Camera/lens calibration question (1 Viewer)

[Smithy1000]

I have purchased a Nikon D5600 from new about 3 months ago and a second hand Nikkor 200-500 5.6 VR a few days ago.
I have read that calibration is recommended to improve image sharpness on auto focus.
I have seen videos online on how to check this but the D6500 has no AF fine tune facility.
I have taken a few shots with the new lens and at 500mm they seem a bit soft and I m not sure if this is the nature of the lens or a fine tune problem.
Has anybody had any experience with this?
Thanks
Smithy

 

[nikonmike]

Difficult to say with out seeing samples, if your not well practiced with long lenses it could be a learning curve, what distances are the images over, it could be atmospheric pollution, so many possibility's that we do need to some results with settings and distance details.

Calibration is not needed on most set ups, its only to correct the odd mismatch on body and lens

 

[dragnil]

In more than 50 years I've never needed to calibrate a lens. The lens is quite hesvy and may take some getting used to. Persevere and practise would be my suggestion, enjoy it.

 

[MikeInPA]

In more than 50 years I've never needed to calibrate a lens. The lens is quite hesvy and may take some getting used to. Persevere and practise would be my suggestion, enjoy it.

Perseverance, practice and a good solid tripod helps along with good long lens techniques.

I once had a Nikon 100-400mm that was really sharp on my D800 at 400mm. When I got the D810 it was awful, AF Fine Tune didn’t help. I sent the camera and lens combination back to Nikon and it came back pefect, better than ever. Cameras and lenses are manufactured to tight tolerances but if you get a camera on its lowest tolerance and a lens on its highest allowable tolerance your not going to get great results.

As for lens calibration, AF Fine Tune wouldn’t be of great use on a zoom lens anyway because you can only calibrate at one focal length on Nikon cameras that do have AF Fine Tune. Some Sigma zoom lenses do allow fine tune over the zoom range using their USB Dock.