New Focus Stacking feature on v4 firmware

[miguel]

Its great that fuji give us this much needed option but I do wish they had thought about it first.

 

How long is a step? At what focus distance,? does it vary with aperture? you have no idea where the far point focus will be, its pure guesswork with too many variables.

 

What we need is the system that the fuji tether plug in pro provides, you focus at a near end point, then focus at a far away end point, select the number of frames you want to shoot and off you go, its perfect.

 

It cant be too dificult to make a firmware change, please give us a near and far point focus reference equal the the plug in.

 

Michael

[Lumens]

I must admit I really love the idea, but as you say it's all guess work.  I tried using for landscape and ended up with spots out of focus as the steps moved too far in between.  I tried some Macro and didn't set enough shots so didn't get the detail/shot I wanted.  I did get one good shot, but it is truly nothing but guessing at this point.  I am better off to wait until they improve the process so you know what your settings are actually going to do.

[mostlyphotos]

I agree.. the manual updates are a little obtuse..

 

I experimented with the feature and good some acceptable results (Landscape Photograph) see my brief post for detail http://www.mostly.photos/blog/2018/5/13/fuji-x-t2-firmware-40-focus-stacking-example-landscape

 

This said, Fuji recently pulled the release and have recommended installing the 4.1 (rollback) release for the time being. They are addressing bugs so I don't expect a revision to the focus stacking feature but it would be nice to see it improved

[bergat]

I think it should be better the focus trap function  I set the camera at some distance and I press the shutter button. When the subject arrives at distance I have choosen on lens, the  shutter clicks

Edited May 27, 2018 by bergat

[Lesc]

Hi, I have been trying the focus stacking with the new 80mm lens on an object with the nearest point of focus being 17cm from a the lens at F4 with the distance front to rear of the object being 4cm.

 

I had the camera set on AF-S

 

I first set the bracketing at 100-10-0. The result was pretty good.

 

I then set the bracketing to 20-10-1. The result gave area in focus of about 0.5cm over the 20 shots.

 

I also tried 100-3-1. The result was no change in focus across the images.

 

I had been told the system was intuitive with the camera working out how many shots it required to get from front to rear, clearly this is not the case.

 

What is really annoying is that as Fuji have given no indication as to what the settings mean, we as users are having to use up valuable clicks, which ultimately will reduce the time before we have to send the camera off for repair.

 

Come on Fuji, there appear to be a number of people out there who really want this to work.

 

Before changing to the XT2, I used the Canon 5D mk3 and had a Camranger which connected to the camera and produced brilliant results in photo stacking. Alas, Camranger are not able to link to the Fuji system.

 

Having changed from Canon to Fuji because of the better image quality I was very keen to give photo stacking a try as it would put me back to where I was with the Canon and Camranger. At present I can only say..... Fuji, you have included a system on the XT2 that has potential, but of no value to anybody in its current form.

 

The Camranger was not clever enough to work out how many steps it needed to give focus throughout the image but if the user decided more shots were needed, then the user only had to press the button again and the camera would continue from its last point of focus. This could be repeated until the user was happy he/she had sufficient images to give focus front to rear. Does the stacking system on the XT2 allow the user to press the button again and continue from the last focus point?

 

Les C

[Doug Pardee]

What is really annoying is that as Fuji have given no indication as to what the settings mean, we as users are having to use up valuable clicks, which ultimately will reduce the time before we have to send the camera off for repair.

 

I'd think this would be a great situation for using electronic shutter. The subject pretty much has to be stationary, so unless you're using gas-discharge lighting, ES should work great.

[mcdesign]

I have tried this function with some success with the 60mm macro lens, 35 frame 10 steps stacked in Zerene Stacker (attached image), I also ran a test going from step 1 up to eight each time 15 frames at f/3.2, the file is too big to post here but step one seems to be bigger than all the other steps! 

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Edited July 5, 2018 by mcdesign

[Rap Fotografie]

Works like a cherm also with the MCEX11 on the 90/2 and 56/1.2. Needs some learning of stepsize and number of frames needed. But when merging/stacking in Helicon Focus it works 100%. First one handheld (30frames;5stepsize) | Second one tripod (100frames;2stepsize).

https://www.rapfotografie.nl/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/2018-07-14-19-17-32-C-Edit.jpg

https://www.rapfotografie.nl/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/2018-07-03-19-45-23-C-Edit.jpg

[miguel]

Thanks for this info, are you shooting jpegs?, have you tried raw files?

Is it practible to shoot 100 raws? you must need a lot of computer power?

Also have you tried processing in photoshop rather than Helicon focus?

Is step 1 greater than step 10 or vice versa,

I would appreciate if you could share some of your frames/steps as a rough guide

for landscapes, objects < 1:1 and > 1:1

 

Thanks again

 

[Rap Fotografie]

Photoshop isn't that good with stacking complex images. Also Helicon Focus give three different stacking methods (aka algorithms)

PS The images

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[Rap Fotografie]

I just use the jpegs (i shoot sequential raf to sdcard 1; jpegs to sdcard 2)

stepsize 1 is smallest focus increment. 10 the largest.

Try to focus on the front part of the subject and start with stepsize 5 and 3 shots. Analyze the results and interpolate/guesstimate the needed stepsize and number of frames.

[Mike-Photos]

What aperture should one set?

[miguel]

I would suggest you use the sweet spot of your lens for maximum sharpness.

[Mike-Photos]

Just now, miguel said:

I would suggest you use the sweet spot of your lens for maximum sharpness.

Thanks!

[Rap Fotografie]

90mm i use f5.6. 56 1.2 also f5.6 (but only if ISO permits; not when in studio or under controlled lighting conditions of course).

[miguel]

I also have the 90mm and think its the sharpest lens in the Fuji range, f4 is the sweet spot

on my lens with f5.6 only a little behind, F2.8 is also excellent.

My 16mm is sharpest at f4.5 but is not in the same league as the 90.

The nearest lens for image quality to the 90 is my 50-140 at f4.

Cant comment on the 56 as I do not have this lens.