My used 35 lux is back focusing

[Crazy Cat Lady]

Advertisement (gone after registration)

I feel like I am clutter up the forum with my posts, but I am very disappointed. I bought a used 35 lux and I think it back focuses. I am not sure on how to do the test appropriately. What I did was sit a doll in the corner of a window sill. I focused on the nose and photographed with apertures 1.4 - 11. The nose was never in focus, the corner of the window sill was in focus. The corner was not very sharp, but it was more in focus than the nose. I also made sure I was about 3 feet from the doll.

 

Did I do the test wrong? I was truly hoping it would be ok, but it does not look like it I bought it off of an internet vender called popflash. I have one week to return. I really do wish I could keep it as I love the bokeh and am starting to really like this focal length.

 

Does anyone have any experience with popflashes warranty? Maybe it can be calibrated.

 

Thanks everyone

[wparsonsgisnet]

Jennifer, I think you will hear a universal, positive endorsement of Popflash, here.

Why don't you call them and tell them the problem with the lens.

[thpeters]

Sorry to hear that Jennifer, it can be also the camera instead of the lens.

I have that problem with my M8 and Leica has confirmd there was a problem with the camera.

 

Theo

[Crazy Cat Lady]

Jennifer, I think you will hear a universal, positive endorsement of Popflash, here.

Why don't you call them and tell them the problem with the lens.

 

I have faith in popflash. It is just such a bummer, that is all. I will call them, after I test it some more. Later I was going to test it against my 35 cron. With the cron I have shot about 300 images so far & only a hand full have been in "ok" focus.

[Crazy Cat Lady]

Sorry to hear that Jennifer, it can be also the camera instead of the lens.

I have that problem with my M8 and Leica has confirmd there was a problem with the camera.

 

Theo

 

Did you get it fixed? If so, is the focusing better?

[rami G]

I feel like I am clutter up the forum with my posts, but I am very disappointed. I bought a used 35 lux and I think it back focuses. I am not sure on how to do the test appropriately. What I did was sit a doll in the corner of a window sill. I focused on the nose and photographed with apertures 1.4 - 11. The nose was never in focus, the corner of the window sill was in focus. The corner was not very sharp, but it was more in focus than the nose. I also made sure I was about 3 feet from the doll.

 

Did I do the test wrong? I was truly hoping it would be ok, but it does not look like it I bought it off of an internet vender called popflash. I have one week to return. I really do wish I could keep it as I love the bokeh and am starting to really like this focal length.

 

Does anyone have any experience with popflashes warranty? Maybe it can be calibrated.

 

Thanks everyone

 

I have the 75 lux for around 5 years already. After I got it it turnet to be my favorite lens, so I decided to send it for focus and aperture ring adjustment and to remove some dust to some Leica lens repair in the US. Unfortunately, I got back a desaster. I had an internal finger print, and the lens was totally back focusing (which it wasn't before). I send it back and found myself in a very unpleasant interaction with the guy as I accused him of the finger print and he was offended (they were not there before. Don't think that Fedex took my lens appart). He did clean the fingerprints but the lens was still back focusing. I sent it to Solms (NJ don't service the 75 lux, only Solms). After 4 months, the focus was not fixed. Sent it again- still- the same. Got the lens back and did not use it since them. Last week, following the Nocti thread here, I decided to give it another try. I sent it to Don and DAG Camera (not the same repair I sent it to before). Received it back yesterday. The lens works perfectly with my M8 and with my R-D1. He charged me 75$ which I find really very decent price, as sometimes you are charged by hour plus all the extras. I know it is not fun to buy a lens and send it right away for some "extra"- but the fact that there is such a great professional repair service available at a decent price is at least worth mentioning.

[stunsworth]

Advertisement (gone after registration)

Jennifer, make sure you are absutely certain that you are not misfocusing. Depth of field at such a close distance is very shallow, expecially at the widest apertures.

[rami G]

I feel like I am clutter up the forum with my posts, but I am very disappointed. I bought a used 35 lux and I think it back focuses. I am not sure on how to do the test appropriately. What I did was sit a doll in the corner of a window sill. I focused on the nose and photographed with apertures 1.4 - 11. The nose was never in focus, the corner of the window sill was in focus. The corner was not very sharp, but it was more in focus than the nose. I also made sure I was about 3 feet from the doll.

