Duclos Lenses has spent a few years designing and refining their very own Autocollimator Bench for measuring and adjusting back focus of precision cinema optics. Here’s a bit from their press release.
The Duclos Auto Collimator is a simple, accurate tool for measuring and calibrating flange focal distance on a wide variety of lenses. While there are several other popular options on the market, the Duclos Auto Collimator is a no frills tool affordable by any rental house. Easy to setup and simple to maintain, the Duclos Auto Collimator allows proper calibration of back focus with its precision optics.
A custom LED light source provides bright illumination of a siemens star for precise adjustment of the digital micrometer with a resolution of .00005”. Interchangeable mounts include Arri PL, Canon EF, Nikon F, Panavision, Micro 4/3, and more to ensure all of your lenses can be checked and maintained.
The Duclos Auto Collimator is the perfect tool for any size rental house or even owner-operators looking for a simple, reliable solution for precise lens calibration.
An autocollimator is a great tool to have if you’re a rental house or an owner operator who settles for nothing short of perfection. What’s an auto collimator you ask? It’s a tool for measuring flange focal distance which is one of the primary factors in properly setting infinity focus of a lens. For primes, this is critical in order to maintain accurate focus marks. For zooms, adjusting the flange focal distance (or back focus as it’s commonly referred to) will provide consistent focus throughout the zoom range of a given lens. Of course, there are many other adjustments that all add up to a well calibrated lens, but collimation is among the most important. Just because it’s called an “autocollimator” doesn’t mean that it does the work for you… The “auto” part simply means that the light being passed through the system is collimated by the optics to simulate infinity focus. The micrometer provides precision adjustment to measure and adjust the flange distance accuracy.
For more info, check out the Duclos Lenses website or contact a Duclos Lenses Sales Rep.