Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2003/09/13
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Personally I would want the camera checked out, and I sincerely hope that it was insured. If you want to do some tests then I feel that the only way to do this is to put the camera on a tripod and then shoot on slow film and with the lens set at maximum aperture. I would want to use a prime lens (not a zoom) and would want to shoot at a number of distances that had been measured including the close focus point and infinity. Gerry - -- Gerry Walden LRPS www.gwpics.com +44 23 8046 3076 Martin Krieger wrote: > About two months ago I tripped and fell head first, my R8 (with a > Schneider > Super Angulon PC 28mm lens) in my hand. The camera went down lens first, > still in my hand, the lens hood now well bent out ofshape. The metal lens > hood protected the lens itself, but the focus was stuck and the lens > is now > being repaired somewhere in Leicaland. The body seemed fine, and the > slides > I shot later that day were as good as the ones shot before the fall (the > lens had stuck in a suitably close to infinity position, so that I could > continue shooting "in focus"). > > I recently decided to be sure, and shot some test shots using the > 35-70 3.5 > lens (at both 70 and 35mm), and Kodachrome 200. It would seem that the > best > focus for very distant points, discovered in the split image finder, > was not > infinity. In fact, the infinity setting gave less definition than did the > split image finder setting, which was shorter than infinity (but these > were > quite distant buildings). I examined the slides with a 22x loupe, looking > for patterns of mullions on a high rise. > > I am now thinking that perhaps the lens mount was a bit pushed in due > to the > impact (not at all apparent from visual examination of the body). > Normally I > shoot with the 28mm PC or the 19mm 2.8 Elmarit lens. And I use the grid > screen, normally, so I do not have split image. So the focus for distant > points is not readily differentiated on the screen, and depth of field > charts would so indicate. (Tests of the lens mount with the 19mm were > inconclusive, and hence the use of the longer focal length lens that I > happen to have.) But under a 22x magnifier on the slides, one can see > differences. They are much harder to see with a 8x magnifier. > > Does it make sense to think the lens mount is in trouble. Or am I > asking too > much? Or is it that one should just ignore the marked distances, and > rely on > one's eye and the screen (maybe with a magnifier in the eyepiece?). > > Yes, these are handheld images. So none of this would pass muster as > "serious" testing. And I used K200 in part to have a higher shutter speed > and in part because it was the film in the camera and I had some shots to > finish off. > > Martin > > -- > To unsubscribe, see http://mejac.palo-alto.ca.us/leica-users/unsub.html > - -- Gerry Walden LRPS www.gwpics.com +44 23 8046 3076 - -- To unsubscribe, see http://mejac.palo-alto.ca.us/leica-users/unsub.html