Using Leica APO-Summicron-M 35mm on Film cameras

[dsetiono01]

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Some quick updates on this topic. At first I was going to send it directly to the service center (which is just a forwarding agent to Wetzlar), but I made another stop at the Leica gallery where I bought it from, and to my shock, when I tried it on their display Film Bodies, they all work! I tried it on their M6 Reissue, a brand new MP Silver, and very shocking to see the rangefinder mechanism work perfectly on their Film bodies.

I guess my Black Paint mp is busted...But its been working fine and RF alignment was perfect with all other lenses, just that it doesnt play nicely with the 35 APO. This makes the real cause of the issue really difficult to pin down.....not sure how many different permutations/ tests/ body-lens combination they need to check to nail down the root cause.

[wizard]

vor 13 Stunden schrieb dsetiono01:

not sure how many different permutations/ tests/ body-lens combination they need to check to nail down the root cause.

To the best of my knowledge, this is a known problem. It has to do with the position of the cam roller at the camera relative to the lens. Sometimes the cam roller sits just a little too high and thus does not come into contact with the lens' rangefinder cam. It is an easy fix, really, and only requires a slight height repositioning of the cam roller.

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[dsetiono01]

1 hour ago, wizard said:

To the best of my knowledge, this is a known problem. It has to do with the position of the cam roller at the camera relative to the lens. Sometimes the cam roller sits just a little too high and thus does not come into contact with the lens' rangefinder cam. It is an easy fix, really, and only requires a slight height repositioning of the cam roller.

That makes  sense. I kind of suspected its something to do with the roller position & shouldn't need a lot of time to fix. I'm just glad the lens was not the issue.

In the mean time, on a slightly happy note, I was able to secure myself (surprisingly!) a Re-issued M6 today and fortunately the set plays nicely with the lens!

[MarkTodd]

On 12/19/2022 at 7:33 AM, wizard said:

To the best of my knowledge, this is a known problem. It has to do with the position of the cam roller at the camera relative to the lens. Sometimes the cam roller sits just a little too high and thus does not come into contact with the lens' rangefinder cam. It is an easy fix, really, and only requires a slight height repositioning of the cam roller.

I just sent my M6 Reissue to Leica service to have the roller cam adjusted after spending time at my Leica dealer testing my APO 35mm on their M6 were it worked perfectly.  Hopefully it's a simple fix.

[MarkTodd]

It turned out the fix was not the roller cam on my new M6, but on my new APO 35mm.  Leica had both my M6 and APO 35mm for over two month and I finally received them back this week.  The repair ended up being the replacement of the Focusing Mount on the APO 35mm.  Happy to report the focusing now works perfectly.

[darlesch]

Sadly, I have the same problem from an Aug 2022 manufactured MP. Like everyone else the rangefinder fails to couple closer than distances of 1.5 - 2 metres. Infinity to this point works fine. The lens curiously works perfectly with my M-A and M2 (and my digital body). Leica told me a 12 week turnaround time to inspect the body (they didn't ask me to send in the lens, I got a technician to confirm this). Of course, 12 weeks could turn into 6 months. I elected not to send the body in because it works perfectly fine otherwise. I have my other bodies to use with the 35 APO.

On 12/19/2022 at 11:43 AM, dsetiono01 said:

That makes  sense. I kind of suspected its something to do with the roller position & shouldn't need a lot of time to fix. I'm just glad the lens was not the issue.

In the mean time, on a slightly happy note, I was able to secure myself (surprisingly!) a Re-issued M6 today and fortunately the set plays nicely with the lens!

Just wondering if you got your issue resolved? Did you end up sending in your MP with or without lens?

[dsetiono01]

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10 hours ago, darlesch said:

Sadly, I have the same problem from an Aug 2022 manufactured MP. Like everyone else the rangefinder fails to couple closer than distances of 1.5 - 2 metres. Infinity to this point works fine. The lens curiously works perfectly with my M-A and M2 (and my digital body). Leica told me a 12 week turnaround time to inspect the body (they didn't ask me to send in the lens, I got a technician to confirm this). Of course, 12 weeks could turn into 6 months. I elected not to send the body in because it works perfectly fine otherwise. I have my other bodies to use with the 35 APO.

Just wondering if you got your issue resolved? Did you end up sending in your MP with or without lens?

So actually didn't send it in because it works perfectly with all other lenses except the apo 35, so while its still "fresh", I traded it in...for the 2022 M6 which doesn't have the issue !

[scott kirkpatrick]

I just tried my 35 APO on my M10D.  It gave me sharp pictures at f/2.0 from 1.5 m to 0.3 m, using the rangefinder when I could and a ruler for scale focusing when I was in the closer range.  (I measured the distance to the back of the camera, roughly the film plane.)

[darlesch]

Hi everyone,

I sent my own MP body in and committed to fixing it. My concern was whether the body needs to be fixed or rather the lens needs to, as someone else found out with his combination. 

Leica NJ stated my body is in repair queue and this was the list of items to be done:
-adjust range finder
-clean viewfinder optic as far as possible
-check, adjust, clean

So far my lens has not been requested. Now will wait for 12 weeks (as quoted). 

Edited May 25 by darlesch