fursan Posted August 1, 2007 Share #1 Posted August 1, 2007 Advertisement (gone after registration) while i am slowly getting to feel my way around the m8 and lenses, i keep reading on this forum that folks sent their M8 and one or more lenses to Solms for focus fixing etc. is this a common practice? do you have to send each lens to be tested with your m8 to ensure it is spot on? would not fixing one lens and m8 combination throw the other lenses out? When and how do you know your equipment needs fine tuning? i can easily do focus tests for each lens, but how can i be sure the set-up is ' spot on ' as some of you mention. How many of you have bought lenses that have been ' spot on ' from the box? from what i read in these discussions, it seems very few!! i have never sent any of my nikon cams or lenses for not being ' spot on '. i do know a few friends who have though. very few. with leica it seems you guys are prepared to bend over backwards to accept shoody quality control as a price of being with leica. please tell me i am wrong so that i can concentrate on my images and not on my equipment. that is the reason i bought leica in the first place. i do not want to have a nagging doubt that i have a less than optimum leica system. Thanks. Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Advertisement Posted August 1, 2007 Posted August 1, 2007 Hi fursan, Take a look here Fixing M8 for each Lens?. I'm sure you'll find what you were looking for!
stunsworth Posted August 1, 2007 Share #2 Posted August 1, 2007 Fahim I don't think it's a common practise. Yes some people have sent their cameras off for calibration, but I'd expect them to be a small monority of purchasers. As for knowing whether your camera needs calibration, there's an easy way to determine that, look at the photographs it takes <grin>. If they look ok then I wouldn't worry too much. Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaapv Posted August 1, 2007 Share #3 Posted August 1, 2007 I understand your concern and find the number of posts on this topic disturbing as well, but when we look at this more closely it is not as alarming as it might seem. We need to separate the real issues from the mistakes. A number of users are completely new to rangefinders and are going through the same growing pains we old dogs went through ages ago - not looking into the viewfinder straight, not realizing a rangefinder needs better corrected eyesight than a SLR, and certainly than AF, etc. I would put the number of users with real issues - and don't get me wrong- those are real, annoying issues that should not happen!- at about ten to twenty. The vast -and non-posting!!- majority, with maybe 10.000 M8's sold and on average 3 new(ish) lenses per camera have no problems whatsover and that makes a quite good ratio for quality control - but the name Leica makes us expect 100% instead of 99.9%. Then there are those users that take the opportunity of viewing 100% crops at 20 cm distance for having their lenses adjusted to values well within the tolerances. If this has any impact on the prints from these lenses remains to be seen, but I inderstand that - I'm a perfectionist myself. For my part, I did not have one lens that needed correction, but the 90 AA I bought used had to be adjusted by its previous owner. Fazit - (this is a German forum, after all;)) The chance of getting maladjusted lenses its rather small, but if it happens it is a pain in the proverbial donkey. Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
fursan Posted August 1, 2007 Author Share #4 Posted August 1, 2007 Steve, Jaap Thanks for your replies. that's a relief!! my 28/35/75 'crons are ok. i am having problems with my 50 'lux though. have you found that to be the case? Regards. Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaapv Posted August 1, 2007 Share #5 Posted August 1, 2007 It's a difficult lens to focus wide open. Before you start photographing tape-measures, try it with the Megaperls 1.35x magnifier. Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
stunsworth Posted August 1, 2007 Share #6 Posted August 1, 2007 I don't have a 50mm Lux I;m afraid. Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaapv Posted August 1, 2007 Share #7 Posted August 1, 2007 Advertisement (gone after registration) i have never sent any of my nikon cams or lenses for not being ' spot on '. i do know a few friends who have though. very few. . A few years ago about 60% of the threads on the Canon forums was back-focus complaints, camera's and lenses being sent in,etc. That seems to have died down, but I understand there is a spate of Autofocus complaints for the Canon 1DsIII rising now... It happens all the time, to any brand and I fear it is a fact of this digital age that even Leica is not spared. The Internet magnifies everything out of proportion. Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
fursan Posted August 1, 2007 Author Share #8 Posted August 1, 2007 Thanks guys. i do have the x1.25 magnifier. i guess a visit to an optician is on the cards. what we have to do to use a leica, eh? nearer than solms! regards. Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaapv Posted August 1, 2007 Share #9 Posted August 1, 2007 I don't have a 50mm Lux I;m afraid. Nor I; I tried one for a week but returned it to the shop; I preferred the 75. I had the pre-asph for years, but no M8 back then... Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
