Leica M3 & Nikon FE - Help !!!!!

[Brian M Harris]

Brian -- I shot Leica RF and Nikons with a range of lenses side by side for decades, and never found any significant difference between them in image quality. The cityscape you posted is terribly unsharp for any quality camera. Leica rangefinders can get out of adjustment, but this is rather easily corrected. I've also had slightly unsharp images from the lens head of a longer Leitz lens not being perfectly seated in the focusing mount. I retired one 50mm Summicron because of scratches on the front lens surface doe to careless cleaning in the field. A Leica iiif produced images that weren't sharp along one edge due to the back getting bashed in. Nikons aren't foolproof, either.

Jim hi,
Thanks for your interest, the image posted is only 489 kb, I didnt realise how large Photrio make them when posted on the forums etc this has probably not help matters !!!.

As previously mentioned I did run a roll of film through it yesterday and had noticed straight away that there was problems with vertical focusing (the image just posted was taken around Christmas, I believe focusing was all correct at the time).

I have now adjusted the rangefinder and its now focusing correctly which is a relief, obviously the lens is taking the picture not the rangefinder and I will do another test film test as a comparison - processing/scanning both test rolls (FP4+) should be an interesting comparison !!!

The Summicron rigid 50mm F2 was sold to me as a very good "user", it is clean with a bit of dust but the glass is good, I paid about $650 for in your money last September, a mint version is currently advertised at $2,300.00 here in the UK, they are hard to get here in any condition.

I do 100% take your point and on the sharpness, I will probably get the CLA'D soon.

Thanks

Brian

 

[jerrybro]

Ah, the guilty feeling that comes with not loving the Leica M. I know it well. I tried for a couple of years and I never really warmed up to it. It didn't fit my hand well and i was always afraid of damaging it. The optics were very nice, but I got the best results when it was tripod mounted (of course). When looking at negatives or slides I cant discern if they were taken with a Leica, Nikon or Minolta by examination alone. I ended up sell off the whole kit. I have dad's Nikon S2 to address the RF cravings. For 35mm I have a bunch of FMs and recently pick up an Ftn to play with. With current prices on F3s, F4s and even F5s i could end up with a whole cabinet of cameras I don't have the time to use. Instead of getting more bodies I think itss time to round out the lens collection. Gotta have something for each body, right?

 

[Huss]

It looks like that pic is out of focus, and you also mentioned you have RF alignment issues. As you had mentioned, get the CLA, then see how the pics turn out.

 

[darkosaric]

I can understand that Leica or rangefinder in general does not work for some people. But if you are getting anything but exceptional sharp pictures from any summicron - then either something is wrong with your camera/lens, or you are doing something very wrong.
Also resolution of jpeg does not have to be big to show if the picture is sharp or not, here are 2 examples (one from Summicron, and one from old LTM Elmar) that are 0,6 megapixel big:

 

[Huss]

Lovely pics Darko.

 

[Ko.Fe.]

I can understand that Leica or rangefinder in general does not work for some people. But if you are getting anything but exceptional sharp pictures from any summicron - then either something is wrong with your camera/lens, or you are doing something very wrong.
Also resolution of jpeg does not have to be big to show if the picture is sharp or not, here are 2 examples (one from Summicron, and one from old LTM Elmar) that are 0,6 megapixel big:

If you take it like on yours, any lens will do. I have done it with different Industars on M3.
Problems with Crons arise then you work wide open and within close to mid distances. All Crons do focus shift. And many other RF lenses.
To me, personally, it is something I knew and expecting, but those who don't know might see it as RF misaligned....

 

[darkosaric]

If you take it like on yours, any lens will do. I have done it with different Industars on M3.
Problems with Crons arise then you work wide open and within close to mid distances. All Crons do focus shift. And many other RF lenses.
To me, personally, it is something I knew and expecting, but those who don't know might see it as RF misaligned....

All that I wrote to Summicron I can repeat for any nikkor 50mm that I had (and I had a lot of them). I am not saying that other 50mm lenses are not almost as good as Summicron. I had only one Summicron (until now), 50mm type 3, and I did not noticed any focus shift with my M3 or M6 (and I did used it often on close distance wide open). It is possible that I was just lucky, and had a good example.
Industar I-22 is IMO best underrated lens ever for Leica - so small and cheap, and produces same quality as original LTM Elmar. Often better, because it is newer, and not so abused as many Elmars.

 

[Ko.Fe.]

All that I wrote to Summicron I can repeat for any nikkor 50mm that I had (and I had a lot of them). I am not saying that other 50mm lenses are not almost as good as Summicron. I had only one Summicron (until now), 50mm type 3, and I did not noticed any focus shift with my M3 or M6 (and I did used it often on close distance wide open). It is possible that I was just lucky, and had a good example.
Industar I-22 is IMO best underrated lens ever for Leica - so small and cheap, and produces same quality as original LTM Elmar. Often better, because it is newer, and not so abused as many Elmars.

You are not going to notice focus shift with most of the RF lenses. It is only then you test the lens at minimal focus distance and by the focus checking scale-target.
This is the difference between "I didn't noticed" and "I have tested".
For example, I never noticed any focus shift with collapsible Cron. Simply, because I never tested it.
I have tested Rigid and typ 4 and tests shows the focus shift. Different at different apertures.

But the only reason why I test RF lenses is just to find out if lens is matching RF.
I do it often after CLA or to see at which aperture lens was aligned for. My typ 4 Cron 50 copy is aligned for f2 and shifts after it.
Makes sense. This is what I do during CLA as well. I align lens on wide open and minimal focus distance. The rest (even with focus shift) is covered by DoF.
Cosina sends their 50 1.5 ZM aligned on something like f5.6, if you want to have it aligned at f1.5 it has to be re-done.