Elmar 3.5/5 turns when focusing

[RogerK]

Advertisement (gone after registration)

I bought a IIIf body and, separately, a collapsible Elmar 3.5/50 lens (pre-1946). Both appear in excellent condition. The lens is a bit stiff in pulling out and locking. When I focus, though, the lens tends to turn with the focusing ring. When I hold the lens and try to turn the focusing ring separately, it blocks. I have no (recent) experience with collapsible Elmars, so I wondered if this is as it should be or not.......

[Advertisement]

The Leica Q3 is available for pre-order at B&H Photo Video and Adorama

[Pyrogallol]

1 hour ago, RogerK said:

I bought a IIIf body and, separately, a collapsible Elmar 3.5/50 lens (pre-1946). Both appear in excellent condition. The lens is a bit stiff in pulling out and locking. When I focus, though, the lens tends to turn with the focusing ring. When I hold the lens and try to turn the focusing ring separately, it blocks. I have no (recent) experience with collapsible Elmars, so I wondered if this is as it should be or not.......

Not sure which part you are saying turns? The main body of the lens with the infinity catch turns because that is what is focussing. But the whole lens should not start to unscrew itself from the camera body, the base of the lens should stay attached to the camera. With later lenses such as the Summar they are designed so that the main focussing part of the lens doesnot turn as it moves in and out.

[250swb]

The head of the lens and barrel should turn as you focus. 

[dpitt]

This is normal behavior. Lots of LTM and M lenses will have a turning front element. Without EVF it was very hard to use polarisation filters and that is one of the reasons to design a lens that does not turn. Later lenses with a rectangular sunhood do not turn with focusing.

[RogerK]

Many thanks for those replies!

[Roland Zwiers]

Roger,

Leica lenses used to turn on focussing.
Up to 1932 this was not considered a problem.
But then came an early Agfa colour film that made use of horizontal lenticular stripes.
This film was very slow and required very fast lenses, like the 2/50 Summar and the 1.9/73 Hektor.
The Agfa colour film was promised for Easter 1932, but was delayed by one year.

In order to use this very innovative film, Leitz had to redesign the Summar and Hektor so that they would focus without turning.
The adverisement is from 1933.
You can see the horizontal push-on filter in the three primary colours.
It was crucial that this filter stayed in position while focussing.

Roland

Welcome, dear visitor! As registered member you'd see an image here…

Simply register for free here – We are always happy to welcome new members!