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Rangefinder Calibration


Paul J

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All my lenses seem to go beyond infinity. What I mean by this, is that everything should be in focus at infinity (at distant objects), but they all go that little bit further and the focus then becomes blurred. Not in the image, just the viewfinder. Will the discussed adjustment, solve this problem?

If your images are sharp don't touch it.

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For fear if sounding like a record stuck in a groove ...... RF adjustment is not difficult once you grasp the principles and know what to do ........ once you have done it, it should take no more than half an hour and you can then be certain it is how YOU want it ..... and ok for YOUR lenses....

 

I would no more send my M9 in for RF calibration than I would for Sensor Cleaning .... :rolleyes:

 

...... and before there are the usual moans about 'voiding the warranty' ..... unless you are completely ham-fisted and mangle the screw, Leica will never know you have attemped it .....

 

This sounds VERY tempting. I life in South America, so sending he camera in means a lot of expensive shipping back and forth, longer than usual delays and the risk of the gear getting stuck in customs.

 

I'll review the post in detail. In the meantime a couple of questions:

 

(1) Is there any specific tool I need for the MM and the M240? If so, any suggestions of where to get them?

 

(2) I was under the understanding that calibrating the rangefinder in digital M's required a computer and specialized software. Is this then not the case?

 

Thanks.

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how do you avoid this, or alternatively, what is the best way to change lenses ?

I heard that moving lenses to infinity before mounting or unmounting helps ?

 

I heard many theories about the focusing ring positions. Some recommend to put it at MFD, others at infinity, but I don't buy any of that.

 

However, bumping the roller is a frequent occurence and should be avoided. In fact, it is difficult not to bump the roller with the protruding part of the mount while mounting it to the body. I take extra care to make sure this doesn't happen by carefully aligning the red dots, or even starting to rotate the lens at the 8 o'clock position. In fact if the lens red dot is anywhere beyond the 9 o'clock position, the mount will bump the roller. Hope this is clear because my english isn't that great :)

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This sounds VERY tempting. I life in South America, so sending he camera in means a lot of expensive shipping back and forth, longer than usual delays and the risk of the gear getting stuck in customs.

 

I'll review the post in detail. In the meantime a couple of questions:

 

(1) Is there any specific tool I need for the MM and the M240? If so, any suggestions of where to get them?

 

(2) I was under the understanding that calibrating the rangefinder in digital M's required a computer and specialized software. Is this then not the case?

 

Thanks.

 

The only thing you need on the M240 is the EVF.

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Allen key for the roller for infinity

Screwdriver with a slight bevel for the near lock screw

A lens you are confident is correctly calibrated ...... Minimum 50mm focal length

A logical mind

Patience

 

Julians long post linked by magosak above tells you everything

 

On the 240 you will need some solvent to loosen the locking material ...... I used butanol, but I suspect most of the usual paint solvents would work. Used it again at the end to seal the screw in place.

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Changing lenses may be what is going wrong. A shoot will usually have several lens changes and when the pressure is on, while I always do it with care, it's not something that gets done with the soft step of a ballerina.

 

That said, lens changes are a stupid reason for focus to fall out of calibration.

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Changing lenses may be what is going wrong. A shoot will usually have several lens changes and when the pressure is on, while I always do it with care, it's not something that gets done with the soft step of a ballerina.

 

That said, lens changes are a stupid reason for focus to fall out of calibration.

 

Unfortunately it's a precision mechanical device and any bumps/shocks can reduce its accuracy. I don't think it's stupid, it's just the way it is. If there was a way to make it stronger I'm sure Leica would have implemented it. The only other option is LV and that can't be bumped out of whack :)

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Unfortunately it's a precision mechanical device and any bumps/shocks can reduce its accuracy. I don't think it's stupid, it's just the way it is. If there was a way to make it stronger I'm sure Leica would have implemented it. The only other option is LV and that can't be bumped out of whack :)

 

Eau contrer. That LV/EVF is more fragile than you think.

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Eau contrer. That LV/EVF is more fragile than you think.

 

How is that? It doesn't involve any moving parts except for the shutter, and you get to focus with the image the sensor is seeing. How can you bump that out of calibration?

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How is that? It doesn't involve any moving parts except for the shutter, and you get to focus with the image the sensor is seeing. How can you bump that out of calibration?

 

One good bump the wrong way while in use and it's toast. I Tempest Tested different cameras for the military for a number of years. The EVF if dropped can go out rather suddenly too.

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One good bump the wrong way while in use and it's toast. I Tempest Tested different cameras for the military for a number of years. The EVF if dropped can go out rather suddenly too.

In that case it will not yield false positives, I would presume, but simply not return any results at all.

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In that case it will not yield false positives, I would presume, but simply not return any results at all.

 

Correct. The EVF can get thrown out slightly but that is an internal screen fault.

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The LCD of an EVF is behind a few optic elements IIRC (i.e. most obvious in Sony RX100mk3), so if they move the image might not look in focus. But otherwise what is on the LCD is direct from the Sensor, so by definition that can't really be out of adjustment.

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Changing lenses may be what is going wrong. A shoot will usually have several lens changes and when the pressure is on, while I always do it with care, it's not something that gets done with the soft step of a ballerina.

 

That said, lens changes are a stupid reason for focus to fall out of calibration.

 

I have a 25mm screw mount lens and the cheap ltm-m adapter that came with it doesn't lock into the camera mount properly - which caused my alignment to go out, horizontally.

 

The 75mm screw mount lens with voigtlænder adapter is just fine though, so now I use that for both.

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