focusing

[dan]

All right. Love Helicon Focus. Everything works just fine. One thing though. In Helicon remote:
Everything works with both my 5D MKII and 1DsMkIII. No problem. But.... with this exception; no matter which combinations I try, this always happens: For example, let's say I tell it to give me 10 shots with 1 for the distance between shots. The resulting images and focus only take a couple of tiny steps in the direction I told it to go (toward inf. or toward camera) and there will be only a difference in focus of a couple of millimiters. Why does everything else work, but the focusing from the furthest to the closest (or viceversa) only takes a couple of tiny steps?
Thanks, Dan

[Stas Yatsenko]

Are you sure this happens also with the latest version from our site? We fixed one bug which may have caused such a problem.

[Focus #2]

Hi Stas,
I did download the latest version and it seems to work. BUT, the fact is that one has to actually guess how many shots and the distance between shots. One has to arrive at a lucky combination of these two numbers for it to work. I only tried on a table top setup but I suspect that every situation will require another guess for the numbers combinations!!!
If one has more than the necessary number of shots, then the worst it can happen is that one ends with too many shots and one could simply delete them. But the distance between shots has to be a correct guess for that situation, right? This makes it too cumbersome. Do you have a way that could eliminate this guessing the two numbers?
Thanks, Dan

[Stas Yatsenko]

Dan,

We added DOF calculator to easy this task but we cannot fully automate it. DOF depends on lens aperture, we take into account this parameters in our DOF calculator. But every lens has different properties and internal implementation for focusing steps. It might be useful to add lens profiles in DOF calculator so you can select your lens type and get exact for the steps.

[russ heller]

i think i might be experiencing the same problem. (i am using a canon 5dmk2 and a sigma 150 macro, software updated as of today, 6/22/10, 64 bit win7)
if i set the near and far focus points, using the software to control the camera and preview that these points are accurate, it gives me a readout of something like 14 shots with a distance of 1 between them (this example is for an object about an inch in size, F11, with the camera's film plane about 24" from the subject). when i tell the software to start shooting, the results do not cover the entire focus range. it is as though the increments of focus change between shots while shooting are somehow smaller than the increments used by the software previewing. i can click through the small focus adjust, and confirm that 14 shifts would adequately cover the subject, but the result of automated shooting consistently comes up short. i have the increments set to "big" in the preferences, BTW. in the past, i have had to overcome this problem by manually setting the number of shots to significantly higher than the software predicts to ensure adequate coverage. another problem i experienced only with the updated software is that focus control will simply stop part way through the series. i will end up with a folder of images where only some of them are focus-controlled, the rest all look as though they were shot with the same focus. this of course spoils the whole capture.

[Stas Yatsenko]

We have no feedback from the camera about the steps. That is the major problem. We had some lens that ingnored focusing steps in the begining of the focusing range but worked perfectly otherwise.

I would recommend you to increase pause between steps. One of the reasons for missing steps is that camera does not have enough time to complete focusing step.

[russ heller]

i have been using 4 second pauses between steps, which is probably long enough to rule it out as a contributing factor in my situation.

[Stas Yatsenko]

Please see below the setup we use to test focusing steps. The second image is 100% crop. With such setup it easy to follow how the focusing plane is moving. If the focusing step is ignored, you will see this at once.

[Johannes Bergsten]

Hi
I am experiencing the same with a Canon EOS 7D and EF 100mm 1.2.8 lens. Updated the helicon remote software today, 1 july 2010.
I have been dissapointed with the outcome after using helicon remote automation, and now when I read these posts and checked the movement of the lens during shooting, I realise that this has been the problem: The lens moved half, or less than half the distance it was set to move, while shooting the set number of shots. Typically the top of the bug has been fine, but the feet are still after merging not in focus, becuse the lens never moved as far down as it was suppose to. Also after the series of shots has been done, the lens moves back the COMPLETE distance it was suppose to cover, i.e. further back than the starting point since the lens failed to move downstream the complete distance. This also results in that after the series is taken, the set and saved range from start and end has changed, so if one would start again, without changing any parameters, the series will not be the same but start with the focus way over the bug. maybe this is some clue to solving the bug.

The problem might be related to some bug, that I reported on eralier, that the recalculation of steps or distance after changing either, or with the DOF clalculator, sometimes flips out. E.g. I just set the range which included 36 focusing steps, set the distance per step to 2 focusing steps and recalculated the number of shots: HR gave 2 shots ??!! Aso after showing some of these weird claculations and I start shooting anyway, the numbers suddenly change and it takes a different number of shot than what the box was set at when I pressed run. These things has only occurred sporadically for me so it is a little difficult reporting on them, but I thought anyway to mention them since it might be related to the problem above.

cheers
Johannes

[Johannes Bergsten]

The problem seems to be related to when using Mirror lock-up. is that what the others who have been reporting similar problems have been using? The problem for me disappears when not using MLU, then the shot range covers the entire range set from the beginning, not ending up short like described by me and others above due to too short focusing steps. I tried playing around with the pause settings but couldnt get it to work. Could it be that the MLU-time (I have tried both 500ms and 2 s) somehow eats up the time for moving the focus between shots? When I just tried with and without MLU with a distance of 6 focusing steps between shots, and I could follow the 6 focusing steps moved by the lens between shots (using 100ms in pause between focusing steps) when set without MLU, but It stopped after 3 or 4 focusing steps between shots when set on MLU. Any ideas on how to solve this?
Johannes

[Stas Yatsenko]

Johannes,

We already fixed a bug with MLU and this is probably the one you described. We will publish today 5.1.9 version with the changes. I would appreciate if you check it.

[Johannes Bergsten]

It is working with the new version. The focusing problem seems to be solved. Great! Thanks!
Johannes

[phalaecus]

I'm from Italy. First of all, please excuse my poor English.
I'm just starting trying Helicon Remote trial version. I use Nikon D90 with AF-S DX Micro Nikkor 85mm F3.5G VR and Kenko Auto Extension Tube Set DG.
I followed your instructions to set the nearest and farthest points, distance between shots 2, and started from farthest point (direction towards camera) but.....
here I am attaching first and last image of a series of 19 both corresponding to the farthest point

img__001.jpg (237.14 KiB) Viewed 1508 times

img__019.jpg (236.95 KiB) Viewed 1508 times

while this is the image taken at nearest point

nearest-point.jpg

(244.74 KiB) Not downloaded yet

So, to obtain a series of shots to stack with Helicon Focus, I had to take single pictures at different DOP, that is quite time consuming. How could I solve the problem?

Thanks in advance for any suggestion and help

[Stas Yatsenko]

Yes, it is evident the focus plane had not moved. As I understand, you are able to move focus from the interface with ">" and "<" buttons, but it does not work when you start shooting. Please send us log file after such a shooting which you will find in Preferences\Tools. Please also contact us at support@heliconsoft.com and we will send you a newer beta version for tests.