Two old lenses

[tobey bilek]

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I am a fan of small lenses.   In the 1980`s  I worked near the largest USA Leica dealer.  I purchased a 90 2.0 when first introduced and a nice clean 135 4.0 tele elmar.  The 135 was nice for close work as the head removes unlike the new APO version.  The 90 was too big and used 3 times in 30 years.

 

I thought I might try them on digital and see how they work wide open.  135 was right on and very well focused.  90 back focused a little.   Try 2:  manually adjust focus a tad closer and it was right on.  I might live that way or send it in for coding and have focus adjusted or shim the focus mount with aluminum foil,  a trick I used in the past on Chinese focus mounts.

 

Then I decided to use one more try but I focused on a vertical line that went through the RF patch, line up the outside patch with inside.   Both lenses came out perfectly and I was amazed at how well they worked.   They will not be worked on.  

 

The lesson to me at least is use the line method rather than  image merge when things are critical.  

[Maarten]

Thanks Tobey for sharing your experiences.

Although the modern rangefinders are improved in this respect, it remains important to have your eye looking straight through the centre of the viewfinder. You will notice that when you pay more attention to how you position your eye behind the viewfinder, your focusing results will improve. I don't want to be mentoring here, just share my experiences... I struggled a lot over time with getting the focus right.

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[tobey bilek]

Agreed, straight on.  But there is insufficient resolution inside the patch for many subjects.  A continuous line is easier to interpret.  BTW,  my eyes test 20/20.

[bocaburger]

I had the opposite experience, my 90/2 (the final, e55-filter version) has been spot-on with digital, whereas my 135 T-E was not.  Unfortunately shimming was not an option, as the lens cell needed to be brought closer to the focal plane, not farther away.  Fortunately my T-E is the older type with removable head, and I was able to mill it down so it seats closer.  That then required readjusting the mount so the aperture and focus indeces lined up.  Now spot-on as well.  

 

As to focusing, if there is one downfall to the rangefinder it is that subjects lacking sharp lines, or with repeating patterns, are difficult.  Sometimes focusing by contrast works better than by details, but sometimes I need to focus on a more rfdr-friendly facsimile object at what I guesstimate to be the same distance as my intended subject, then recompose.