M10 Alignment Issue at Infinity

[theonepantless]

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Excuse me if this issue has been posted numerous times before, while searching I only found issues where the patch is out of focus at infinity but the image is in focus.

I am having an issue with my M10 + 35 Lux FLE where the image is in focus when the patch is aligned in the OVF. However at infinity when looking super far away the patch does not line up and a double image is seen, images taken at infinity are also out of focus as a result. I believe the patch is going past infinity. If I back focus a little bit then the image is aligned and produces a sharp image. 

I did recently have the horizonal alignment adjusted so that images are sharp once the patch is aligned (it was slightly back focused). Does this mean that I performed the horizontal adjustments incorrectly or could it be my lens that needs to be calibrated? Unfortunately I do not have another lens I can use to test.

[jaapv]

Welcome! It means that you must send your camera and lens to  somebody who knows how to calibrate Leica cameras and lenses. If you can wait a few weeks to Leica who will likely not charge you, if you are in a hurry to a third-party repair person.

[Adam Bonn]

Either whoever adjusted the roller moved it too far, or the original problem was (and still is) the orientation of the arm

when you say ‘past infinity’ are you focusing on something truly far away (a star or the moon is a good subject)

When you say ‘not in focus at infinity’ do you mean when the rangefinder indicates infinity or when the lens is on the hard stop?

[theonepantless]

6 hours ago, Adam Bonn said:

Either whoever adjusted the roller moved it too far, or the original problem was (and still is) the orientation of the arm

when you say ‘past infinity’ are you focusing on something truly far away (a star or the moon is a good subject)

When you say ‘not in focus at infinity’ do you mean when the rangefinder indicates infinity or when the lens is on the hard stop?

Originally the images were slightly back focused where even if the patch was aligned perfectly the photos that came out of the camera was just slightly out of focus. That problem has since been fixed after the horizontal adjustments and the pictures are coming out perfect. So I am guessing it must be the orientation of the arm as you said. 

Past infinity I am looking at something that is at least 2-3 miles away maybe even more. Usually tall city buildings from across a river and the next town over. But the same also happens when I look at the stars and moon.

The range finder lens is at the hard stop and on the distance scale 1.4 is aligned with the infinity sign. 

[Infantasy]

please take a look at 

 

 

[Adam Bonn]

7 hours ago, theonepantless said:

Originally the images were slightly back focused where even if the patch was aligned perfectly the photos that came out of the camera was just slightly out of focus. That problem has since been fixed after the horizontal adjustments and the pictures are coming out perfect. So I am guessing it must be the orientation of the arm as you said. 

Past infinity I am looking at something that is at least 2-3 miles away maybe even more. Usually tall city buildings from across a river and the next town over. But the same also happens when I look at the stars and moon.

The range finder lens is at the hard stop and on the distance scale 1.4 is aligned with the infinity sign. 

If it were me (and I appreciate it’s not) I’d use a hex key to turn the roller on the end of the arm until infinity lined up ok (I’d use a star for this)

Then I’d see if I had any problems focusing at closer distances 

I find the rangefinder quite tolerant of small amounts of miss alignment at closer “normal” distances

So if your ghost patch is going past infinity then it’s front focusing, but as DOF tends to extend further beyond the focus point than in front if it, you might that fixing the infinity focus doesn’t do any harm to your shots taken at more typical distances

That said.. if your lens is at the hard stop, that really should be infinity, so that could be the culprit

Is it a leica lens?

[theonepantless]

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11 minutes ago, Adam Bonn said:

If it were me (and I appreciate it’s not) I’d use a hex key to turn the roller on the end of the arm until infinity lined up ok (I’d use a star for this)

Then I’d see if I had any problems focusing at closer distances 

I find the rangefinder quite tolerant of small amounts of miss alignment at closer “normal” distances

So if your ghost patch is going past infinity then it’s front focusing, but as DOF tends to extend further beyond the focus point than in front if it, you might that fixing the infinity focus doesn’t do any harm to your shots taken at more typical distances

That said.. if your lens is at the hard stop, that really should be infinity, so that could be the culprit

Is it a leica lens?

I did make plans to send the lens to Don at DAG first thing Monday. Might be better for an expert to take a look. Before the horizontal alignment was adjusted the patch was lining up at infinity fine however images were slightly back focused at all distances. It was pretty noticeable. The lens is a Leica 35mm Summilux FLE. I might give what you say a try before I hand it off to the technician. 😀

[theonepantless]

@Adam Bonn and @Infantasy 

I was actually able to fix it myself thanks to you guys. It was the horizontal alignment after all. I did not realize how small of a twist is required to make a huge impact for alignment at infinity. All the camera needed was a tiny tiny turn towards the OVF and it was good as new.