photolandscape Posted March 22, 2014 Share #1 Posted March 22, 2014 Advertisement (gone after registration) My 10 month-old M is just back from 8 weeks with Leica in NJ. My complaint: significant red edging, even after installing the latest FW upgrade late last year--but it only was an issue with my one year-old seemingly perfect/correctly coded 35mm Summicron ASPH. As reported in this Forum, the red edging issue ended for many people thanks to the revised FW -- but not in my case. I sent my lenses, including my 35mm 'Cron, to NJ with some printed samples and a description of what I was seeing. Leica spent the first four weeks on the M--replacing the sensor and circuit board. They adjusted my rangefinder -- I can see a difference there -- and they checked over my lenses for another four weeks. But the red edging was still there after all of this time and effort. As a last resort I visited my local dealer (who sold me the M but not the 'Cron) and mounted brand new coded samples of the: 24mm Elmar ASPH, 28mm Elmarit, 35mm Summarit, and the dealer's 35mm 'Cron. None of them -- including the dealer's 35mm 'Cron -- exhibited any trace of red edging. I then put my 35mm 'Cron on the camera, and guess what? The red edging was back. I don't have the slightest idea why. After all of the down time and waiting and wondering, it appears the lens is the culprit. I wrote to the dealer I obtained it from and am awaiting his response. I just want to get back to making images. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Advertisement Posted March 22, 2014 Posted March 22, 2014 Hi photolandscape, Take a look here Red Edging with My M and 35 'Cron: Problem Solved?. I'm sure you'll find what you were looking for!
jrh68uk Posted March 22, 2014 Share #2 Posted March 22, 2014 The first thing that comes to mind is that, perhaps, the camera doesn't recognise the code on your 35 'cron. Can you verify that the camera is recording the lens details as they should be? I had an odd thing happen once with my M9. It was a couple of years ago and the firmware has since been updated; even so, it only happened once. I shot a few images in fairly quick (for me) succession with my 35 'cron and saw that one of them had very noticeable red edging. None of the others did and no images had prior or since. I put it down to the firmware "forgetting" to apply the lens correction in that single instance, since the lens code had been correctly read and identified in the file. It sounds different to your issue as yours is consistent. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaapv Posted March 23, 2014 Share #3 Posted March 23, 2014 The only possibility I can think of is that the mount of your lens is out of alignment. I would send the lens to Wetzlar with specifically this question together with sample photographs. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
pgk Posted March 23, 2014 Share #4 Posted March 23, 2014 .....and the dealer's 35mm 'Cron. None of them -- including the dealer's 35mm 'Cron -- exhibited any trace of red edging. I then put my 35mm 'Cron on the camera, and guess what? The red edging was back...... Lens problem. You've clearly eliminated any other possibilities. Send it in like jaapv says. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
sandymc Posted March 23, 2014 Share #5 Posted March 23, 2014 Firstly, as suggested above, check that the lens is being recognized as what it should be in the DNG; either no recognition or recognition as the wrong lens could cause what you see. Secondly, check that the lens is focusing correctly across the field, etc. If it isn't then you have a problem with the lens. If it is focusing ok, and there's no apparent problem other than red edge, then you might have a difficult problem. Red edge can vary dramatically in between individual samples of lenses - unfortunately there's not much that can be done about that. Sandy Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaapv Posted March 24, 2014 Share #6 Posted March 24, 2014 Some time ago there was a thread on the German forum by a member who had applied 0.5 mm (IIRC) mm tape to the lens mount on one side. He scored two results : non- red edge lenses developed an Italian flag and on affected lenses the problem was reduced. Thus the alignment of the mount appears to be critical. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
