FoCal 4.2 brings connection via camera built-in WiFi for selected cameras, analysis improvements, operation updates, security fixes, a few new looking screens and more!

UPDATE: FoCal 4.2 MR3 is now available with improved WiFi connectivity and camera control reliability improvements for tests. MR2 was released in with some improvements to WiFi functionality, support for the latest Nikon Z-series firmware and a few bug fixes

How to get FoCal 4.2

FoCal 4.2 is available to everyone within their support period as of 12th April 2024 (so that’s everyone who’s purchased FoCal or a new Included Updates Period since 12th April 2023).

You can download it by logging in to your FoCal Account and choosing the download for your platform.

What’s New in FoCal 4.2

• Connection through built-in WiFi on supported cameras
• RGBHV Analysis
• Other improvements

Camera WiFi Support

We’ve added support to FoCal for direct connection to cameras with built in WiFi!

The most up-to-date list of supported cameras is those shown with a WiFi icon in in the Camera Support page, but at the time of release, the following cameras can be directly controlled over WiFi from FoCal:

Canon:

• EOS-1D X Mark III
• EOS 5D Mark IV
• EOS 6D
• EOS 6D Mark II
• EOS 7D Mark II (with W-E1 card)
• EOS 80D
• EOS 90D
• EOS R (no AF Microadjustment)
• EOS RP (no AF Microadjustment)
• EOS R5 (no AF Microadjustment)
• EOS R6 (no AF Microadjustment)

Nikon:

• D6
• D780
• Z 30
• Z 50
• Z fc
• Z 6 / Z 6ii
• Z 7 / Z 7ii
• Z 8
• Z 9
• Z f

Enabling WiFi in FoCal

Head to Help > Settings and enable WiFi for either Canon or Nikon. 

If a warning is shown about data communications, make sure you Allow this – it’s required to detect and connect to the cameras:

 While you can enable both Canon and Nikon at the same time, it’s recommended that you don’t (at least while WiFi support is shiny and new!)

Connecting your camera

How you connect your camera to your computer (and soon, mobile device) depends on the camera model. We’ve tried to explain how to do it for each camera model in the WiFi Setup section of the camera specific pages on the website – head to Camera Support Page, choose your camera and scroll down on the camera page to see the information.

When the camera is detected, you’ll see it in the Available Cameras panel, just as if it was connected over USB:

Further Information

This is a new feature and while we’ve given it some thorough testing with both Nikon and Canon cameras, there may be some unreliability (especially around detection of cameras). Please let us know if you have any issues as we’ll be continuing to develop this functionality.

For Canon cameras, you can connect either with the camera in Access Point mode, or connect the camera directly to your home or office WiFi network and FoCal will correctly detect the camera.

For Nikon camera, you must use the Connect to Smartphone option (which creates an Access Point on the camera which you connect your computer to) – the Connect to Network option on Nikon cameras does NOT work at the moment.

RGBHV Display

When FoCal analyses the target, it measured the sharpness of the red, green and blue channels, both horizontall and vertically – we call this RGBHV analysis.

Generally, the analysis results are based on all this information combined using a measure of the lighting quality, but you can now view the results for individual channels, or horizontal/vertical analysis.

Head over to Help > Settings, scroll down to FoCal Pro Settings and enabled Show RBGHV analysis data.

When enabled, on the Details page of tests which support this analysis mode, you’ll see a dropdown to select the channel:

When you choose a different channel, an overlay is added to the Crops, and you’ll notice the shape of the analysis results charts changes:

You can use the RGBHV data to dig deeper into the results of your tests – for example, large differences between the colour channels, or the horizontal and vertical channels can indicate issues with your lens.

Other Updates

There are quite a few smaller updates in FoCal 4.2 which improve operation and usability:

• Disabling of automatic subject detection, vignetting and distortion control on Nikon cameras automatically before testing
• Better handling of failure to open cameras
• Fixes to camera communications for various cameras
• Removed unnecessary user interface code, reducing the size and speed of the whole application
• Updates the WebView component for Windows
• Improvements to the Windows installer to stop installation on unsupported version of Windows

Operating System Support

See below for information about which versions of operating system are supported.

Release Notes

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 4.2

FoCal 4.2 is available to all users within their Included Updates Period as of 12th April 2024. You can get the software as shown below:

• By logging in to the FoCal Account system via www.reikanfocal.com/account
• 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 www.reikanfocal.com/account 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 Apps

Information and store links for the FoCal mobile apps are available here:

• FoCal Mobile
• FoCal Snapshots

Reikan FoCal on Social Media

We regularly post news and updates on social media. You can keep updated, connect and follow us via:

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