Dandelion AF chip performance on a Rokinon 14mm 2.8

Kit Lens Jockey

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Let me sum up my thoughts on how much this chip adds to this lens (not the performance of the lens itself!!) with this one classic meme...

McKayla-Maroney-Not-Impressed.jpg


Seriously though, I bought the "Dandelion" AF confirmation chip on ebay, the one that ships from Minsk, to put on this lens. Even though it's a manual lens, I figured that having focus confirmation in the viewfinder would make it almost as good and easy to use as an electronic lens.

Well, the chip does what it says. I can't really knock it for not doing that. Putting it on the lens caused the camera to recognize the lens being attached. The AF point in the viewfinder does blink when the camera thinks it's in focus. The only problem? It confirms the focus is accurate even when it's way off. Really, it's not even worth having based on just a little testing. So, I guess now I understand why Canon disables focus confirmation with manual lenses. It's not that they're pushing you to buy more expensive lenses, it's just very inaccurate. And I guess this proves that there's a lot more going on between the camera and a modern AF lens than simply "move the focusing element until the camera decides it's in focus." Because, it's simply not that accurate trying to do that with a manual lens. Maybe it's the super short focal length making the camera not as sensitive to focus. But then it begs the question how do the super-wide AF lenses manage to do it so accurately? There's clearly more to it than just this basic understanding of autofocus.

Anyway, I guess what I'm saying is, before dropping $20 on one of these chips, just understand that it will not work as perfectly as you may think, at least on this particular lens.

Nothing bad to say about the lens itself though! Super cheap and nice and sharp. You just better get used to live view focusing if you're picky about having sharp focus like me.
 
Computer chip that ships from Minsk... well, I'm not going to say, "I told you so!", cause I didn't, but if you'd asked, I would have! ;)
 
Good to know. I have thought about getting one for my 14mm Rokinon but since I really only bought mine for astro work I just found true infinity marked the lens and called it good. To be quite honest I've never even attempted to use the lens for anything else. How is the IQ for other stuff?
 
Judge for yourself. I'm pretty happy with it. I did mainly buy it for sky photography, but it gives a neat perspective for other stuff too.

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And a crop of the lower left corner:

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Computer chip that ships from Minsk... well, I'm not going to say, "I told you so!", cause I didn't, but if you'd asked, I would have! ;)

I bet if he put it in an ICBM it would work. Well, might find the right continent at any rate.
But that's the beauty of ICBMs (assuming a sufficient number of MIRVs)... continental accuracy is more than adequate.
 
Computer chip that ships from Minsk... well, I'm not going to say, "I told you so!", cause I didn't, but if you'd asked, I would have! ;)

I bet if he put it in an ICBM it would work. Well, might find the right continent at any rate.
But that's the beauty of ICBMs (assuming a sufficient number of MIRVs)... continental accuracy is more than adequate.

True, pretty much anywhere in the ballpark and it's all good.. lol
 
Computer chip that ships from Minsk... well, I'm not going to say, "I told you so!", cause I didn't, but if you'd asked, I would have! ;)

I bet if he put it in an ICBM it would work. Well, might find the right continent at any rate.
But that's the beauty of ICBMs (assuming a sufficient number of MIRVs)... continental accuracy is more than adequate.

True, pretty much anywhere in the ballpark and it's all glass.. lol
FTFY
 
I honestly don't see how you can blame the chip, as all it's doing is fooling the camera into thinking there's an autofocus lens on there. The camera is still making the decision about when the photo is actually in focus. But again, if this proves anything, it's that there's probably more to the camera's focus determination than just blindly moving the focusing element until it looks in focus.

Also, I was thinking about this today... With these super wide angle lenses, say 14mm for instance... Isn't the distance from the sensor to the rear of the lens more than 14mm? So somehow the focal point of the lens actually falls somehwhere behind the rear lens element? Seems like some sort of crazy light trickery to accomplish that. Or am I just mis-estimating the distance from the sensor to the back of the lens?
 

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