ND filter on Summilux 35

[shortstop]

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I bought a 49 mm B+W ND 64x (6 stops); it fits perfectly in the  12504 lens shade

This achieve me shooting in sunlight using a 1,4 aperture.

results are lovely; dreamy and glowy, as expected. Night shots suffer coma if there are spot of light (tipically with artificial source of light). In diurnal photos you have glow without coma. I share this experience because series VII filters are not common and Leica never made a ND filter of this series.

Hi, Antonio

[wontonny]

I also love shooting with a ND to get wide open during the day. Except now I've nicknamed the filter "The Troublemaker" due to it uncovering RF and lens calibration issues. 

[shortstop]

Hiwontonny,

no problems in my short experience. Which kind of calibration issues did you find?  What is the brand and the model of your ND filter?

[wontonny]

11 hours ago, shortstop said:

Hiwontonny,

no problems in my short experience. Which kind of calibration issues did you find?  What is the brand and the model of your ND filter?

It’s a B+W ND64 giving me 6 stops. Can shoot at 1.4 in full sun on 400 speed film. 
 

Turns out a majority of techs only calibrate the RF to infinity and not the factory spec of min focus, 10 meters, and infinity. Up close photos are fine, but right at around 20-30 feet or 10m the focus is off by a few feet. Confirmed by another lens so the body’s RF is slightly off. In practice, the images are ever so slightly out of focus because depth of field at that distance is helping me out. Enough to see what’s going on but also enough to piss me off hahaha. 
 

I would send it off to Leica HQ to get it properly calibrated and squared away but I have a trip coming up. I’ve just been learning to compensate for the focus issues. 🤷‍♂️

[shortstop]

I understood. Good luck with your RF

Antonio Scorletti

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