Adjusting focus ons a '55 Leitz Wetzlar 90cm f/4 Elmar

[Guest rivercityrocker]

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I recently picked up a ca. 1955 Leitz Wetzlar 90cm f/4 Elmar. It was in the KEH BGN section and it was less than $100 shipped so I figured I'd give it a shot. They didn't disclose exactly what the issues were on the site, but it was pretty well used so I figured it had the typical scratches and stuff that would be normal for a lens of this vintage. I called, but they had no idea if it had problems or not.

 

I slapped it on the M8 and although the focus ring is a bit sloppy and the aperture ring doesn't click it seemed to work OK. The rangefinder images seemed to line up correctly so I took it out around the neighborhood to do some testing.

 

The lens is sharp wide open and renders colors in a very cool "expired film" sort of way. The out of focus areas are very nice even with specular highlights in the background.

 

 

The problem is on the crappy LCD of the M8 things looked OK, but upon downloading the images I noticed a severe back-focusing problem. Is there any easy way to fix this? Obviously I don't want to sink a lot of money into the lens. 90mm isn't a focal length I'd use a lot, but I would like to be able to take advantage of the sharpness of this lens without a lot of trial and error shooting.

 

Here are some examples of what I'm talking about.

 

Here's 100% on where I focused at. The center of the flower.

 

 

Here's where the focus landed.

 

 

As you can see it's really sharp. There's a ton of detail even in the relatively small 10MP file. It's a superb lens. Unfortunately, that ain't where I wanted the focus!

 

It would be great if I could get in there and fix the focus myself or maybe drop it off at the local place and have them do it.

[Guest rivercityrocker]

This may or may not be part of the problem, but take a look and tell me what you think.

 

The pic on the left shows the lens @ infinity. It has a hard stop there as it should.

 

The middle pic is minimum focus of 1m. Normal for a lens of this age. However it doesn't have a hard stop.

 

The pic on the right shows how far past minimum focus the lens goes.

 

 

I'm not sure if this is normal or if someone attempted to adjust it get a minimum focus of 0.7m or what. My Jupiter-8 50mm f/2 also does this, but I have no problem with the focus on that lens.

 

In any case the lens back focuses at all distances and all apertures.

 

So, yeah. That's about it. What do y'all think?

[Ecar]

Focus adjustment on a lens is not a DIY job, I'm afraid - unless you know what you are doing. I'd send it to your favorite Leica repair expert.

[giordano]

There are no click stops on the aperture rings of these lenses, so don't worry about that. It's also normal for the focusing ring to turn past the 1m mark, although I don't recall it going so far on the 9cm Elmar I sold the other day.

 

One thing to check: unscrew the lens head from the focusing mount (it's meant to come off). There should be a number scratched on the inside of the mount that matches the (last few digits of) the serial number of the lens. If the numbers don't match the lens and the mount may not match properly, in which case you'll never get it focusing perfectly across the range. And if they don't match the seller shouldn't have sold the lens to you without informing you, IMHO.

 

If the plane of maximum focus is consistently further away than the point you focused on, you may be able to do a simple DIY repair by inserting a shim between the lens head and the focusing mount. Try various thicknesses until you get it right. Otherwise just take it to a Leica mechanic.

[macjonny1]

I'd either spend a couple hundred getting focus adjusted or a new M240 and use the EVF

[Guest rivercityrocker]

I'd either spend a couple hundred getting focus adjusted or a new M240 and use the EVF

 

It's probably more cost effective to buy another copy. I mau be able to return this one.

 

As much as I'd like to get an M it ain't in the budget (or available for that matter) and I'll never use an EVF. That's one of the reasons I opted M8 over XPro-1.

[Guest rivercityrocker]

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There are no click stops on the aperture rings of these lenses, so don't worry about that. It's also normal for the focusing ring to turn past the 1m mark, although I don't recall it going so far on the 9cm Elmar I sold the other day.

 

One thing to check: unscrew the lens head from the focusing mount (it's meant to come off). There should be a number scratched on the inside of the mount that matches the (last few digits of) the serial number of the lens. If the numbers don't match the lens and the mount may not match properly, in which case you'll never get it focusing perfectly across the range. And if they don't match the seller shouldn't have sold the lens to you without informing you, IMHO.

 

If the plane of maximum focus is consistently further away than the point you focused on, you may be able to do a simple DIY repair by inserting a shim between the lens head and the focusing mount. Try various thicknesses until you get it right. Otherwise just take it to a Leica mechanic.

 

I'll look into this. Thanks.

[Guest rivercityrocker]

I don't see any numbers scratched anywhere...

[giordano]

I don't see any numbers scratched anywhere...

Ah well. This could mean that the lens head was originally sold with a short focusing mount for Visoflex use and subsequently joined with its present mount; or maybe I'm wrong to think that all factory-fitted mounts were marked with the lens serial number. Either way the options for fixing or returning it are the same.

[scsambrook]

It's a shame about the back-focusing. My similar lens has mis-matching numbers on the optical head and inside the mount but its coupling is absolutely correct. As for the focusing mount turning past the infinity mark, that's not unknown - mine goes just a tiny way beyond, seemingly without any ill effects. However, although I spent a long time in the photo-retail business, I've never seen one go so far past as in your photo.

 

If it were mine, I'd try to return it to the supplier rather than spending what might be a substantial sum having it fixed. If the dealer wouldn't take it back, then I'd list it on eBay declaring its problems and trust to good fortune and the optimism of bidders.

[Guest rivercityrocker]

It's a shame about the back-focusing. My similar lens has mis-matching numbers on the optical head and inside the mount but its coupling is absolutely correct. As for the focusing mount turning past the infinity mark, that's not unknown - mine goes just a tiny way beyond, seemingly without any ill effects. However, although I spent a long time in the photo-retail business, I've never seen one go so far past as in your photo.

 

If it were mine, I'd try to return it to the supplier rather than spending what might be a substantial sum having it fixed. If the dealer wouldn't take it back, then I'd list it on eBay declaring its problems and trust to good fortune and the optimism of bidders.

 

I've decided to send it back. KEH description says that it "may" have marks that affect image quality. Clearly this isn't the case. It's an internal problem that they most likely didn't know about. Giving them a call today. At least I know in the future that this is a nice sharp lens.