Focus tuning non Nikon lenses

I've been trying to find an answer to this question for quite some time without any real luck.

 

I have a D810 and I would like to know if I can use focus tuning with non Nikon lenses? I have the Sigma 1.4 Art lens and yes I can tweak

the focus using the USB hub but nonetheless I'd like to know if I can do it in-camera. I also plan on purchasing a couple lenses in the next

couple of months and the answer to this question might affect my decision on which lenses to buy.

 

Thanks in advance!!

<p>I came across this link that suggests that although non Nikon lenses should work, Sigma lenses might lead to a conflict owing to chip ID duplication:</p>

<p>http://www.photonstophotos.net/GeneralTopics/Focus/AF_Fine_Tuning_Lens_Identification.htm</p>

I had no problem fine tuning my sigma 35mm Art series lens on my d810 and d800e.

<p>Thank you both. Matthew I obviously neglected to mention it's the 50mm 1.4 Art lens that I have which I don't see at the link you provided. Which I suppose is good news. That being said I don't like how Sigma handles this chip issue.<br>

Joseph I realize different lenses will have different levels of adjustment but I'm curious, how many steps did you have to adjust your lens?</p>

<p>You did mention the lens in the initial post. The link I found was quite old, so the lens in question probably did not exist at the time. Sigma might well have changed their designs as well. But it was something that had not occurred to me before, and seemed a good idea to keep in mind if you suddenly find that some other lens has begun focusing wrong.</p>

<p>I guess that the same/similar lens identification problem happens if you have more than one sample of the same lens - even they are made by Nikon.<br>

The USB lens connection and lens af tuning possibility with Sigma lenses is good if you need to tune the lens af differently depending on aperture, focal length or focusing distance. The camera based af fine tune cannot do this - currently (in the end of the year 2015).<br>

I see the af tunig in the lens as an additional possibility to tacle some nonlinearities in the focusing system, not a problem.<br>

I have currently only one non-Nikon lens that is chipped, manual focus, 100 mm focal length macro. Af fine tune in the camera is possible, but was not needed.</p>

<p>I have had no problem fine tuning any lens (Nikon, Sigma, Tamron and Tokina) on anyone of my Nikon Bodies. </p>

<p>My D810 work with -11 FFT on all my lenses. Sigma 35/1,4Art is no exception (btw: wonderful lens) .I had no problems whatsoever with this lens.</p>

Thank you all so very much. I don't know why it's so hard to find definitive information about this. I even called a local

"pro" shop and the guy told me that it only worked with Nikon lenses. I was skeptical because when I asked him about the

Sigma lens he said he didn't know anything about it because "We only deal with original Nikon lenses". I was completely

put off by his holier than thou attitude.

<p>Frankly, I never saw any official statement from Nikon that it only would work with Nikon lenses, so to me that implies it was always set to work with any brand lens. It's not in Nikon's interest to say "it also works with Sigma" for example (as they will not want to do chat/mail/phone support on that), which is why they typically mention nothing at all if it isn't unique to an all-Nikon combination. So, the definitive information is there by lack of any statement otherwise.<br>

As for the dealer, if they're this snobbish about a brand, vote against them with your wallet. There are some great 3rd party lenses out there, so brand snobbery is only cutting yourself short.</p>

<p>I've fine-tuned recent Tamron and older Sigma (non-USB) lenses no problem. A couple of AF-D type Tokinas didn't seem to respond too well to fine-tuning. I also have a few Dandelion-chipped Ai-S Nikkors, and a focus shift can be programmed into those lenses directly, thus making the Focus Confirm dot work accurately too.</p>

<p>So I'm thinking that if the Sigma lenses can be directly programmed, you're better off doing it that way rather than through the camera menu. Presumably you have to plug the Sigma lenses into a false mount? Surely it would have been better to fit the lenses with a mini or micro USB port? Then the lenses could have been programmed and AF verified while fitted to the camera.</p>

<p>Edit: Dandelion chipped lenses would present a problem to in-camera AF fine tuning. I've discovered that the first Dandelion lens fitted gives its ID to the camera correctly, but after that further Dandelion lenses are "seen" as being identical to the first one by the camera. I.e. All dandelion-chipped lenses are assigned the same identity in the AF fine-tune menu, but their focal length and maximum aperture are read correctly for EXIF data - weird!</p>

<p>I spent an afternoon recently fine tuning all my lenses to my D800E. I hadn't ever bothered before with (3) previous D700 bodies but read so much here about the differences in individual tolerances from the factory that I decided to do it. I have always been cursed with the quest for perfection, not everyone suffers from this... I have yet to test them all for any perceived difference from before the calibrating, but the Sigma 35 ART will be the one I'm most critical of. I used the USB dock for that lens and found it required tweaking in all the distances suggested in the software. Prior to that I thought the lens was beautiful already. My oldest zooms required the most attention, AF-S 17-35mm and AF-S 28-70mm.<br>

None of this really surprised me as I've dealt with 'factory specs' and their tolerances for many years when fine tuning motorcycle engines to gain an edge over otherwise identical bikes and the seemingly infinite tweaks and mods required to coax sailboats along. </p><div></div>

Gup...thank you for your reply. What was your experience like using the USB hub? For me anything up to about 10' was

fairly easy to dial in. However, past 10' I had problems getting it tack sharp and I've been using live view on manual to get

my photos as sharp as possible. Also after you did the in-camera tweaking was the lens sharp at all distance So?

 

@Rodeo Joe...yes it is a pain the butt to have to remove the camera each time to make an adjustment.

<p>The USB-hub is very useful to make sure that your zoom lens is not back/front-focusing by different amounts at different focal lengths or different distances in case of a fixed lens. From my own experience this kinda of tweaking is needed with Sigma lenses.</p>

<p>I'm in no position to disagree with those that use the camera's AF fine tuning feature to tweak your lens but, if you already own a Sigma USB Dock, I'd use it instead. This is what I did on my 35/1.4 Art. The big advantage is that you won't be using up one of the camera's twelve fine tune presets that could be used on other lenses especially if you own a couple of TC units that are combined with other telephoto primes or zooms.</p>