 

Did I do the test wrong? I was truly hoping it would be ok, but it does not look like it I bought it off of an internet vender called popflash. I have one week to return. I really do wish I could keep it as I love the bokeh and am starting to really like this focal length.

 

Does anyone have any experience with popflashes warranty? Maybe it can be calibrated.

 

Thanks everyone

 

BTW, as Tony Rose at Popflash is really great, if you choose to send it, I would contact him and ask if he can give you some extra time to see if it is easily fixable...

[tashley]

Jennifer,

 

Take a deep deep breath and read this thread, which covers the topic exhaustively...

 

http://www.leica-camera-user.com/digital-forum/17699-very-interesting-answer-leica-35mm-1-a.html

 

though by the time you've finished reading your send-back period will have expired...

 

;-(

 

Tim

[Guest Bernd Banken]

Jennifer,

 

do I remember well that you have another lens? If so pls. check with this lens. If this check is ok than the 35mm could have some issues. Here is a test chart - links which I posted here long time ago when the first misfocussings with M8 happened. It's from a Nikonuser, but no problems...

 

http://www.focustestchart.com/chart.html

 

Bernd

[fotografr]

It is almost undoubtedly the camera, not the lens.

[Crazy Cat Lady]

Jennifer,

 

do I remember well that you have another lens? If so pls. check with this lens. If this check is ok than the 35mm could have some issues. Here is a test chart - links which I posted here long time ago when the first misfocussings with M8 happened. It's from a Nikonuser, but no problems...

 

Nikon D70 Focus Chart

 

Bernd

 

Yes, I do have another lens, 35 cron. With the cron I have gotten inconsistent results. I would not say it seems to back focus sometimes, other times it seems to look fuzzy all over (out of focus I am guessing) and other times, which is like a hand full so far with 300+ shots, it seems to focus ok. I am so confused. But the back focusing on the 35 lux seems pretty severe. Either way, I believe there is something wrong with the lux.

 

I don't know what to do. I have another week left to return the camera, but that does not seem right since I have already owned for a week. Then again I do not want to send it for repair and wait a month or more.

 

Thanks for the link Bernd! I will test it out and see what happens.

[Crazy Cat Lady]

Jennifer,

 

Take a deep deep breath and read this thread, which covers the topic exhaustively...

 

http://www.leica-camera-user.com/digital-forum/17699-very-interesting-answer-leica-35mm-1-a.html

 

though by the time you've finished reading your send-back period will have expired...

 

;-(

 

Tim

 

Thanks for the link Tim! I will be sure to check it out.

[rami G]

Thanks for the link Tim! I will be sure to check it out.

 

???

 

I was under the impression that you have the 35 lux, vs. the 35 lux asph, which the long thread was about...

[Guest Bernd Banken]

Jennifer,

 

I know that some of the M8 guys utilised this chart, but keep in mind that a RF camera has some parallax influence if it's too close to the test chart. (It's your first RF camera;) )

 

Bernd

[Crazy Cat Lady]

???

 

I was under the impression that you have the 35 lux, vs. the 35 lux asph, which the long thread was about...

 

 

I have the 35 cron & 35 lux.

[fotografr]

I have the 75 lux for around 5 years already. After I got it it turnet to be my favorite lens, so I decided to send it for focus and aperture ring adjustment and to remove some dust to some Leica lens repair in the US. Unfortunately, I got back a desaster. I had an internal finger print, and the lens was totally back focusing (which it wasn't before). I send it back and found myself in a very unpleasant interaction with the guy as I accused him of the finger print and he was offended (they were not there before. Don't think that Fedex took my lens appart). He did clean the fingerprints but the lens was still back focusing. I sent it to Solms (NJ don't service the 75 lux, only Solms). After 4 months, the focus was not fixed. Sent it again- still- the same. Got the lens back and did not use it since them. Last week, following the Nocti thread here, I decided to give it another try. I sent it to Don and DAG Camera (not the same repair I sent it to before). Received it back yesterday. The lens works perfectly with my M8 and with my R-D1. He charged me 75$ which I find really very decent price, as sometimes you are charged by hour plus all the extras. I know it is not fun to buy a lens and send it right away for some "extra"- but the fact that there is such a great professional repair service available at a decent price is at least worth mentioning.

 

You are quite right about Don. I'm lucky to know him pretty well and we live just a few miles apart. When I have a problem, I just drive out to his shop, then go out again when it is done. I wish he could work on the M8, but Leica won't give up the specs.

