M body and lens adjustment and matching

[leica1215]

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I have heard few times on this forum , members sending their M body with their lens to Solm make adjustments ,

is there a such service or necessity for Leica to readjust their M to match particular lens you using ? or calabrated to certain lens to make lens and body getting focus easier or more precise ?

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[leica lux]

If you really face an issue with focusing, the RF and/or lense might need some adjustment. Sending Body + Lenses to Leica will consume time & money.

 

Don't search for it

[jaapv]

No. Both lens and camera are adjusted separately to a fixed standard. Only in the case of particularly sensitive lenses like the Noctilux or Apo Summicron 90 asph it may be advisable to match the tolerances of the body and the lens. Leica often asks for both body and lens as it may be hard for the user to determine which of the two is out.

 

You only need to have the gear adjusted if you experience an anomaly in use.

[leica1215]

how many of you have this type of experience , matching body and lens to narrow down the tolerance ? would love to hear some details . thanks

[mirekti]

I had my camera back focusing on 35 FLE and 135 APO, and by using this method http://www.l-camera-forum.com/leica-forum/leica-m9-forum/122176-m9-coincidence-infinity.html#post1297716 I nailed it.

Not sure whether this would be an easy task for everyone or I was just lucky, but it took me some 30 minutes, and I was done.

Be aware you only have to move screws slightly to add any changes.

[algrove]

I send cameras and lenses in separately and as Jaap says they calibrate to a fixed standard. Never had a problem doing it this way. It sure helps that you are not without camera while having a lens adjusted.

[jaapv]

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how many of you have this type of experience , matching body and lens to narrow down the tolerance ? would love to hear some details . thanks

It is quite simple. Both body and camera are adjusted to a standard, but like any mechanical process there is a +/- tolerance span. By matching the lens and body one can get the tolerances to cancel each other. It is not needed for any "normal" lens as any miniscule misfocus will not be visible due to DOF, but as I said, lenses with exceedingly narrow DOF wide open can benefit. If your focussing technique is good enough.

[efreed2754]

A few years ago purchased NOS 75 Summilux which predated digital by several years. Focusing was a challenge until sent M9 and 75 Lux to Leica NJ and has been fine since.

 

Apparently digital tolerances are more demanding than film which is thicker than the sensors.

 

Should not be a big deal really.

 

Ed

[JimKasson]

It is quite simple. Both body and camera are adjusted to a standard, but like any mechanical process there is a +/- tolerance span. By matching the lens and body one can get the tolerances to cancel each other. It is not needed for any "normal" lens as any miniscule misfocus will not be visible due to DOF, but as I said, lenses with exceedingly narrow DOF wide open can benefit. If your focussing technique is good enough.

 

Good explanation. Another variable is focus shift with aperture setting, admittedly very low with Leica lenses -- it has to be, or the rangefinder wouldn't work right.

 

One of the great things about the M240 is that, thanks to live view, it's easy to check the rangefinder accuracy.

[luigi bertolotti]

how many of you have this type of experience , matching body and lens to narrow down the tolerance ? would love to hear some details . thanks

 

Happened to me, but with very old (and bought used) lenses... a Summicron 90 of 1977 and an even older Tele Elmarit 135 (this one, "calibrated' by myself...

[thighslapper]

As Jim says ......you have focus peaking and live view on an M !!!!

 

Use it !

 

You can check the near and distance calibration of all your lenses if you stick it on a tripod and do some careful systematic comparisons ........

 

I have readjusted my rangefinder mechanism as a result and all my lenses are now ok apart from my 75/2 ..... which I have always had 'problems' with ..... and is obviously front focussing by 3cm at 1 metre when checked with LV..... which explains a lot.

 

LV with Focus Peaking is a very handy tool and makes rangefinder adjustment much easier and more accurate. The 50/0.95 has significant focus shift between 0.95 and 1.4 ..... which is very obvious with focus peaking ... and allows you to adjust to a compromise value that makes 0.95 and smaller apertures both fall within the DOF of the lens. Otherwise this would much more difficult to achieve.

[algrove]

 

LV with Focus Peaking is a very handy tool and makes rangefinder adjustment much easier and more accurate. The 50/0.95 has significant focus shift between 0.95 and 1.4 ..... which is very obvious with focus peaking ... and allows you to adjust to a compromise value that makes 0.95 and smaller apertures both fall within the DOF of the lens. Otherwise this would much more difficult to achieve.

 

Wish I knew how to do that. And then wish I had the guts to try it.

[leica1215]

LV with Focus Peaking is a very handy tool and makes rangefinder adjustment much easier and more accurate. The 50/0.95 has significant focus shift between 0.95 and 1.4 ..... which is very obvious with focus peaking ... and allows you to adjust to a compromise value that makes 0.95 and smaller apertures both fall within the DOF of the lens. Otherwise this would much more difficult to achieve.

 

so, it seems that.95 noctilux can't perform well unless it has been matched with the body??

[JeTexas]

After eight months and a couple of trips with my M9 I noticed my rangefinder patches were no longer matching up at infinity (although I hadn't really noticed the focus being off in my photos). It was $80 to have the rangefinder re-calibrated.

 

It was very obvious that it was the body at fault since focus at infinity was not lined up no matter which lens was on the camera, so they didn't need a lens to recalibrate it.

[thighslapper]

so, it seems that.95 noctilux can't perform well unless it has been matched with the body??

 

Depends whether you want 'perfection' or 'good enough'

 

..... also it is not clear with focus peaking as to how the 'peaked area' correlates with DOF and whether the 'peaked' fore and aft limits represent genuine 'in focus' .... I have not checked carefully enough to be sure. With the 50/0.95 the middle of the focussed area does shift a fair bit when aperture is changed from 0.95 to 1.4 .... and you would expect it to have been adjusted so the focus point still lies within the DOF at each setting. The situation is partly mitigated by the softness of the lens at 0.95 when used close up (1-1.5m) which makes it difficult to tell if things are really 'sharp' anyway ...... this softness diminishes rapidly at further distances and at f1.2 and above.... where the shallow DOF becomes less critical.

 

There are very few complaints about misaligned/miscalibrated Noctiluxes .... they are assembled by a dedicated handful of technicians. If things are not right it is usually rangefinder calibration. I now tend to adjust my rangefinder using the Noctilux first and then re-check with the 135/3.4 ... and then I can guarantee that if it is right for these then any problems with other lenses are due to the lens not the camera. Leica used to use the 50/2 for QC rangefinder checks ....... but I prefer to use these two more critical lenses ..... and a magnifier to check alignment at infinity..... doing this without is quite difficult if you want to be spot on...... and you have to be certain vertical alignment is exact otherwise you will never get a clear coincident image. Adjusting that is easy if you have the tool ..... which is cheap on eBay.

 

Not difficult, enlightening, and hours of harmless amusement .

 

ps. the adjustment screw for near is now 'glooped' in place some black loctite type stuff that renders it immovable unless dissolved with solvent .... I used Butanol ....but I suspect Acetone would do.

[jaapv]

In my experience with very long lenses (up to 560) focus peaking is exceedingly accurate, more so than a SLR screen. It is a bit of a learning curve, though and one must indeed place the focus "in the middle".