Focusing R lenses with L1 issue...

[rivi1969]

Hello,

Yesterday I got my 35mm Summicron R lens which I am trying to use with my L1. Exposure is right-on but I have problems with focusing, even when I got the focus confirmation green dot on the finder, some of the shots come out of focus and some don't.

Any help would be very aappreciate here, I have great expectations in that lens!

Regards, Ricardo

[richsimp1]

You may have the DOF very shallow, thus giving you some out of focus images. I find I often have to use f5.6 or f8 to overcome this when using R primes.

[rivi1969]

Thank you for your response, I just did some tests and you are absolutely right, @ f2 all the images look soft, when closing down, the sharpness boost and the best results to my eyes are @ f5.6... the sharpness look very impressive, far better than my Nikkor 50mm 1.4 I also test.

Regards,
Ricardo

[Bo_Lorentzen]

I have found the required stop-down to apply to almost all lenses with a large rear lens element. Basically it seems that the mirror box on the L1 and Digilux 3 is smaller than the light "beam" something strange happens at wide open.. however when the lens is stopped down and the beam from the real-lens element becomes more narrow the images right away become tack-sharp again as expected.

I have thought about trying a baffle on the end of the lens but have not actually done so yet.


Bo

My Leica scratch page - random thoughts , pictures and such.

[lmr]

I tried a couple of Summilux @ f1.4 and wow... the meter went crazy, the focus went wild, and it was a white out! When I stopped down it worked better. Sure would like to use my Summilux wide open. I will try it for available darkness shots.

These L1/D3 threads are really great discussion and information. THX.