M9 Calibration

[darylgo]

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Got my new Monochrom today and guess what? Yep, rangefinder is out of calibration. Not by much (a couple of inches up close) but enough. Probably going to get out the allen wrench and watch phillips on this one. What's going on with quality control at Leica? This isn't the first time I've had this happen to a new body.

 

Otherwise it's an amazing camera. And I find the shutter on mine to quieter and the release better than my M9's. Interesting...

 

Charles, congratulations on your new camera. The demo model I tried had a silky smooth release also, nice to feel such smoothness.

[CaptZoom]

. What's going on with quality control at Leica?

 

I wouldn't be surprised if Leica's been pushing their technicians hard to meet the demand, and that usually translates to lower quality control.

[menos I M6]

This is not as straightforward as you assume.......

 

..... for a start, Leica users fall into 3 groups.....

 

1. the completely unobservant for whom even photos with the lens cap on are 'ok but a bit underexposed'

 

2. those who will live with minor miscalibration as long as there are no 'real world use' adverse consequences

 

3. those that want prefection because they have given half the cost of a car to Leica and expect nothing less

 

...... compounded by the fact that.....

 

* some Leica lenses, particularly with floating elements such as the 50/1.4 seem to be hard to adjust perfectly..... and others with very narrow DOF such as the 1.4's and longer lenses such as the 75/2, 90/2 are very unforgiving.

 

* my MATE, WATE, 90/4, 50/2.8, have all worked perfectly with all the miscalibrated bodies I have had. At 2.8 and above you will find little trouble.

 

* the only time you will get noticeable issues with a sub 35 lens is when its adjustment for infinity is miles off (my 28/2 suffered) .... otherwise the DOF masks any faults.

 

Leica hope, and expect, their customers to be in groups 1&2.

 

Those of us in group 3 are a pain in the backside for them .... and unless the numbers are beyond a certain point they will not change their factory tolerances or adjustment procedures.

 

The one lens you would expect most trouble with ..... the 50/0.95 rarely seems to feature ... and that is presumably down to the fact that a handful of very capable dedicated technicians assemble this lens ... over several days... and that great care is taken in the adjustment and alignment of all the elements. I suspect the 50/2 asph will turn out to be similar....... it's a flagship product and needs to be faultless......

 

Absolutely spot on post!

I have similar experience as you described in your posts here (I am falling under the term "hobby tinkerer" as of Jaap's definition )

 

So far, I have not bought a new digital M body, that was not way off in it's RF adjustment.

Calibrating them though is straightforward, as described.

 

I have had to turn down a few times beautiful deals on brand new Leica lenses, as a 75/2, 21/1.4 or 90/2, that simply were a lot out of spec (I even compared them to same focal lengths in the same shop on the same body and they significantly differed in calibration).

This was, how I ended up with my 21 SE instead of a 21/1.4, I was looking for.

 

For critical users of Leica M gear:

 

You have to learn, how to calibrate your bodies. There is no way around this except having sufficient backup bodies available, to allow for several weeks turnaround trips for re-calibration.

 

You have to handpick your lenses, or be cool with buying several thousand EUR items and having them sent in on the spot for re-calibration

 

It helps, to have a best friend lens technician, to take care of your vintage lenses, if you have a knack for such or you learn how to deal with that by yourself as well.

 

Leica operates as a business to render a profit. There is no way around manufacturing tolerances - deviation from a master calibration of products, leaving the factory included.

I am happy to hear, that dealing with such misaligned products with Leica is a pleasant experience and hope, this tradition of Leica's customer care stays on this level.

 

I hope, that lead times can be shortened in the future though.

[wattsy]

Got my new Monochrom today and guess what? Yep, rangefinder is out of calibration. Not by much (a couple of inches up close) but enough. Probably going to get out the allen wrench

 

I'm sorry to hear that – a couple of inches in the close range is quite a lot IMO. Fixing it yourself is, overall, probably the most time efficient way of dealing with the problem but I'd caution against relying on the allen key adjustment to put things right. In my experience, it is easy to end up with better close focus but significantly worse mid and far distance focus and I think to do the job right you have adjust both the infinity adjustment and the pivot point of the arm. I once spent ages fannying around with the infinity adjustment of my M9 and when I realised that I needed to adjust the pivot as well I gave up and had Solms do it. They adjusted it perfectly and the two cameras I have since bought have also been spot-on.

[charlesphoto99]

Thanks Ian. I've actually done it before the way you describe with my M8's. This time I'm going to invest in an L screwdriver as well for the pivot point. Sorry thing is I don't have my notes I made for which directions to turn to do what. Or my 90 APO I used as my reference lens.

[120]

Almost every? I hardly recall 50.000 threads on the subject. :pOf all seven newer lenses I have only one that had to go back and that was because a part in the floating element mechanism was out of spec, and I have had six (two loaners) cameras new out of the box and all were spot-on. You only read about problems on the internet, not about things that are unproblematic...

 

I would question finding no misadjusted items in 13 total.

 

Rangefinders were notorious before the internet; I don't think that is causing all of the problems.

[FlashGordonPhotography]

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Thanks Ian. I've actually done it before the way you describe with my M8's. This time I'm going to invest in an L screwdriver as well for the pivot point. Sorry thing is I don't have my notes I made for which directions to turn to do what. Or my 90 APO I used as my reference lens.

 

Charles,

 

Detailed instructions on the process with diagrams are on the first page of the "M9 coincidence at infinity" thread, so you don't need your notes. A lens you know is spot on, however, is required. For me that's my 90mm Summarit and 135 APO. I also found a 1.4x magnifier helped for near perfect infinity focus and a good focus chart for 1m focus helped a lot.

 

Gordon

[batmobile]

My Monochrom is brand new and my Summarit 75 f2.5 went straight back to the factory from new as it was MILES out on film (like a foot at six feet). On the new Monochrom, my 75 Summarit and 90 Elmarit-M both front focus by about 6 inches at something like 8 feet and my 50 planar looks suspiciously soft wide open, but I did not bother to test this as it was so obviously an issue with the 75 and 90 than I knew it needed to go back. With 35mm and shorter everything looks perfect.

 

What baffles me is that if the issue is with the lenses, why would my 75 Summarit which has already gone back once for repair (which is smack on with film now at all distances) be so far out (along with the 90mm) it the issue is with the lenses? Seems much more likely that the body is out of whack as all these lenses are pin sharp on my fim bodies.

 

Bit irritating to say the least...

[charlesphoto99]

Calibrated it today; took about an hour. Couldn't find a small offset screwdriver locally but a 2.5mm slot head works best for the pivot point with the least amount of marring. One note: if the lens binds at infinity that means you've gone too far with the infinity adjustment. Time to go back, redo the c/u and then the infinity over. Or vice versa. It's confusing but once you get the concept then it's just a matter of trial and error and patience.

 

Funny thing is I have two M9's that are both pretty well calibrated and the pivot point on one of them is in a totally different position than the other (which is similar to the MM). Shows there's lots of variables at play. Any way, out of 10 lenses only one appears to be out, the 75 summicron, by about an inch front focus, but I've shot wonderfully sharp pics with it wide open before so it also shows that unless one is always shooting stationary subjects on a tripod then there's also a large variable with camera movement and your ability to focus and that it is pretty much impossible for everything to be 100% 100% of the time.

 

Batmobile: it's your body's rf. My local dealer said 2 out of 7 MM's he's sold have gone back for rf adjustment. It's also a lot easier to see the mis-adjustment with longer lenses than wider ones (at least using the rear screen). Best of luck with it.