stunsworth Posted August 1, 2007 Share #10 Posted August 1, 2007 Why was that Jaap? I only ask because I tried one with my M6 when it was first released and was very impressed. Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaapv Posted August 1, 2007 Share #11 Posted August 1, 2007 It was not the lens, Steve, that was superb. It was too close to the 35 in FOV. And I was very impressed with the 1.4 plasticity of the 75, which I tried at the same time; my dealer gave me both to try out, so I had to choose. Had I followed my GAS instead of my common sense, I would have bought both; but the mental image of my bank manager kept me from doing so... Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
stunsworth Posted August 1, 2007 Share #12 Posted August 1, 2007 That seems reasonable Jaap <grin>, thanks for passing on your thoughts. Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Samir Jahjah Posted August 1, 2007 Share #13 Posted August 1, 2007 Steve, Jaap Thanks for your replies. that's a relief!! my 28/35/75 'crons are ok. i am having problems with my 50 'lux though. have you found that to be the case? Regards. Fursan, All my lenses focus properly on my M8, except for my 50mm Asph lux. It is significantly off: if I focus an object at 2 meters, the plan of focus will be off by 1 meter. So this lux needs a trip to Solms. Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
KM-25 Posted August 1, 2007 Share #14 Posted August 1, 2007 Fursan, All my lenses focus properly on my M8, except for my 50mm Asph lux. It is significantly off: if I focus an object at 2 meters, the plan of focus will be off by 1 meter. So this lux needs a trip to Solms. New Jersey can't do this work? I have an M8 on order. If it is off with my 50 aspheric, the camera will be returned, I can't be without the lens for more than a few days, it is a work lens. My M8 gets here tomorrow, I really hope I don't have the back focus issues, that is pretty much an M8 deal killer for me... Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
KM-25 Posted August 1, 2007 Share #15 Posted August 1, 2007 It's a difficult lens to focus wide open. Before you start photographing tape-measures, try it with the Megaperls 1.35x magnifier. I use it every day with my M6, MP3, even at 1.4 it snaps into perfect focus with just one twist...for me anyway. Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
fursan Posted August 1, 2007 Author Share #16 Posted August 1, 2007 thanks Samir, I shall try focusing at various distances tomorrow on a tripod once again. Fursan, All my lenses focus properly on my M8, except for my 50mm Asph lux. It is significantly off: if I focus an object at 2 meters, the plan of focus will be off by 1 meter. So this lux needs a trip to Solms. Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
fursan Posted August 1, 2007 Author Share #17 Posted August 1, 2007 Could it be a digital only problem? I use it every day with my M6, MP3, even at 1.4 it snaps into perfect focus with just one twist...for me anyway. Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest tummydoc Posted August 1, 2007 Share #18 Posted August 1, 2007 I have an enormous collection of Leica lenses, so many I've not had the opportunity to try them all on my M8 as yet. Those I have tried, nearly two dozen at last count, focus correctly. Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
luigi bertolotti Posted August 1, 2007 Share #19 Posted August 1, 2007 I have a Summilux 50 very old (1961) : on the M8, even at 1,4, seems to me perfect from 2mt onwards... under this a little problem arises...little, I say... at f2 or 2,8 you can't notice it. Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
teehas53 Posted August 1, 2007 Share #20 Posted August 1, 2007 My M8 gets here tomorrow, I really hope I don't have the back focus issues, that is pretty much an M8 deal killer for me... To echo what Jaap said, I think you'll find those issues are not as widespread as it might seem from some of the forum posts. But fair warning, there is a learning curve with this camera, even for experienced pros and Leica film users. You're unlikely to get the best out of it in the first 50 frames, as you might with a high-end DSLR. Out of 13 lenses (Leica, CV & Zeiss,) I've only found one with any kind of problem. 75 Cron, latest generation - it backfocuses on me by a couple of inches only at MINIMUM focus distance and is only really a problem wide open. Had the lens tested and there's nothing obviously wrong. Since the camera seems to focus everything else spot-on, I've just learned to keep this in mind with this lens. Thankfully, we now have chimping to the rescue... Now, I don't question those who have had real problems. But I also think there are some folks who are just never satisfied. If it could be demonstrated to me that there was truly a problem with my M8 body, of course I'd have it fixed. But I'm not willing to ship my camera all the way to Germany and wait who-knows-how-long for it to return, based on "maybe it'll be .02% better." I'd much rather be out shooting! T Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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