Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1999/08/23
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]In a message dated 8/23/99 1:18:44 PM Pacific Daylight Time, Bill Larsen trying to be helpful regarding the use of the M3 Summaron 35mm/f3.5, (with eyes), on the M6 without the eyes, said: << Paul, if this were the case, you had other problems with the lens. The 50 mm framelines and the focusing are not co-dependent. The lens should focus regardless of the framelines that are shown. All that the spectacle viewfinder (eyes) does is to expand the angle of view from 45 degrees for the 50 mm frameline to 64 degrees for the 35 mm frameline. Regards, Bill Larsen who learned this from the LUG a couple of years ago. >> - -------- Bill, when I first encountered the problem I researched the archives thoroughly for an answer, and all I found was many opinions and very little fact. A few posters seemed to know how it works, but most did not. What I know is that my 35mm/f3.5 Summaron lens, which is the M3 version with the removable eyes, has a focusing cam which is dependant on the eyes for proper rangefinding on the M6. Without the eyes, the camera rangefinder will give a false in-focus reading and the subject will be out of focus on the film. If the rangefinder is ignored and the scale on the lens is used, the subject will be in focus on the film. This is apparently a peculiarity of the M3 Summaron 35mm/f3.5 with removable eyes, and it might be the reason the next version of the M3 Summaron 35mm had the eyes semi-permanently attached to the lens body. My local Leica repair specialist said the lens focus cam can be re-ground to work properly without the eyes, and also the lens mount can be modified to bring up the 35MM framelines on a camera that has them. But then it would not work as it was originally designed when used with eyes on a M3. Hope this helps to clarify the subject. Regards, Paul Connet