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Anyone experienced focus shift with IR cut filters?


Vivek Iyer

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Now that the IR contamination issue is drummed up everywhere and folks are using IR cut filters, I would like to ask if anyone has noticed focus shift (incorrect focus) when an IR cut filter is being used. Users of the IR cut filters on fast lenses, perhaps could comment on this? TIA

 

While trying IR cut filters on lenses (fast and wide) to take care of IR problems on an Epson R-D1s, I notice significant shifts.

 

(Interesting that there were no/few complaints about the purple fabrics from the Epson R-D1/s!! This is a very sweet camera with very high sensitivity for UV and IR. Naturally, it creates problems with normal visible light, especially when it comes to color fidelity).

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No shift here. My M8 went back to Leica in NJ when I first received it for rangefinder alignment. The focus was spot on when I got it back and has remained that way with the 486 filters.

 

Hi Mark. I'm shipping mine off to NJ today for an adjustment as well. How long did it take to fix yours up?

Thanks,

Ron

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i use a heliopan ir/uv cutoff on my noct. no focus shift whatsoever. i did some experiments with a 28mm size IR cut off behind my CV12 and 15mm lenses. that was useless because of severe focus shift. i'm sorry about that because the cyan vignetting was almost nonexistent. the 12 mm is not usable with a ir cutoff in front of the lens. just too much vignetting.

 

i have no tech explanation for the focus shift but is was considerable. the focus plane moved almost 0,3 mm. (that's a lot for a wide angle lens)

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Putting a filter behind a lens would increase the optical path length because of the extra glass that the light goes through, and the resulting image would not lie on the original image plane. 0.3 mm sounds like a plausible shift. So this was simply a bad idea in the first place.

 

scott

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Folks, Thanks a bunch for all the replies.

 

Jaap, You raised a good question (the first post). In principle, any glass put in the optical path alters the focus. Most of the time it isn't significant.

 

I should clarify my post regarding the filters on wides (can't help comment on this- the Dutch ingenuity is showing in this thread!):

 

My careful experiments on wides were with rear filters on super-wides as Willem posted!

There is little or not significant shift on the Superwide Heliar 15mm f/4.5 lens, in my tests.

 

There are significant shifts while using a 25mm f/3.5 Canon or 2.5cm f/4 W-Nikkor-C lenses.

These could be exceptional due to their simple optical designs (4 elements in 3 groups- topogon variant- Canon and 4/4 Topogon clone- Nikkor).

 

Thanks again folks!

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Vivek- interesting. That would mean there is a relationship to the distance the light has to travel, making the focus shift for a filter in front of the lens disappear into the tolerances, but relevant for the much shorter distance between lens and sensor. And it would be for any filter - not just IR. Making the insitence of Leica for using a filter -any filter at all times on lenses with rear-mounted filters understandable, as the focus shift will be angle of incidence related it would introduce spherical aberration.

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were there not originaly in 35mm film cameras

separate focus marks for daylight and IR light ?

 

Yes -but that is something different. I indicates the difference in focal plane for visible and IR light.

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