The third Beta of FoCal 2.9 is now available.
This post is a brief explanation of key improvements/differences from the previous version.
Overview
Version Number: 2.9.5.5796
Channel: Beta
Platforms: Windows and Mac
Audience
This release is available to all FoCal users (Plus, Pro and Commercial) who had an active Included Updates Period as at 1st October 2018 (We have back-dated the applicability of this release).
Changelog
The following is a list of significant changes from Beta 2
- Reliability improvements to Mac camera communications, especially on Mojave
- Better recognition of lenses on Nikon Z6 and Z7 with FTZ adapter
- Fix to report correct focal length for longer lenses (e.g. 200-400mm with 1.4x converter)
- Fix an issue where test would fail for very long exposures during aperture sharpness or dust analysis tests
- Improved reliability of user interface operations, especially on Mac
- Improved lens name recognition – thank you to all those sending feedback!
- Improved internal camera definitions
Known Issues / Missing Functionality
The following are the main known issues with this release:
- There is an issue on some Mac systems which causes FoCal to stop when a report is saved. This only affects a small number of users and we’re having difficulty reproducing this issue, although are adding various fixes around this area. If you experience this problem, please do get in touch with the Feedback button (see below).
- Semi Auto mode calibration is not present.
- MultiPoint Focus Test is not present.
- There is no documentation for this release – please refer to FoCal 2.6 documentation for information.
- There is an issue with some message boxes not being able to be closed on macOS Sierra and earlier. This does not affect High Sierra (10.13) or Mojave (10.14).
- With Overlapped Capture & Analysis enabled, failure cases (e.g. incorrect AF Microadjustment set in the camera, target not found etc) are not always handled correctly and may require you to quit the test and restart. If this is a problem, please disable Overlapped Capture & Analysis in the Preferences | Advanced tab.
Getting this Release
This release is available to all FoCal users (Plus, Pro and Commercial) who had an active Included Updates Period as at 1st October 2018 (We have back-dated the applicability of this release). There are 2 ways to get the software:
- If you’re using FoCal 2.9 or later, go to the About > Update Check option in the software, and making sure the Update Channel is set to Alpha or Beta. From here you can hit the Download button to get the software.
- Otherwise, go to the LMS at lms.fo-cal.co.uk and log in. You will see a “Pre-Release Downloads” section – click this to view the available downloads.
It’s worth just checking the pre-release software FAQ to make sure you know type of software you’re getting.
Feedback
Beta releases are close to Stable releases of FoCal but require a wider testing audience. We would love for users to try out this Beta release and let us know what you think!
We’ve added a Send Feedback button in the About panel of the application (example in the image below). Any bug reports, feature improvement, suggestions and general thoughts are very welcome.
Please do use the Send Feedback button in the software to send information back to us. This ensures the feedback is sent to the right place and that we have the right information about the version being tested.
We will read all the comments you send us, but please note that for pre-release software these are NOT handled as support requests and we won’t necessarily be able to reply or follow up.
We are going to be pretty active with pre-release updates during this period, so please send feedback and there should be a new version with fixes/improvements along soon.
Thank you!
For those that download, use and provide feedback – thank you very much for your support with FoCal. This sort of user testing and feedback really is invaluable – it helps us to focus on the things that are important to you, and make sure we deliver high quality software to everyone.