Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2007/04/01

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Subject: [Leica] Focus shift on 50/1.4 Nikkor on M8
From: Frank.Dernie at btinternet.com (Frank Dernie)
Date: Sun Apr 1 21:47:45 2007
References: <958D6C86-09C4-45D7-9346-8AE9076C1AB3@comcast.net> <000201c7749d$023b32b0$44300b44@GATEWAY> <20070401204455.197E42FC49@donald.hostspirit.ch>

Hi Didier,
It is probable that there is not only the focus shift with aperture  
at work here but also sample variation. A friend of mine who was a  
renowned Sports pro, now retired, was allowed to hand choose his  
lenses by the importer. He would shoot with 25 or so and select the  
best for himself. The others were distributed to dealers(!). The  
differences between the best and worst of a batch of nominally  
identical lenses was considerable. I will leave the manufacturer out  
of it (it was not Leica)
Frank

On 1 Apr, 2007, at 21:44, Didier Ludwig wrote:

> Jeffery
>
> It's the digital rangefinder cameras that allow to check the
> focusing accuracy much better and quicker than with film
> cameras. But the problem is old. I guess every RF lens always
> had it's own tolerance and focusing behaviour.
>
> Past january I had received an email from a Robert White
> employee who told me about the focus accuracy tests they
> had made with some Epson R-D1. This test concerned focusing
> an object at 1m distance with open apertures, but I'm quite
> shure it would look similar with varied distances and aperture.
> Let me quote him:
>
>> ...we also tested 6 different lenses in our shop, these lenses  
>> were a mixture
>> of new and old and from several manufacturers. We were truly  
>> amazed by
>> the different results. A number of well known manufacturers lenses  
>> faired
>> poorly with regards to this problem.
>
> Didier
>
>
>
>
>>> I suppose that I should set up some sort of contraption to find  
>>> the "soft
>>> spots" on all of my lenses. It would have been a prohibitive pain  
>>> in the ass
>>> without the M8. But the test I ran on the Nikkor tells me that if  
>>> I took a
>>> portrait of someone at 5' and at f/5.6, her eyes would be out of  
>>> focus.
>>>
>>> For now, I think I need to decide which one of my 28's, 35's, and  
>>> 50's will
>>> reside most of the time on my M8 and test them.
>>>
>>> Jeffery Smith
>>> New Orleans, LA
>
> _______________________________________________
> Leica Users Group.
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Replies: Reply from mark at rabinergroup.com (Mark Rabiner) ([Leica] Focus shift on 50/1.4 Nikkor on M8)
In reply to: Message from len-1 at comcast.net (Leonard Taupier) ([Leica] Focus shift on 50/1.4 Nikkor on M8)
Message from jsmith342 at cox.net (Jeffery Smith) ([Leica] Focus shift on 50/1.4 Nikkor on M8)
Message from leica at screengang.com (Didier Ludwig) ([Leica] Focus shift on 50/1.4 Nikkor on M8)