250swb Posted March 24, 2014 Share #7 Posted March 24, 2014 Advertisement (gone after registration) Thus the alignment of the mount appears to be critical. Many times sticky notchy focus can be cured by loosening the screws of the lens mount and re-tightening them carefully and slowly opposite screw to opposite screw, perhaps doing the same to re-centre the mount may work for 'red edge'? From new my 35mm Asph had sticky focus, as had a two month old second hand 28 Summicron, both cured by doing the above, so Leica may not give enough attention to squaring up the mount as they should? Leica NJ may have looked at the lens, but did they actually do anything? Steve Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaapv Posted March 24, 2014 Share #8 Posted March 24, 2014 I once went over all my lenses with a little torque wrench to tighten all screws to 25 N/cm, and I found the torques were all over the place ranging from nearly loose to far too tight. There were a few nearly-new lenses there and they were as bad as the rest. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
sandymc Posted March 24, 2014 Share #9 Posted March 24, 2014 To minimize red-edge, among other things, the optical axis of the lens should be at the center of the sensor, and perpendicular to the sensor. (Visualize a line running through the center of your lens, as the light flows. That line should be at 90 degrees to the sensor, and centered on it.) Problem is that achieving that is a nasty 3-d puzzle. Shims or just loosening and tightening the mount can help, but it's really tricky to get right. Among other things, the optical axis of the lens isn't necessarily the physical axis, and the position that minimizes red edge might not be the position that is best for focus accuracy across the field, or distortion across the field. Also, the sensor might not be quite flat with respect to the camera's lens mount (it too has shims, etc). So it's all a bit difficult.... Back pre microlenses, etc this really didn't matter too much. But now it does, because microlens performance is angle critical. Part of why CornerFix works (reasonably) well is that it computes the optical center of the individual lens you're building a profile for, and uses that as part of the profile. Leica's in-camera profiles are for a typical lens, so can't do that. Sandy Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
photolandscape Posted March 25, 2014 Author Share #10 Posted March 25, 2014 The first thing that comes to mind is that, perhaps, the camera doesn't recognise the code on your 35 'cron. Can you verify that the camera is recording the lens details as they should be? I had an odd thing happen once with my M9. It was a couple of years ago and the firmware has since been updated; even so, it only happened once. I shot a few images in fairly quick (for me) succession with my 35 'cron and saw that one of them had very noticeable red edging. None of the others did and no images had prior or since. I put it down to the firmware "forgetting" to apply the lens correction in that single instance, since the lens code had been correctly read and identified in the file. It sounds different to your issue as yours is consistent. Thanks, did check and it recognizes the code correctly. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
photolandscape Posted March 25, 2014 Author Share #11 Posted March 25, 2014 Firstly, as suggested above, check that the lens is being recognized as what it should be in the DNG; either no recognition or recognition as the wrong lens could cause what you see. Secondly, check that the lens is focusing correctly across the field, etc. If it isn't then you have a problem with the lens. If it is focusing ok, and there's no apparent problem other than red edge, then you might have a difficult problem. Red edge can vary dramatically in between individual samples of lenses - unfortunately there's not much that can be done about that. Sandy Thanks Sandy. The body consistently recognizes the lens as the correct model--the latest 35mm Summicron ASPH. I will run some tests tomorrow but based on the thousands of shots I have made with the camera and lens, and being a highly critical person when it comes to sharpness, I haven't noticed any issues in terms of consistent sharpness across the field. Contacted the dealer (Europe) and they say to send it to Germany. I need to be shooting pictures, not spending weeks without my camera and lenses, but I suppose I'll have to send it this week. Have to figure out the address and whose attention to send it to. Thanks again. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaapv Posted March 25, 2014 Share #12 Posted March 25, 2014 Leica Camera AG Leica Customer Care Am Leitz-Park 5 35578 Wetzlar I would mail with the full story to them as well attn of Andrea Frankl. customer.care<at>leica-camera.com Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
photolandscape Posted March 25, 2014 Author Share #13 Posted March 25, 2014 Leica Camera AGLeica Customer Care Am Leitz-Park 5 35578 Wetzlar I would mail with the full story to them as well attn of Andrea Frankl. customer.care<at>leica-camera.com Thanks so much, greatly appreciate it. I am in the US, the lens was purchased through a dealer in the UK in November 2012, so I hope the warranty still applies. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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