Something very new and exciting, FoCal Mobile is here! We’ve taken the power of Reikan FoCal and managed to cram it into your pocket. It’s fully functional, ready for full public release and available from both the Apple App Store and Google Play Stores.
Introduction
Almost 10 years ago FoCal was fully released, bringing fully automatic autofocus calibration to Canon EOS 5D Mark II and EOS 7D cameras, running only on Windows computers.
Fast forward, FoCal supports almost 60 cameras including the latest Nikon Z Mirrorless series, runs on Windows and macOS and brings far more than just autofocus calibration!
And launched today, we’ve brought the power of Reikan FoCal to your pocket.
FoCal Mobile compliments the desktop version, bringing tools that are useful in the field in a way that gives you the information you need quickly and clearly without unnecessary detail.
Key Features
FoCal Mobile runs on iOS/iPadOS and Android devices.
The app comes with a set of useful tools for everyone:
- Compatible with all FoCal-supported cameras
- Tethered connection over USB or wirelessly with Reikan Wireless Camera Module
- Verify Setup
- AF System Check (uncalibrated)
- Sync Camera Time
With a subscription to FoCal Mobile Pro (in-app purchase) you’ll also get:
- Full AF System Calibration
- AF System Check (calibrated)
- Comparison Database
- Results History
- Results Sharing (to FoCal Desktop)
- One-Tap Time Sync
Camera Compatibility
FoCal Mobile works with all cameras supported by desktop FoCal:
- Every Canon camera with AF Microadjustment from the 2007 EOS-1D Mark III through the EOS 90D.
- Every Nikon camera with AF Fine-Tune, from the 2007 D3 through to the latest mirrorless Z9.
The full list is available here, FoCal Mobile works with all non-beta cameras that support tethering and Autofocus Calibration.
Tethered Control
FoCal Mobile connects to your camera over USB or wirelessly via Reikan Wireless Camera Module.
Lightning Connector
If you’ve got a device with a Lightning connector (all iPhones and several iPads), you’ll need an Apple Lightning to USB 3 Camera Adapter.
USB-C Connector
For USB-C devices – you just need an appropriate cable with your camera connector at one end and USB-C at the other. If you don’t have the USB-C version of your cable, you can get adapters which convert USB to USB-C at a very low cost (and if you use a Mac you’ll almost certainly have a drawer full of them already!)
Wireless Camera Module
FoCal Mobile also fully supports the Reikan Wireless Camera Module – just enter the device key in the settings and connect to the WiFi network and you’re good to go. The module gives ALL supported cameras WiFi capability, as shown below with the 15-year-old D700!
Verify Setup
Verify Setup checks your environment, camera and lens settings and lots of other things to make sure you’re ready to get the most reliable results with camera system checks and calibrations. If you’ve used FoCal Desktop, you’ll know this as Target Setup.
AF System Check
With your camera connected and Verify Setup showing you’re good to go, tap the Start button in AF System Check and 2 minutes later you’ll know how well your camera and lens are working together.
Results in FoCal Mobile are shown as scores ranging from 0 (poor) to 100 (excellent), so you get an immediately clear indication of how things are performing.
The basic version of FoCal Mobile lets you check whether your lenses need any calibration, with FoCal Mobile Pro you check how well your already-calibrated lenses are behaving on your camera, so with one tap you can quickly determine whether they need any further adjustment – great for regular check-ups or confirmation before an important shoot.
Sync Camera Time
Have you ever shot an event with multiple cameras to find when you import all your images the camera clocks weren’t in sync and your images aren’t in order? It’s annoying, isn’t it! Although you can fix it in the import tools, it’s better to get the clocks set right… and now it’s easy!
With your camera connected to FoCal Mobile, head to the Sync Camera Time tool and you can set the time to the same as your phone/tablet. For cameras that support setting World Time, this will automatically set the time zone and daylight savings time options – invaluable if you travel a lot!
With FoCal Mobile Pro, setting the camera clock is even easier with One-tap Time Sync. You don’t even need to connect to the camera in FoCal – from the home screen, just hit the clock button and your time will be set in a second.
AF System Calibration (Pro)
Using the same analysis algorithms and lens models as FoCal Desktop, you can now tune your cameras and lenses in minutes whenever and wherever you are.
If AF System Check show there are improvements to be made to your autofocus, you can fire up AF System Calibrate and tune your camera and lenses in a few minutes.
Comparison Database (Pro)
Over the years, we’ve collected millions of test results and using over 125 million data points have built profiles of typical real-world performance for more than 14,000 camera and lens combinations.
This data comes back to you through the FoCal Comparison Database, showing you how your gear compares to other users around the world.
Here’s an example of a pretty poor quality lens – the quality is way down on the typical values reported by other users and the focus repeatability isn’t great… it’s worth getting this one looked at!
Results History (Pro)
FoCal stores the results for each test you run, and with FoCal Mobile Pro, you can revisit any test to see how things have changed since you last tested.
You can filter by camera and lens, then re-open any test you’ve run in the past (or imported from other sources).
Results Sharing (Pro)
There’s a lot of analysis information captured by FoCal Mobile during the analysis – too much to show on a mobile device. If you’re unsure of why you’re getting the results you’re seeing, or just want to dig deeper, you can export individual tests or your whole results database out to FoCal Desktop and dig deep into the data.
You can also share results between devices, so if you’ve run calibrations on your iPad, you can export to your phone to have the data with you out in the field.
FoCal Mobile Pro and FoCal Dekstop Licensing
The license for FoCal Mobile Pro is separate from any FoCal Desktop license you may have, meaning that you won’t automatically have access to FoCal Mobile Pro if you have a FoCal Pro Desktop license.
We did consider (a lot) about trying to come up with a way to link the normal FoCal software license with the Mobile license, but Apple doesn’t make it easy (since it would take revenue away from them).
Even if we could clear that hurdle it would be confusing to explain how the two different licenses interact, so we’ve gone for the simple route at least for now.
FoCal Mobile Pro brings you all the features of FoCal Plus – and more – for less than half the price. If you’ve got a FoCal Pro license now, then a Mobile Pro license brings your the ability to test and calibrate in the field (or at least away from your desktop computer), and import the results quickly and easily for more analysis.
How do I get FoCal Mobile?
Our dedicated FoCal Mobile website at www.reikanfocal.app has information and links to get the app, or click the images below:
Let us know what you think
We’ve put a huge amount of effort into FoCal and FoCal Mobile and would love to hear what you think and how you get on with the app. We hope you really like what we’ve created, if you’ve got any suggestions for improvements or features then let us know.
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