Before We Give Your Equipment Back!

After spending time carefully calibrating your cameras and lenses, we don’t simply give them back. We do a critical test on how the kit is performing for every body and every lens combination you have had calibrated to ensure your equipment really is working to its optimum performance.

Following a full calibration of a lens and camera, we conduct additional visual checks to ensure we are totally satisfied with the results. This is to ensure that not only is the calibration correct, in terms of what the software systems is reporting, but that the images are also reflecting an improvement and in our view are of an acceptable improvement.

This is done by examining the images and particularly the text at the bottom of the calibration test target, which is 1/100th the height of the target. If it is legible and sharp then we are satisfied, if it is not, we will run the calibration again and then recheck visually again. This is not a requirement of the process, this is our requirement and an example of how we go further to ensure your equipment is operating at the best it can. After this, it’s down to the user ;)

Step 1

We take a test shot of the target used during the calibration process using the calibrated camera and lens (image is taken in RAW)

Step 2

The image is then opened in Adobe Camera RAW to quickly check the sharpness of the image. We zoom into the copyright text which is in tiny letters at the bottom of the target. The text is 100th the size of the overall target. 

Step 3

We then open the image in Photoshop - Crop into the target and then enlarge by 200% 

Step 4

We inspect the copyright text. If it’s sharp and legible, we are satisfied, and we can return the equipment to the customer. If it isn’t legible and sharp, we go back and recalibrate the whole system again.

Thankfully a second calibration is hardly ever needed, and we can return your equipment confident of its performance. On those odd occasions where we do have to repeat the calibration process it usually reveals something significantly wrong with the equipment….but that’s another blog.