Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1998/12/11
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Friends, I hate to bring up another equipment question, but this is really distressing. My M3 has acted in an exemplary fashion since I bought it in July, providing sharp pictures with various lenses, 50mm, 75mm, 90mm and the 135mm Hektor. I recently bought the new 135mm Apo Telyt, and the initial results were very nice (see my gushings in a recent message with the title "The joy of tripods"). However, last week I noticed some softness in some portraits I had taken with it, on a tripod and carefully focused. So I decided to do a test. With the M3 on a tripod, and focused CAREFULLY on the face of a statue at a distance of about 1.7m, I took a series of pictures at all apertures using first a 50mm Summilux, then 90mm Elmarit, and finally the 135mm Apo Telyt. When changing lenses I made sure I did not move the tripod or the camera, and I re-checked focus after each lens change. When I look at the resulting Delta 100 negatives on a light box, the results are clear and disturbing: all the images with the 50mm and 90mm are nice and sharp, with the 50mm showing a small improvement when going from f1.4 to f2, and the 90mm an even smaller improvement when stopping down from f2.8 to f4. But the images with the Apo Telyt are hopelessly out of focus. Once I get down to f22, then the face of the staute is reasonably sharp of course, but at that point I am relying on DOF. I repeated the test at two progressively longer distances, about 2.5m and then 5m, with the same results. Based on the above, it seems that there is some problem with the 135mm Apo Telyt/M3 combination. I looked at the lens carefully, found nothing untoward, not even specs or air bubbles ;-) What is really strange is that this problem was not there from the get-go; as I said, my first results were great--I have some closeups of an old sewing machine and some frozen plants in the garden which are tack sharp when I look at the negatives with a 10x loupe. Neither the M3 nor the lens have received any impacts; I "baby" my equipment somewhat. Neither the camera nor the lens have even been on a flight yet. I am going to check the 135 on my M6 to be 100% sure that the problem is with the lens, and next week I will take the lens to the dealer where I bought it, but in the meantime I would like to hear if anyone else has had this sort of experience or if anyone out there has any ideas as to what might be wrong. Thanks in advance! Nathan - -- Nathan Wajsman Overijse, Belgium Photography page: http://members.tripod.com/~belgiangator/index.html Motorcycle page: http://www.geocities.com/motorcity/downs/1704/index.html