[Leica] advice re. misaligned distance scale on lens please

["Simon Pulman-Jones" <spulmanjones@lbs.ac.uk>]

I would appreciate some advice and reassurance re. a 1960 vintage 35 RF
Summilux that I have recently acquired (privately, so I have no recourse to
a dealer). The lens is in good condition apart from the fact that it has
obviously undergone a slightly incompetent re-assembly. It was immediately
apparent that the aperture ring and the lens-hood retaining ring were
wrongly aligned (I posted a query about this), and this was easily solved by
use of a jewellers' screwdriver. I have since noticed that the distance
scale on the lens does not correspond exactly to the actual focused distance
when the lens is used on either of my cameras. When the camera and lens are
focused at a metre the lens shows 0.9 metres, and when the lens is set at
infinity on the scale it is actually focused a little beyond infinity (when
focused on distant high clouds).

I haven't noticed a problem with focusing on film that I have shot with the
lens, and I guess that there can be no real problem if it is merely the lens
barrel ring on which the distance scale is engraved which is misaligned
rather than the focusing cam that drives the camera's rangefinder.

I would appreciate confirmation of my hunch on this. If the only important
thing is the relationship between the focusing cam of the lens and the
rangefinder mechanism of the camera then I'll get out the little screwdriver
again and hope that I can move the distance scale ring until it corresponds
with the actual focused distance.

I imagine that the problem that I have got here is a simple and superficial
one, and not the same as the problem of misaligned lenses as brought up by
Hans and others in response to Mikiro's 75 Summilux focusing problems. That
misalignment must be between the lens's focusing cam and the glass in the
barrel, I suppose.

Somebody please tell me I've got this right and I'll forget all about it and
get on with using the lens!

Simon.