Accurate focus adjustment

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 Post subject: Accurate focus adjustment
Unread postPosted: Fri Jul 11, 2014 12:32 pm 
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As all you who actively follow this forum know, my M240 was just in for adjustment.. long story short, infinity was definitely off and it was affecting my "work" at my usual 2-5 meter distance as well.

Anyway, after somewhat of a painful experience getting it sorted, I just got my camera back and went out testing today. And *kaboom*, INFINITY WAS OFF! For crying out loud, you can all guess how upset I was. Having just bummed couple of hundred shots during vacation and then being without a camera for over a month... and they couldn't fix it!

Frustrated as I was, I came back home and dug out my EVF-2. Did some testing and indeed, with evf I was focusing perfectly.

So quick digging around in the internet I found DIY instructions for adjusting the RF infinity myself. Dug out my 2mm hex and adjusted it myself. Now the infinity locks perfectly in the rf window and I'm getting good results at 2-3 meter distance also. At really close, between 70-80cm, I was getting slightly inconsistent results.. maybe 5-8mm off, but as I couldn't nail it which way it was - I'm presuming it was a user error. I only have a _REALLY_ crappy small travel tripod which flexes when adjusting focus.. so you can guess it can't be trusted for this :-)

Anyway, I'm happy with the results since I'm getting what I need free handed in the medium distances.

But still a bit funky that Leica with their magic equipment couldn't sort out the infinity and I could do it in less than 30 minutes with a 2mm hex and using my eyes! :roll:

//Juha


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 Post subject: Re: Accurate focus adjustment
Unread postPosted: Fri Jul 11, 2014 10:12 pm 
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Wow. That's amazing poor service quality, especially for the (even expedited) wait. Leica's QC has been slipping more and more in recent years. Sad. And totally frustrating for you.

Glad to hear that you could fix it yourself! Good thinking, using the EVF-2.

I think I need an adjustment on my M9. I noticed it on vacation also. I didn't confirm it with another lens yet though. Thankfully it didn't mess up my photos.

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 Post subject: Re: Accurate focus adjustment
Unread postPosted: Sat Jul 12, 2014 1:04 am 
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In January I sent four lenses to Leica for adjustment, all were focusing improperly. More than 3 months later they arrived back with focus errors still present. I am sending them in one by one now, the first has been over a month. I am happy to have a passport warranty for each, the 3 years time is necessary for repairs. Of course once they are calibrated properly they render so beautifully it is well worth the trouble. I am hoping the new facility in Wetzlar will improve both the camera and lens tolerances and adjustments.


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 Post subject: Re: Accurate focus adjustment
Unread postPosted: Sat Jul 12, 2014 2:02 am 
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Double Negative wrote:
I think I need an adjustment on my M9. I noticed it on vacation also. I didn't confirm it with another lens yet though. Thankfully it didn't mess up my photos.


If it's just infinity off, then it's really easy. And btw, in case you didn't know it, infinity focus also affects shorter focus as well.. less and less the closer you get, but affects anyway.

This thread in the other forum has all the necessary info + really nice niagrams explaining how the adjustment works etc: http://www.l-camera-forum.com/leica-for ... inity.html

Maybe an idea to contact the guy who wrote the actual adjustment instruction + drew the diagrams and ask if we could post the info here as well? Would make a brilliant sticky..

//Juha


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 Post subject: Re: Accurate focus adjustment
Unread postPosted: Sat Jul 12, 2014 4:49 am 
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Did some more testing with my 50 lux and from now on... no excuses for poor focus. I can nail a cats hair from 2 meters away @f1.4.

And shooting free handed at 80cm, I can't produce a significant enough "focusing issue" that it would a) matter or b) I could account for anything else than my slightest movement.

Infinity is also spot on and so was focus at 5-20 meters range.. I've been shooting close to a hundred test shots at various distances and it is spot on.

Though I have to say the 50 slux asph is HARD to focus accurately.. I've been vouching for fast focus throw for quite some time, but I'm now starting to see the light reg. long focus throw. I reckon the 90 elmarit-m is about perfect in that sense, where this new slux is a tad too short. Come to think of it, the pre-asph summilux was good as well.

Hmm.. should we heap more praise for Mandler era lenses? :-)

//Juha


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 Post subject: Re: Accurate focus adjustment
Unread postPosted: Sun Jul 13, 2014 8:34 am 
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jlindstrom wrote:
If it's just infinity off, then it's really easy. And btw, in case you didn't know it, infinity focus also affects shorter focus as well.. less and less the closer you get, but affects anyway.

This thread in the other forum has all the necessary info + really nice niagrams explaining how the adjustment works etc: http://www.l-camera-forum.com/leica-for ... inity.html

Maybe an idea to contact the guy who wrote the actual adjustment instruction + drew the diagrams and ask if we could post the info here as well? Would make a brilliant sticky..

Yes, it's just infinity it seems. True, close focus is also affected to a degree, but even at f/1.4 I nailed focus - so it's just a tiny bit - or that particular lens (Elmarit-M 90mm f/2.8). I did replace the flange on that lens with a third-party Chinese one for 6-bit coding... Will have to check it out more thoroughly; I've been lazy about it (shooting the MM and Fuji X-T1 more lately).

That's not a bad idea; I had thought of doing just that. Or recreating them more professionally. I'm leaning towards the latter, in an article.

jlindstrom wrote:
Did some more testing with my 50 lux and from now on... no excuses for poor focus. I can nail a cats hair from 2 meters away @f1.4.

And shooting free handed at 80cm, I can't produce a significant enough "focusing issue" that it would a) matter or b) I could account for anything else than my slightest movement.

Infinity is also spot on and so was focus at 5-20 meters range.. I've been shooting close to a hundred test shots at various distances and it is spot on.

Though I have to say the 50 slux asph is HARD to focus accurately.. I've been vouching for fast focus throw for quite some time, but I'm now starting to see the light reg. long focus throw. I reckon the 90 elmarit-m is about perfect in that sense, where this new slux is a tad too short. Come to think of it, the pre-asph summilux was good as well.

Hmm.. should we heap more praise for Mandler era lenses? :-)

Interesting. I haven't had any issues focusing the faster focus throw lenses. Though I do use a Walter RX Eyepiece, which makes the clarity of the VF perfect for me. Of course, if you have 20/20 vision it won't help.

You're right though, a longer focus throw isn't a bad thing for critical focusing! Though you lose speed in focusing also. What I sometimes do is focus with the VF, then move my head (and camera) in/out slightly for the fine tuning. Sometimes you just have to focus in/out a few times to nail it, closing in on the optimum focus point.

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