Re: [Leica] Impact and lens mount of R8, Focus shift?

["Jim Laurel" <jplaurel@nwlink.com>]

I've often wondered about damage to the mount of my R6.2 from using the
80-200 Vario on a tripod.  It seems excessively front-heavy.  When mounted
on a tripod and critically focused on something, wiggling the lens up and
down changes the plane of focus ever so slightly.  Leica really should have
included a tripod mount for the 80-200, especially at the price they charge
for it.

- --Jim

- ----- Original Message ----- 
From: "David W. Almy" <dalmy@comcast.net>
To: <leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us>
Sent: Sunday, September 14, 2003 12:21 PM
Subject: Re: [Leica] Impact and lens mount of R8, Focus shift?


> Martin,
>
> I have had two R8 lens mounts replaced due to camera lens mount warping,
> probably due to some sort of impact damage or improper support of the
> lens/camera with too heavy of a lens mounted. $600+ each time, ouch. The
R8
> lens mount is not stainless, as the lens mount metal is. Hold the camera
up
> to your eye with the lens mount parallel to the sky. Without a lens
mounted,
> look at the rubber mount seal and see if it rises or falls as you rotate
the
> camera. The symptom of a bad mount, other than what you described, is
focus
> that is tack sharp on one side of the photo and out on the other.
>
> Hope that helps.
>
> David W. Almy
> Annapolis
>
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Martin Krieger" <krieger@usc.edu>
> To: <leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us>
> Sent: Sunday, September 14, 2003 2:32 AM
> Subject: [Leica] Impact and lens mount of R8, Focus shift?
>
>
> > 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
> >
> > --
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> >
>
>
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