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focusing, madness and the Noctilux


jonoslack

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As you focus away from closest focus, what is the distance scale reading when those screw holes just start to be obscured? Mine is 1.5mm to the left of "1.5m".

 

Mark, I just checked my Noctilux and the screw holes start to touch the focusing ring at 1.5 meters. More precisely, the indicator is pointing just to right side of the 5 in "1.5" but not beyond. I am not sure this means much since I don't know how the focusing ring it attached or its tolerance.

 

Mark Gowin

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Interesting thread. On my Noctilux, that focuses well at all distances, the screw holes start to "touch" the focusing ring between 1.5 and 2 meters. The rangefinder had been tweaked a little to match the Noct.

 

Alex:

 

When shooting film, I tweaked the cameras to work with the Noctilux, but it didn't seem to affect the other lenses. With the M8, if you match the rangefinder to the Noctilux, other lenses such as the 90mm APO and 75mm APO do not focus properly.

 

The only solution with the M8 is to get the lens changed. My lens is now on its way to service to get it adjusted.

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Alex:

 

When shooting film, I tweaked the cameras to work with the Noctilux, but it didn't seem to affect the other lenses. With the M8, if you match the rangefinder to the Noctilux, other lenses such as the 90mm APO and 75mm APO do not focus properly.

 

The only solution with the M8 is to get the lens changed. My lens is now on its way to service to get it adjusted.

 

I agree; anyway, since my only lenses are the Noctilux and the Elm. 28, any little modification to the rangefinder to match the Noctilux has no impact on the 28 with its greater DOF. When I will acquire other more critical lenses, I know your solution is the only one to follow.

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Thanks to the feedback from Alex, Eoin and Mark, I realised my lens is actually focussing beyond infinity when the focussing ring is set to infinity instead of in front of it. That explains why, when I set the lens to infinity, nothing, at any position, is in focus. Check, for example, the picture of the sheep I posted above.

 

For the same focus ring position, each of their Noctilux's lens barrels are sitting further forwards than mine; as you focus towards infinity, the lens barrel comes in towards the sensor and mine goes too far.

 

Sure enough, back the focus ring off to about 20m, and focus is then fine, comparable to the 75mm Summilux. However, the rangefinder is then way off.

 

Good response from Leica, asked me to send the lens back, agreed the posted performance is not good enough and the person who responded spoke to the technicican and they've agreed they may replace the whole focussing mount.

 

So it will be a call to DHL in the morning...

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Good response from Leica, asked me to send the lens back, agreed the posted performance is not good enough and the person who responded spoke to the technicican and they've agreed they may replace the whole focussing mount.

 

So it will be a call to DHL in the morning...

 

Mark, What e-mail address are you using for these technical questions? Do you send the questions to a particular person at the technical service?

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Mark,

I just received my Noctilux last week. I have done some testing but I need to do more. I will check the screw holes as suggested and report what I find. the testing I did with a chart was not conclusive since it was so difficult to find the exact point of focus on the chart. I took a lot of shots just around the house Sunday night and they were awful but it might be me and not the lens. Low light is a lot more difficult than I knew.

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Mark Norton,

The screw holes you ask about on mine are right at the 1.5 when they begin touch the focus ring. I also posted some test shots in my Zenfolio account. I am not sure how accurate they are but I was at a 45 angle and just beyond the point of near focus so that I had some adjusting on the focus. I was really having trouble trying to determine the focus so I added the ruler. Any feedback is always appreciated.........

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Bill, looks to me your lens is in good shape though a crop of just the central image area and enlarged would reveal more.

 

It pays with this test to have the camera vertical - in portrait mode - so that the black line splits with the rangefinder; you'll find it much easier to focus.

 

How is your lens on infinity?

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