dpattinson Posted May 20, 2010 Share #1 Posted May 20, 2010 Advertisement (gone after registration) A while ago I dropped my perfectly-focusing M8 and trashed the shutter amongst other things. It's now in Solms being repaired (thanks to Ivor at Red Dot for handling that for me), so I bought a 'user' M8 to tide me over. Unfortunately that M8 (as well as 3 others I tried at the same time) had a back-focus problem with my lenses. I wasn't very surprised, as I'd say about 80% of second hand M8 bodies I've tried have back-focused (as did my original M8 until I sent it back to be fixed under warranty a year ago). Once back in Melbourne, I decided to see if the repairer at Camera Exchange would be able to have a go at tweaking the focus for me. Vic kindly obliged, and although he was only prepared to adjust the 'infinity' focus, the back focus at closer distances is now completely gone (tested with 50lux and 28cron). So, for any of you who have been putting up with back-focus, I can strongly recommend checking the infinity alignment of your rangefinder. If it's out at infinity, then fixing that may well fix the back-focus at closer distances as well Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Advertisement Posted May 20, 2010 Posted May 20, 2010 Hi dpattinson, Take a look here Good news on back-focusing M8. I'm sure you'll find what you were looking for!
Tonysaurus Posted May 20, 2010 Share #2 Posted May 20, 2010 Wow good to hear! I'm a Melbournian myself and am thinking of buying a second hand M8 from Camera Lane (the prices look much cheaper than The Camera Exchange's do they price match each other?). If I buy from either of these resellers, will they make sure that focus is spot on for me and how can I tell if it is? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaapv Posted May 20, 2010 Share #3 Posted May 20, 2010 Well, tweaking infinity is just a twist with a 2 mm allen key, easy DIY. It is a lucky dip, however, if that will cure or fix the close and middle distances. You were lucky, congrats:). However, I am sure that there is a qualified Leica repairperson in Australia who can adjust M cameras properly. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikenic Posted May 20, 2010 Share #4 Posted May 20, 2010 Hi David I think the Vic you refer to is Vic Plant. When he was with Adeal he refurbished a 50mm Summicron (rigid) for me with a new set of iris blades and CLA. What a great job he did too. It's still one of my favourite lenses. Nice fellow as well. Regards Mike Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
leicamr Posted May 20, 2010 Share #5 Posted May 20, 2010 I made the allen key adjustment recently. I am now enjoying using the M8 again. I just find it strange that Leica couldn't make the adjustment correctly. Mark Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
dpattinson Posted May 20, 2010 Author Share #6 Posted May 20, 2010 I suspect that initially, all the M8's were set to err on the side of back-focus as that would more likely be compensated for by depth of field. Possibly this was the default practice from the film cameras, where it was less critical due to emulsion thickness. It's the only reason I can come up with that so many 'vanilla' M8's seem to have the problem whereas M8.2's and M9's are far less likely (from my sampling at least) to 'out of the box'. I was pleasantly surprised because I had gathered that mid/short distance focus issues would inevitably require a trip back to Solms (or at least substantially more adjustment than just infinity setting). In this case I really didn't expect much improvement, but since I was already compensating for the back-focus I figured it probably wouldn't get any worse. I've since tested the camera with 5 lenses, and no back-focus is apparent with any of them at around 1.5-2m which was where I was observing the problem previously. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
dpattinson Posted May 20, 2010 Author Share #7 Posted May 20, 2010 Advertisement (gone after registration) Wow good to hear! I'm a Melbournian myself and am thinking of buying a second hand M8 from Camera Lane (the prices look much cheaper than The Camera Exchange's do they price match each other?). If I buy from either of these resellers, will they make sure that focus is spot on for me and how can I tell if it is? I don't know if they price match, but they know each other very well. Price depends on a lot of things including how much they paid for it, how much inventory a shop wants to hold, and what they think the market price will do in the future. My advice is that if you see a good deal then take it To check for focus accuracy, use a fast lens wide open and focus on something with good detail, like a page of text, at an angle of about 45 degrees. If the line of text you focused on is sharp with the lines behind and in front becoming progressively less so - then the camera is focusing well. If lines somewhere behind the one you focused on seem sharper - then the camera is back-focusing and vice versa. 90 f2 or 50 f1.4 are good choices if you can find one in good condition. A real world test with the 50 f1.4 is to just take a portrait and focus on the iris, if the eye looks a bit blurry and a slice of skin back towards the ear looks sharp... then it's out. In most cases where I've seen the problem, it's been blindingly obvious in a portrait like this to the tune of several centimeters. It is of course possible that the lens itself could be at fault, but that can be checked by trying several lenses. If the problem is consistent then it is very likely to be the camera. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stealth3kpl Posted May 20, 2010 Share #8 Posted May 20, 2010 I thought my M8.2 was a one-off with this problem. I found that a predictable amount of front focussing gave me crisp images with all of my lenses (24/2.8, 35/2, 50/2 and 90/2) but it is now at Milton Keynes about to be shipped to Solmes for adjustment. Pete Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tonysaurus Posted May 21, 2010 Share #9 Posted May 21, 2010 @dpattinson: Thanks for the advice David! I've got my eyes on a couple M8s at The Camera Exchange and Camera Lane so just gotta decide which one is the best deal. Cheers. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest mc_k Posted May 21, 2010 Share #10 Posted May 21, 2010 I suspect that initially, all the M8's were set to err on the side of back-focus as that would more likely be compensated for by depth of field... I'm not sure this is a good idea. Any error degrades the focus, by definition. Also, the depth of field often splits pretty evenly. If you had to bias the camera, I would do it slightly to the front, to compensate focus shift and the reframing error. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest mc_k Posted May 21, 2010 Share #11 Posted May 21, 2010 ...that's great you got a good result... I've got one at Leica NJ for adjustment Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
bawang Posted May 31, 2010 Share #12 Posted May 31, 2010 Well, tweaking infinity is just a twist with a 2 mm allen key, easy DIY. It is a lucky dip, however, if that will cure or fix the close and middle distances. You were lucky, congrats:). However, I am sure that there is a qualified Leica repairperson in Australia who can adjust M cameras properly. Is there a guide to do this somewhere? I would appreciate a link or something. Thanks. I recently had to return a lens back thinking it was back focusing. And last week I had another lens that couldn't reach infinity on the focus patch. That got me thinking that could this be that I need to tweak the infinity on mine too? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stealth3kpl Posted May 31, 2010 Share #13 Posted May 31, 2010 http://www.l-camera-forum.com/leica-forum/leica-m9-forum/122176-m9-coincidence-infinity.html#post1297210 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
bawang Posted June 1, 2010 Share #14 Posted June 1, 2010 Thank you very much. http://www.l-camera-forum.com/leica-forum/leica-m9-forum/122176-m9-coincidence-infinity.html#post1297210 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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