Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2007/01/13

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Subject: [Leica] 400mm f6.8 Telyt problem
From: len-1 at comcast.net (Leonard Taupier)
Date: Sat Jan 13 20:37:01 2007
References: <322EB138-3451-42BA-83B9-FD7D8261AD05@comcast.net> <p06230917c1cf52eae7d9@[10.1.16.144]>

Henning,

Thanks for that info. It's such a simple design it has to be  
something simple like the spacer. In any case I got $100 discount  
plus a free Leica repair.   I shot a 36 exp roll with the lens and  
every shot under 500 meters was stunning.

Len


On Jan 13, 2007, at 10:32 PM, Henning Wulff wrote:

> At 9:49 PM -0500 1/12/07, Leonard Taupier wrote:
>> I tried a 400mm f6.8 Telyt lens today. The lens was mint as was  
>> the R8 I tried it on. The problem I had was it would not focus all  
>> the way to infinity. This was visible in the viewfinder as well as  
>> on film. I would say the focus was fine up to about 500 meters.  
>> Has anyone run into this problem? it appears that if the sliding  
>> focus was allows to come towards the body another 1/8th inch or so  
>> it would be fine. As neither the lens nor the body were mine I  
>> didn't attempt any adjustment to the infinity stop.
>>
>> This lens is very nice otherwise and includes the shoulder brace  
>> and original instructions in the original box for less then US  
>> $600. The photos of closer focused objects look pretty sharp.
>>
>> Len
>
> This is a guess, but....
>
> The front lens assembly is held in a unit that unscrews from the  
> rest of the front barrel. The final location of the front lens  
> unit, which will determine whether it can focus only on nearer  
> objects, to infinity, or past infinity, is determined by a spacer  
> ring that this front lens assembly screws against. This ring is  
> machined at the factory to match the individual lens, as the lenses  
> are not all of exactly the same focal length.
>
> So it could be that the spacer ring is not seated correctly,  
> because if it is slightly askew, it could seem that the front  
> element is seated firmly while not being in the right position, ie,  
> not screwed far enough in. Or some foreign object could be in the  
> way, preventing correct seating. Or, and this is a lot less likely,  
> a spacer ring from another lens was mistakenly inserted.
>
> In any case, the first thing to do is to unscrew the front element  
> assembly, shake out the spacer ring and reinsert it after making  
> sure no foreigh object is in the way, letting it fall in smoothly.  
> Then screw in the lens assembly again and check focus. Most likely  
> the lens will now focus to infinity.
>
> If it still doesn't, the spacer ring can be ground down until the  
> lens does focus to infinity.
>
> BTW, $600 is somewhat on the high side.
>
> -- 
>    *            Henning J. Wulff
>   /|\      Wulff Photography & Design
>  /###\   mailto:henningw@archiphoto.com
>  |[ ]|     http://www.archiphoto.com
>
> _______________________________________________
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In reply to: Message from len-1 at comcast.net (Leonard Taupier) ([Leica] 400mm f6.8 Telyt problem)
Message from henningw at archiphoto.com (Henning Wulff) ([Leica] 400mm f6.8 Telyt problem)