FoCal 3.8 Maintenance Release 1 brings updates to the Snapshots tool, usability improvements to tests and quite a few bug fixes.
What’s New?
[If you’re not interested in the details and just want to grab the release download info is here]
There’s been a lot of development going on at Reikan HQ recently, and as our growing suite of products use the same core code (which we inventively call FoCal Core), work on one application brings improvements to all others.
So this release is the integration of a whole bunch of internal updates which improve stability, performance and general operation, as well as some FoCal Desktop specific improvements.
Headline Features
- Updates to the Snapshots tool
- Usability Improvements
- Bug Fixes
- FoCal Mobile updates
The Release Notes contain a comprehensive list of changes.
Snapshots Updates
A lot of effort has gone into developing our new Snapshots app (which is going through the review process at the moment and will be available very shortly… watch this space!).
The most visible result of this in FoCal Desktop is the reorganisation of the Settings Groups into something a lot more familiar to camera users:
We’ve also improve the naming of lots of the settings to make them clearer.
And the final improvements for the Settings Decoders are:
- Additional interpretation for some missing options
- Removal of invalid/unnecessary option choices
- Improved consistency of option names
Outside of the decoders, there are improvements to the logic around saving and duplicating Snapshots, as well as clearer information messages when overwriting or changing settings.
Usability Improvements & Bug Fixes
MultiTest
We’ve fixed a bug which meant that for some users, during MultiTest on Nikon cameras, the test would not accept a change in AF Fine-tune value and you would be unable to complete the test. This was also related to a bug which warned that the camera was not in AF-S mode (when in fact it was).
Off-centre Zoom/Focus Rectangle
We had several users getting confused by a message shown when the zoom/focus rectangle was not centred on the camera screen. The message made it seem that the issue was related to how the camera was pointing at the target, but in fact it’s nothing to do with the target and purely to do with the zoom position on the back of the camera, for example:
This will now prompt the following message:
The solution is to centre the focus rectangle. There’s usually a quick way to do this – for example on the 6D Mark II, you hit the trash-bin button to centre, but on the 5D Mark IV, you press the joystick (like a button) to centre.
Bear in mind that the zoom rectangle can look very much in the centre to the eye when it’s actually a little off-centre, so if you see this warning message then be sure to centre that rectangle.
Other Fixes and Improvements
We’ve fixed a few bugs to do with operation in file mode with Sony cameras, and in generating reports when testing with data from manual focus lenses.
There’s also an update to our lens database to include the latest lenses from Canon, Nikon, Sigma, Tamron and others for better recognition of (especially third party) lenses.
FoCal Mobile Updates
The FoCal Mobile apps for iOS and Android are being reviewed at present and should be available with the updated FoCal Core code within the next few days.
Operating System Support
The following are supported Operating Systems:
Windows (64-bit)
- Windows 11
- Windows 10 (20H2 and later)
FoCal can be installed and should work on the following versions of Windows, but as they are no longer supported by Microsoft we only do limited testing:
- Windows 10 (pre 20H2) – Microsoft support ended 10th May 2022
- Windows 8.1 – Microsoft support ended 9th January 2018
- Windows 7 SP1 – Microsoft support ended 13th January 2015
Mac
- macOS Ventura (13.x)
- macOS Monterey (12.x)
- macOS Big Sur (11.x)
FoCal can be installed and should work on the following versions of macOS, but as they are no longer supported by Apple we only do limited testing:
- macOS Catalina (10.15) – Apple support ended 12th September 2022
- macOS Mojave (10.14) – Apple support ended 25th October 2021
- macOS High Sierra (10.13) – Apple support ended 1st December 2020
- macOS Sierra (10.12) – Apple support ended 1st October 2019
iOS/iPadOS
FoCal Mobile will run on any device running iOS/iPadOS 12 or later.
Android
The Android version of FoCal Mobile can be installed on all devices running Android 9 (Pie) or later.
There is a huge variety of Android devices and we can only test on a small subset. FoCal is an intensive application and we recommend using newer mid- to high-end Android devices with at least 4GB of RAM.
The free version of FoCal Mobile offers the ability to connect, Verify Setup and run AF System Check, so you should ensure that these all run reliably before purchasing a subscription.
More details…
There are more details in the changelog in the release notes for this release.
Thank you!
Thank you to all our users past and present who’ve used FoCal for their calibrations. An extra special thank you to everyone who’s got in touch with feedback, a lot of changes are driven directly by what you tell us!
Get Reikan FoCal 3.8 MR1
Download FoCal 3.8 MR1 for Windows or macOS by logging in to the account system via lms.fo-cal.co.uk. Once logged in, you will see a download link to the software.
FoCal 3.8 MR1 is available to all users within their Included Updates Period as of 9th Feb 2023. You can get the software as shown below:
- By logging in to the FoCal Account system via lms.fo-cal.co.uk.
- Go to the About > Update Check option in the software. From here you can hit the Download button to get the software.
If you’re outside of the period above you can purchase 12 months of updates by logging in to the account system via lms.fo-cal.co.uk and scrolling to Included Updates Period.
If you’re not yet a FoCal user you can purchase the software as a download or boxed product, as well as FoCal Hard Targets from the FoCal Online Store.
Get FoCal Mobile
FoCal Mobile is available for free on the Apple App Store and Google Play now!
FoCal Mobile is a free app, allowing connection to a camera, Autofocus System Check and time setting of your camera. With a FoCal Mobile Pro subscription you can add a lot of extra functionality including full Autofocus Calibration, FoCal Comparison Database integration, Test History, Import/Export of results and more.
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