptimised sharpness (Target Optimisation disabled)
• Green diamond: optimised sharpness (Target Optimisation enabled)
• Orange circle within diamond - this is the representative sharpness for this AFMA
• Orange curve - the predicted sharpness across the AFMA range
• Green triangle - indicates the highest value
• Red triangle - indicates the lowest value

Where FoCal Comparison Data is available, the horizontal coloured bands indicate how this lens compares to other lenses of the same type on the same camera model:

• Green area - above average performance
• Blue area - average performance
• Red area - below average performance

With the default settings (not displaying RGB data), you will see a single orange line and some markers. The orange line indicates how the sharpness changes across the range of microadjustment values with the highest point being the best sharpness.

Looking at the example above, the best calibration value is between -14 and -15 (shown by the black vertical line) and corresponds to the highest point on the orange line.

The chart above also shows FoCal Comparison Data results (the horizontal red, blue and green areas). In the example above we can see that this lens is not performing particularly well as all the measured points are in the red area.

FoCal Comparison Data Interpretation

The horizontal red, blue and green bands of the FoCal Comparison data allow you to see how your lens is performing compared to the average values of other users of the same camera/lens combination.

For a fully automatic calibration, the bands show the quality level of the best measurement. You should only be comparing the vertical position of the best point from your calibration with the band positions.

In the example below, the best points are in the green area, indicating that the lens - when calibrated - is a little sharper than the average (blue area) for this particular camera/lens combination. This is a good result:

But in the example below, the peak point is a long way down into the red area which indicates we have quite a poor copy of this lens.

Note: You should check the results from other charts and tests in order to confirm that this lens has an issue and that it is not just an unusual result.

RGB Mode (Advanced)

If you have RGB mode enabled (hit CTRL+S to switch this on/off or choose the option in the Preferences window), you will 3 extra curves which represent the sharpness of the images in the red, green and blue channels:

The black vertical line is still present showing the overall result, but you can also see the red, green and blue vertical lines showing the calibration results for each individual channel.

RGB information can be useful in determining appropriate calibration results if lenses exhibit very high degrees of chromatic aberration or if you intend to take photos under unusual lighting conditions.

RGB results are only approximations if you use JPEG as the testing mode as the colour channels cannot be completely separated from a JPEG image. If you wish to analyse RGB results in detail, you should use Raw mode for testing as FoCal uses a custom raw converter to completely isolate red, green and blue information.

Reikan Focal 2.9 Laser

Dual Pixel Raw information

If Dual Pixel Raw is enabled both in FoCal and on the supported camera, you will see extra information gathered through analysis of the dual pixel raw information:

Reikan Focal Pro 2.9 Full.rar

The magenta vertical band shows the dual pixel raw calibration result and the confidence for this value. This result may differ slightly from the FoCal calculated result due to the way it is calculated, but you should expect the FoCal result and the Dual Pixel Raw result to be within about 1 AF Microadjustment unit.

Reikan Focal 2.9 Lesion

Note that Dual Pixel Raw (as of FoCal 2.6/2.9) is an experimental metric, so you should use the standard FoCal result as the primary source of a calibration result.

Reikan Focal Pro 2.9

This Page | Historic Results - Fully Auto Calibration

Note: You should check the results from other charts and tests in order to confirm that this lens has an issue and that it is not just an unusual result.

RGB Mode (Advanced)

If you have RGB mode enabled (hit CTRL+S to switch this on/off or choose the option in the Preferences window), you will 3 extra curves which represent the sharpness of the images in the red, green and blue channels:

The black vertical line is still present showing the overall result, but you can also see the red, green and blue vertical lines showing the calibration results for each individual channel.

RGB information can be useful in determining appropriate calibration results if lenses exhibit very high degrees of chromatic aberration or if you intend to take photos under unusual lighting conditions.

RGB results are only approximations if you use JPEG as the testing mode as the colour channels cannot be completely separated from a JPEG image. If you wish to analyse RGB results in detail, you should use Raw mode for testing as FoCal uses a custom raw converter to completely isolate red, green and blue information.

Reikan Focal 2.9 Laser

Dual Pixel Raw information

If Dual Pixel Raw is enabled both in FoCal and on the supported camera, you will see extra information gathered through analysis of the dual pixel raw information:

Reikan Focal Pro 2.9 Full.rar

The magenta vertical band shows the dual pixel raw calibration result and the confidence for this value. This result may differ slightly from the FoCal calculated result due to the way it is calculated, but you should expect the FoCal result and the Dual Pixel Raw result to be within about 1 AF Microadjustment unit.

Reikan Focal 2.9 Lesion

Note that Dual Pixel Raw (as of FoCal 2.6/2.9) is an experimental metric, so you should use the standard FoCal result as the primary source of a calibration result.

Reikan Focal Pro 2.9

This Page | Historic Results - Fully Auto Calibration