[charlesphoto99]

After much fiddling with the infinity focus adjustment I've gotten my 35 lux asph to focus quite good even in the dreaded f4-f11 range. None of my lenses focus absolutely perfect, but that's mostly on only 100% plus inspection (I think our tolerance relationship to digital vs film is sometimes part of the problem). I think the near/far focus adjustment needs to be made but that is not an easy one compared to the infinity so I will wait until I have time to send back under warranty.

 

My 50 lux pre-asph is all over the map and according to one poster here I can send back to DAG and he can take care of it. My only concern is that it also work properly on my film body. My 28 Summicron is the second most imperfect, esp at infinity. It was repaired by Solms last year (I dropped it and froze up the helicoid, etc) and unfortunately is now out of 1 year warranty.

 

So, it's probably the camera. From what I've heard there's been a plague of mis-adjusted rangefinders out of the box - I know mine was. Some dealers are maybe honoring returns on this but many aren't, and it's either fiddle with it yourself (not for the faint-hearted but it does work) or off to Solms (not sure why NJ can't deal with some of this stuff) for six plus weeks. My camera seemed to work great otherwise and I wasn't going to get into the trading game with the dealer. So I fiddled and am happy with the results.

[tashley]

I have the 35 cron & 35 lux.

 

 

Jen,

 

Let me summarise because I think you're getting some well intentioned but not necesarrily helpful advice here.

 

The 35 Lux (and less so the cron) are both known for backfocus. Some people say theirs don't, some say theirs do, and some who say that theirs don't then discover that they do when they test them thoroughly. For me the clincher (having tested two luxes and one cron on three bodies and found that they all do) is that Solms told me personally, in writing and on the phone, that they do. It is a trade off in their aspheric design, swapped for advantages in the area of flatness of field, and relates to the fact that both lenses were designed for film not digital, and digital both exacerbates and reveals the problem.

 

Let me define what the problem is:

 

Both lenses tend to focus perfectly wide open - indeed that is the first test to do. If they are fine wide open, and your other lenses are fine, then it is not your rangefinder. A lot of people will try to tell you that it is but believe me, it is not. Don't listen to them. That way madness lies, not to mention hours of fiddling with an Allen key for no real purpose.

 

From f2 thru 5.6 or 8 on the lux and from f2.8 thru 5.6 or 8 on the cron, objects in the centre of the field of view will go OOF as the plane of focus shifts backwards. In general, this affects an area about 1/4 the size of the entire field of view, based in the centre, and roughly circular. SO you'll get some shots where a lot of the shot is in perfect focus but the centre is not and since you tend to focus and then recompose with the subject off centre, it often goes unnoticed.

 

This makes the problem appear sporadic and hard to pin down, and allows you and others to blame it on focus error and/or rangefinder mis-calibration.

 

Now we all know that some people have examples of this lens that they claim don't do this. The clincher, however, is that regardless of this Solms regards it as an intrinsic property of the design. As such, they won't try to fix it or replace it. The only option is to keep trying different lenses until you find one that for whatever miraculous reason does not.

 

If you want to understand the behaviour of your lenses more, read the thread and learn how to shoot test shots at various apertures and distances. Use a tripod and a 1.25X finder magnifier. And BTW a lot of these so-callled perfect lenses, of varying focal lengths, have odd behaviours so it is useful to run similar tests on all when you have time, just to learn your tools - as long as it doesn't stop you taking 'real' photos!

 

Hope that helps!

 

Tim

[Advertisement]

Hallo,

Look here: Interesting Leica gear

[jaapv]

Going off at a tangent, Jennifer: Do something very simple before going about sending in camera's lenses etc. Visit your local optician and have him use his trial lenses. Hold them between your eye and the viewfinder. It may very well be that you will suddenly see the focussing triangle much, much better with a small correction. These diopters can be ordered from Leica. Contrary to popular belief, rangefinders need, and I really mean need, to be adjusted correctly to the eye of the user to get good results.And a digital rangefinder combined with a fast lens shows it up mercilessly. I an convinced more than half of the focus issue threads on this forum can be traced back to this.

Another lovely little gadget is the Megaperls 1.35x magnifier. (I'm sorry, Leica, I know about the patent issues, but you should have supplied the Okular with a variable strength diopter like this one). Not only is it 100% better to focus any lens shorter than 35 mm, it can also be adjusted -again- exactly to your eye.