Today’s Question: Can you offer guidance on a good way to calibrate a lens?
Tim’s Quick Answer: Calibrating a lens to apply a micro-adjustment to the autofocus can help improve sharpness for your photos. I recommend the LensAlign system from Michael Tapes Design, which you can find here:
More Detail: A variety of camera models enable you to apply a micro-adjustment to the focusing system, which can correct for minor errors in focusing and provide sharper photos. Properly applying that adjustment requires a calibrated method of measuring the focus performance, which is exactly what the LensAlign system (https://timgrey.me/lensalign) provides.
With the LensAlign system you can precisely measure the autofocus performance of your camera and lens combination, and make adjustments as needed to correct for a situation where the camera is focusing forward or back from the intended focus point.
Some time ago I got together with Michael Tapes, the creator of the LensAlign system, to create a video demonstrating the system in action. You can watch that video on my YouTube channel here: