Leica 35mm APO-Summicron-M compatibility with Leica M6?

[tonyz123456]

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Hi,

Long-term forum lurker but frequent various other forums. I feel this is a question here that this group would know best so would appreciate any help.  I recently picked up a Leica m6 as my first film Leica camera. Also have a M11 and 35mm APO-Summicron-M lens. I was trying to use the 35mm APO on the m6 however the rangefinder focus throw range seems to be very short. My 75mm APO-M works fine on the M6 as does my 35mm APO on my M11. Has anyone experienced something similar?

 

Appreciate any feedback or experiences

Thanks,

Tony

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[UliWer]

I don't understand what you mean by "rangefinder focus throw range".  

The M6 has the same mechanism for the rangefinder (and I think the same rangefinder) as the M11. So the lens should work equally on both cameras.

P.S.: I was thinking of the current M6. For the former M6 (TTL) which was made until 2001 you could choose different magnifications of the viewfinder. With the 0.85 magnification the frames for 35mm were on the outer edge of the viewfinder. So it may appear that the frame for 35mm does not move much if you use near focussing. Though this does not mean that 35mm lenses are not compatible with the camera. 

Edited Wednesday at 08:44 PM by UliWer

[otto.f]

I use my 35APO on my M7 and I didn't notice such a thing yet, it's also about as long as the Summicron 35 iv

[UliWer]

The 35mm Apo Summicron focusses beyond 0.7m down to 0.3m. The optical rangefinder ist limited to 0.7m, so you cannot expect that the M6 rangefinder to let you focus in the close range. The same is true for the M11 rangefinder, you need LiveView for close focussing. 

[tonyz123456]

Sorry I should be more clear, 1) this is a M6 2022 reissue, and 2) the moment I turn the focus ring to past 3 meters (not 0.7m), the rangefinder coupling stops working, not at the 0.7M mark. The strange thing is this issue only exists with my 35mm APO. All of my other M-mount lenses work fine. Similarly, I have no issue with the M11 and this lens, which has been checked by Leica before too.

 

Sounds like no one else has experienced this?

[tonyz123456]

So after re-attaching the lens again this time, it started working perfectly, go figure. It might be something with the rangefinder coupling - I'll see if it's a one-time issue or something more but thanks all for taking a look at this and trying to help

[dsetiono01]

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3 hours ago, tonyz123456 said:

So after re-attaching the lens again this time, it started working perfectly, go figure. It might be something with the rangefinder coupling - I'll see if it's a one-time issue or something more but thanks all for taking a look at this and trying to help

I'm located in Singapore and I Have encountered this issue when trying to mount the APO 35 on my slightly older Black paint MP (2014 production year) and the same issue happened, the rangefinder coupling refused to work beyond the 1m mark. I then tried it on a brand new just opened M6 2022 reissue, 2024 production, and it couples perfectly.

I have also tried it on a couple of older bodies at a popular local Leica second hand dealer, and I have found that it will just randomly not couple well with a few M2, M3, or any M film body samples that I tried to mount it on. My conclusion is that, there's no real pattern, and there's definitely something about the APO 35 mechanism that is not guaranteed to couple well with 100% of all leica analogue bodies, regardless of age and year of produce. I have found this true to a couple of APO 35 samples that I managed to try. 

However. I have found no issues so far on mounting on any Digital Ms though, from M9 to M11. Seems like the digital M has more tolerance to the close focus rangefinder mechanism. For Analogue, a quick work around is, if it fails to couple, try to unmount the lens and remount it gently, as there's a chance that it might make the coupling mechanism fit perfectly. This is perhaps the situation that you encountered. But there's still a chance once you change the lens and remount it again, it will stop working again.

Until Leica acknowledge and addresses this issue, my current solution is to make sure to try out any APO 35 copy with the bodies that you own, prior to committing to purchase. I'm not saying all copies are bad, but it's possible that the copy you come across with, may not work 100% on some of the bodies. It's annoying, but unfortunately I love pairing this lens on Film so much that I put up with this fact!

 

 

 

 

 

[lexffm]

Hello,

I also had this problem: the 1985 M6 no longer worked with the 35mm apo lens at distances well over one meter. I read in a thread here that the M6 could be causing these problems. Leica will fix the problem free of charge. You just need to adjust the rangefinder, and then it will work.