FoCal 1.8 Released for Windows and Mac

We’re proud to announce the release of FoCal 1.8 for both Windows and Mac computers.  This is the first non-beta release for Mac users, and the upgrade from FoCal 1.7 for Windows users.

Updates and Fixes

This new version brings the following updates:

• Extra tests available in FoCal Standard
• RAW analysis – RAW sensor data is now analysed by default for more accurate and repeatable results
• A new TurboCal tool for Canon cameras which performs a shutterless AF microadjustment calibration in 20-30 seconds!
• A new Camera Information tool showing lots of useful information about your camera (including shutter count where available)
• Addition of Focus Controls to the Target Setup tool to allow live adjustment of focus (useful for Aperture Sharpness/TurboCal tests)
• A completely rewritten Dust Analysis test which is faster, gives better results with more detail and even detects hot pixels!
• Much of the analysis has been made multi-threaded for improved performance on common multicore processors
• Improvements to the integrated licensing to not require program restarts in most cases
• Option to use Canon Legacy interface files for older cameras (e.g. Canon EOS-1D(s) Mark III)
• More information in the reports for all tests (e.g. camera firmware, operating system version etc)
• Fixes to handling of Canon EOS-1 series camera mode control
• Fix for Nikon shutter speed inaccuracies

If you used the Release Candidate (FoCal 1.8.0.270), the changes from this version include a fix for an issue affecting the Canon 6D, improvements to the TurboCal and Camera Information tools and several user interface fixes.

Extra tests available in FoCal Standard

FoCal Standard originally provided only the Target Setup utility and the Semi Automatic calibration tool, but we have now extended the features to include the following extra tests which were previously only available in FoCal Plus or Pro:

• Manual Mode – complete analysis from a set of image files you capture yourself
• AFMA Change – change the AF Microadjustment from your computer and see the results
• Camera Settings Save/Load  – save the state of your camera to a file and restore at a later time
• Camera Information – get detailed information about your camera including shutter count.

RAW Analysis

Up to and including FoCal 1.7, the analysis has always been performed on JPEG images from the camera.  In order to create JPEG images, the camera performs a whole host of processing, including demosaicing, sharpening, vignette correction, distortion correction, light level optimisation, dynamic range control and other processing.  While FoCal tries hard to switch as much of this off as possible in the way it configures the camera, there are many unknowns in how the camera processes the sensor data to create the JPEG image.

So FoCal 1.8 now uses RAW image data – that is data straight from the sensor of the camera without any processing at all.  We use a special demosaicing algorithm to create data which is optimised for the analysis that FoCal performs and allows the analysis to give more repeatable and accurate results.

It does take a little time to process the RAW image data (especially for cameras like the D800 with its 36 million pixels!), but with the multithreading improvements we’ve made to this version of FoCal, RAW analysis only adds a few seconds per image (and we will be optimising the processing to make it even faster soon).

You don’t need to do anything to use RAW analysis in FoCal – it’s now the default analysis method as the results we obtained during extensive testing show that the improvement is really quite significant.  Should you need to, you can revert back to JPEG processing from the Settings/Preferences window.

Focus Controls in Target Setup

In order to assist with setup for the Aperture Sharpness test and the new TurboCal test (see below), the Target Setup utility now includes a Focus Control panel:

This allows you to use the camera’s in-built Phase Detect (quick) or Contrast Detect (live) focus algorithms, or an optimised algorithm built in to FoCal.  You can also manually adjust the lens and see the results live so you can get the perfect focus.

TurboCal (Plus/Pro)

For Canon cameras, by default we’ve replaced the QuickCal test with a new TurboCal test which performs AF Microadjustment without even firing the shutter!  (Unfortunately, Nikon cameras don’t report the necessary information back to the computer so we can’t implement this for Nikon cameras).

The new Focus Controls in the Target Setup utility allow you to quickly and easily achieve the perfect focus required to run this test, then you just click the Start button and 20-30 seconds later you have a result for AF Microadjustment!

New Dust Analysis (Pro)

The Dust Analysis tool – while useful – was never quite as reliable as it should have been, especially on Mac computers!  We’ve completely rewritten the analysis to be reliable, faster and more accurate on both Windows and Mac computers.

Not only does the test run in less than half the time of the previous test with massively less memory requirements, but colour coding of the markers show how opaque the dust spots are – red means you’re very likely to notice the dust spot, and green means you probably won’t notice it at all in images.  The new Dust Analysis test even detects hot pixels on the camera sensor!

Camera Information tool

The new Camera Information tool displays lots of information about your camera, including shutter count, temperature and pixel information:

Support Status

Mac

The following table shows the support for FoCal for Mac:

Operating System	Camera Manufacturer	Status
OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard)	Canon & Nikon	Fully functional
OS X 10.7 (Lion)	Canon & Nikon	Fully functional
OS X 10.8 (Mountain Lion)	Canon & Nikon	Fully functional

Windows

The following table shows the support for FoCal for Windows:

Operating System	Camera Manufacturer	Status
Windows XP	Canon only	Fully functional
Windows Vista	Canon & Nikon	Fully functional
Windows 7	Canon & Nikon	Fully functional
Windows 8	Canon & Nikon	Fully functional

How do I get it?

If you already have a license for FoCal, you can download the software at no extra cost from the License Management System – you’ll see the link to the download near the bottom of the page once you log in.

You can purchase FoCal Standard, FoCal Plus or FoCal Pro from the links at the bottom of the version information pages.

MAC: The software is available as a disk image (DMG) file for OS X, containing the software itself, the target images and documentation in separate directories.

WINDOWS: The software is available as a ZIP file, which contains the software, the target images and the documentation in separate directories.

Installing on OS X (IMPORTANT!)

FoCal for Mac uses the Mono framework and this must be installed before using FoCal.  Please see this post for complete information on how to ensure your Mac is set up correctly to run FoCal.  If you do not follow these instructions, FoCal will NOT operate correctly!

QuickStart Guides

There are short guides available which help you through the installation, connection and first use of the software available for Windows and for Mac on the Document Downloads page.