About Reikan and FoCal
Reikan Technology Ltd is owned and run by me - Richard Meston. A bit of background...
I've been a professional software engineer since 1998, working mainly in the telecommunications industry. During this time I've developed lots of embedded software for automated mobile phone and base station testers, middleware for Digital TV set top boxes, DSP work and PC based applications in Windows and Linux for all sorts of applications.
In 2009 I set up Reikan Photography as a platform for promoting and selling my work. Since then I've been published internationally with nature and landscape shots, and over the last 12 months started to get more into "people" work, having shot my first few weddings in 2011.
Not one to leave things alone, I started playing with the Canon Software Development Kit (which lets you control a camera from a PC) shortly after I got my first Canon EOS camera (a 400D back in 2007). I had the idea for FoCal in 2009 but I didn't really have the time to pursue it until 2011.
What started as a "lets see if this will work" project quickly turned into some very late nights of testing, trying to properly understand why the results were not quite as expected. After months of development and analysis, I've learnt a huge amount about the performance of different camera AF systems, how lenses behave, how the camera determines the focus point and to what accuracy, and how (and how not!) to control a Canon EOS camera. Believe me, Canon don't make it easy!
And the result is FoCal. In November/December 2011, it's become an obsession... working early in the morning and late at night I've been testing and refining, adding more features, tearing my hair out at odd results and finally getting things fixed and sorted with a set of dedicated beta testers from around the world.
FoCal is more than just an AF microadjustment calibrator - it's becoming a full suite of lens and AF performance tests. There are lots of ideas in the pipeline for future versions, so stay tuned!