M9 Focus/Rangefinder Calibration

[Anguish]

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"What's the place in CA that you ended up using? Thanks!"

 

Steve Choi - Steve's Camera Service Center.

Actually 55 years in the biz.

Formerly Rudy Lingg's

Culver City, CA

stevecamera.com

stevecamera<at>gmail.com

I made the Monday Fed Ex

He got it Tuesday

He made the Wed Fed Ex

I got it Thurs a.m. It worked. I got a pg. 1 pic for my paper w/ it @ 2:30 p.m.

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[Photoskeptic]

 

I sent mine into DAG for focus adjustment, and now it is spot-on.

 

Do yourself a favor, and get it calibrated quickly. It's a joy to use when it has been correctly adjusted.

 

I had a similar problem with my M8. I lived with it due to all the delays people were experiencing with Leica at the time. I was afraid to send it in and be without the camera for two months! But I've been shooting Leica rangefinders for quite some time and with my experience I never had an out of focus shot. However, when I decided to sell it I sent it to DAG for adjustment. I then realized what I had been missing after I got the camera back!

Don't deprive yourself by waiting to correct the problem.

[Dave Robertson]

Being slightly taken aback by the price of the LensAlign and wanting to verify focus on my lenses, I made a simple device from scraps to do much the same thing. As you can see from the enclosed picture, the angle is 25 degrees, the dowel is 1/2 inch diameter and marked with a black pen to aid focusing on the front edge of the dowel and the paper is printed from a web site.

 

On each lens I measured the exact distance at 1 and 2 meters, set the distance guage to that amount and took exposures. I then set the distance by using the rangefinder and taking exposures. Luckily, my lenses appear to be accurate.

 

While I have no illusions that this will replace Leica's bench, I feel that at zero cost, it is an adequate way to decide whether to send things off to get exactly calibrated. While the paper didn't get placed in exactly the right spot at the front of the dowel, it still is satisfactory for checking at 200%

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[Guest mc_k]

any reason why you chose 25 deg. ?

[Dave Robertson]

25 degrees seemed about what the LensAlign angle uses. The angle needs to be steep enough so you can read the small print when checking focus, yet shallow enough to give a fairly long length to the scale. I must admit it was picking a number out of the air, and also had to do with the size of the scraps I had available.

Dave

[Elsu]

I totally agree with some of the posters saying that this calibration issue brings disappointment, and frustration I might add.

I have had exactly the same issue with my Summicron 35 and Monochrom, as posted in this thread.

 

http://www.l-camera-forum.com/leica-forum/leica-m-lenses/274264-summicron-35-issue.html#post2375088

 

What makes me wonder more is, if the issue (as seen in the images attached) is only about calibration, or if there is something else with the lens.

 

Also, can overexposure make a difference in the lens focus/sharpness?