DIY Rangefinder Adjustment?

[novice9]

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I had my M9 rangefinder adjusted in NJ a couple months back. But while I was waiting and speaking with one of the tech guys, I thought he might have said something about the ability to adjust the rangefinder oneself with allen wrench or something like that. Is that true? If so, why would we bother to send them in to get adjusted? The obvious answer would be that we need a reference against which to adjust. But lets say someone has multiple lenses, none of which front/back focus to the extent possible, and that someone bumps/drops etc. their camera so as to cause the rangefinder to go out of whack. Given that they already have reference lenses against which to adjust the rangefinder back to "zero", could that be done diy or what it again need to go back to an expert for adjustment?

[jlam]

I'm still waiting for my M9 and a bit concerned that it may not 'play nice' with all my lenses. Because of my location sending things back&forth for adjustment would be a real pain. I've done DIY adjustment on my DSLR with allen wrench before with satisfactory result but it was quite a tedious process. New DSLRs nowadays can do electronic micro-adjustment (which unfortunately only works for AF not MF). I hope someone knowledgeable in the RF mechanism could explain whether and how DIY adjustment can/cannot be done.

 

Joseph

[michali]

I'm not even remotely an expert on RF adjustment. However having recently knocked my M9 over on a tripod, resulting in a vertical misalignment of the RF, I did some research into this subject, with some valuable input from members on this Forum.

 

It appears that the vertical adjustment is an easier procedure to undertake than horizontal alignment. There is a little hole behind the red Leica dot into which you insert a specially made "cam-tool" which adjusts the RF in the vertical plane. The horizontal alignment is more complicated and is adjusted with a 2mm allen key and this is located inside the camera body just above and behind the lens mount.

 

It's not something I would try and do myself, even though other users here claim to have done this successfully. However if you screw it up it will have to go to Leica anyway.

 

In my case I took my M9 to a technician in Johannesburg who claimed he could easily do it. While the camera was still usable by focusing the horizontal lines in the RF, after his 5 minutes of fiddling with the adjustment we lost the one RF patch completely. So I sent the camera to Solms with a promise from Leica that the turn around on any M9 repairs is max 5 days.

 

Again in my case, having established that other than the vertical mis-alignment of the RF there was nothing else wrong with the camera I thought it prudent to send the M9 in to Leica anyway for general check up. I also feel that they were keen to have a look at how a fairly early M9, (I got mine on Sep 10th), with plenty of use has fared up to now.

 

The bottom line is that customs paperwork & courier fees aside, not to mention possible warranty invalidation, and with a 5 day max. turn around time from Leica, IMO I simply don't think it's worth anyone performing DIY work on an expensive piece of kit.

[jlam]

In my case I took my M9 to a technician in Johannesburg who claimed he could easily do it. While the camera was still usable by focusing the horizontal lines in the RF, after his 5 minutes of fiddling with the adjustment we lost the one RF patch completely. So I sent the camera to Solms with a promise from Leica that the turn around on any M9 repairs is max 5 days.

 

Thanks for sharing your experience. 5 days turn around sounds pretty good to me. Did you have to pay for both the to/from shipping yourself or does the warranty cover the return shipping (by courier?)? Did you have to contact Solm directly to get the 5 day promise before sending it in?

 

I just found this link (for M6) which other than the difference in screw type seems to give a good idea of what can/can't be done:

Leica M6/ rangefinder/ horizontal adjustment

 

Looks like it's practically feasible to adjust the RF patch's horizontal location but that's gonna affect the entire focusing range for all lenses by the same amount. I presume it would only help when one is really only experiencing a consistent identical misalignment across all lenses at all distances. Otherwise adjusting it for one set will throw off the focus for all the others.

 

This is very different from the SLR mirror box mechanism in which for manual focus there is only one variable which is the equidistance from the mirror to the focusing screen and the sensor/film, which can be maintained either with a single eccentric knob that adjusts the mirror's resting angle, or with shims on the focusing screen.

[jaapv]

There are three adjustment points, of which one,the roller cam is easily reachable for the user. That is the Allen wrench trick. It works sometimes.However, as the adjustment points are interrelated, there is a good chance to throw the whole system out of adjustment by DIY on this point. Basically the camera has to be adjusted using a reference lens on a collimator, or, better, using the immense adjustment rig Leica has. Just ask yourself why Leica had to go to the trouble of designing a whole RF adjusting machine when they found out that the traditional method of the film days of eyeballing it just did not work in the digital world.

[michali]

Thanks for sharing your experience. 5 days turn around sounds pretty good to me. Did you have to pay for both the to/from shipping yourself or does the warranty cover the return shipping (by courier?)? Did you have to contact Solm directly to get the 5 day promise before sending it in?

 

I contacted Leica Customer Service initially by email and got a response within a couple of hours as follows:

 

"Good afternoon,

sorry to learn about your accident. Our turnaround with M9 bodies is 5 working days max after your go-ahead, plus logistic times. After first check we'll send an estimate for your approval via mail. Re-shipment with UPS after issuing the shipping parers and customs clearance, which is not in our hands. We'll come back to you after receiption of your equipment. hoping this information will be helpful. Looking forward to hear from you again.

Leica Camera "

 

Unfortunately the warranty doesn't cover user stupidity/carelessness, so I had to pay the courier fees and repair bill. Within an hour of Leica receiving the camera last Friday I had a repair estimate of approx. EURO350.00 inclusive of return courier fees to SAfrica, which I immediately paid via Visa card. When I checked on the Repair Tracking facility on the Leica website I saw that within an hour of me paying, the camera was already quoted as being "in repair". That's really impressive service IMO!

 

My point once again is that with this kind of service I'm pleased I followed this route rather than try DIY solutions.