Photoclubalpha

I just received a part of the Af test Sony Europe is using to test the AF-accuracy. Description is missing, but I already knew this type of test.
It's based on the moiree pattern you get when the AF is optimal. The test has been developped to get a quick and fairly accurate index of the AF bck or front focus, when using MF in live view and comparing the picture with normal AF.
The A700 does not have live view, so how is that going to work as a test ?
They want me to send in the pictures in raw but as far as I know, you should compare these AF based pictures with MF focussed ones that produce maximal moire. But without LV thats pretty difficult work....besides , my Belinea shows poor moiree patterns, maybe some colorshift but that's all.

What do you guys think, is this the right kind of test ?

lock

Just to show you some of the results using the moiree pattern ( top down part):

Manually adjusted for maximal moiree effect:



Two with autofocus:




There is less moiree in the AF version. Manually adjusting it maximized it, as well as sharpness.

lock

seems to show your focus problem but the test doesn't really indicate FF or BF though not by itself as with other graduated tests. is this a photo file they sent you to use?

No, its a GIF file (1000-1000 pixels). It's also in use by Canon as far as I've understood.
True, we can't see the direction of malfocus, nor can you see how much.
But with a full picture sent to Sony, they actually can analyse it. They mailed me an estimated BF of 8 cm (in this setup). That's an amount that gets close to my box test ( 6-7 cm).
They actually asked if I could not get anything sharper with AF than this ...well, not often



lock