essvaun Posted April 19, 2016 Share #1  Posted April 19, 2016 Advertisement (gone after registration) Firstly apologies if this is covered elsewhere, I looked but couldn't see anything. I think I have an issue with the camera but I'm not terribly technically proficient so I thought I'd ask.  As I focus closer with my 50mm lens on my M3, somewhere around the 0.90 mark on the lens, the rangefinder patch stops moving. It doesn't move again all the way until I hit the 0.70 mark, the limit for the lens. When I turn the barrel back the other way, the rangefinder patch doesn't engage until I hit the 0.90 mark. When I put the same lens on my M9-P, it works perfectly.  Am I right in assuming this means there is an issue with the rangefinder mechanism on the M3, rather than with the lens, which in every other respect seems A1? It has me confused as the M3 is in really good condition, is used regularly if not heavily, was serviced by Youxin Ye about two years ago & hasn't been dropped.  Any thoughts/advice appreciated, TIA. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Advertisement Posted April 19, 2016 Posted April 19, 2016 Hi essvaun, Take a look here Camera or Lens? M3, Summicron 50mm version 5.. I'm sure you'll find what you were looking for!
adan Posted April 19, 2016 Share #2  Posted April 19, 2016 M3 cameras (or at least early ones) had a built-in limit at 0.9 meters (actually, 1 meter, with a bit of leeway). In the 1950's, it just wasn't considered - appropriate - to use a rangefinder camera closer than that, due to focus tolerances, and framing parallax (what you saw through the finder was not what the lens saw, from 2 inches down and to the right). The camera's arm that follows the lens movement was intentionally blocked by a stop at ~1m. (And lenses of the era were similarly limited).  If you really needed closer focusing, you bought a "Dual-Range" 50 Summicron DR, that could be focused closer, with goggles to improve framing and focusing accuracy. Kinda like today's Macro 90:  https://www.cameraquest.com/jpg5/lm50dr5.jpg  At some point, due to competitive pressure (the arrival of the first Nikon and Pentax SLRs, with ttl viewing/focusing down to ~0.5 meter), Leitz decided that, well, maybe M bodies could be used down to .7 meters. I don't know if ANY M3s ever came from the factory with .7 meter focusing (a history buff will know).  M3s can be converted to 0.7m focusing - just involves a service tech doing something to the physical stop-pin. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
TomB_tx Posted April 19, 2016 Share #3 Â Posted April 19, 2016 The M3 model originally only focused to 1 meter, same as the earlier models. Most can be adjusted by a camera tech to focus closer, but for now your M3 is working as it did originally. Oops, Adan types faster than I do... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
essvaun Posted April 19, 2016 Author Share #4  Posted April 19, 2016 Thank you both for your responses, it makes perfect sense! Also Adan - fantastic images on your site, enjoyed looking through them. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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