Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1999/09/27
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Well, I got my 180mmf2 back last Monday from Leica NJ. Leica did a nice job. My first assignment(s) I decided to use it for were volleyball and some night football. One request I had was to get some shots of the new coach who is 7-8 months pregnant and very camera shy. During the match I just located myself at the end of the bench area and fired away. I was no more than 15-20 feet away. Shooting at 1/125 and f2, I latched the focuse to her eyebrows. I was using my R5 with the matte screeen. I was very impressed on being able to focus on individual hairs in her eyebrows and eyelashes. I was using a monopod and oriented the camera vertical to use the front release on the R-motor. Everything seemed solid as I shot. When I examined the negatives, her face was way out of focus! In fact the focus was on her near shoulder (rather sharp fabric/textures). The day before I had "practised" by shooting a girl's basketball game where I noticed the shots I took of the bench exhibited this peculiar trait: my subject on the right was out of focus, but items to the left (in camera) were in focus. In fact, the subject girl wasout of focus but the girl on her right (left in camera) was in sharp focus. I have used matte screens in my Canon's for more than 15 years (F1n:SC/SJ/SK) where I often used my 85mmf1.2L wide open with very good success (great lens!), and I shoot a 300mmf2.8L wide open as well for hockey with considerable success (another great lens!). I also use my EOS1 with its matte screen in manual mode at maximum aperatures. The R5 was purchased used from Jim Kuehl in May or June. I set the diopter adjustment and it hasn't been budged since. My opinion is that the screen is not held in place correctly or the mirror is out of alignment. HAS ANYONE HAD SIMILAR PROBLEMS OR KNOW HOW I CAN VERIFY THIS? Come to think about it, when I shoot outdoors, I usually use a smaller aperature which gives more DOF. This will explain why some shots I swore I nailed were a bit soft! Another thing that comes to mind is the focus screen may not be compatible with a 180mm lens which is also an 2 aperature. Maybe ther eis another screen I can try. The Canon F-1n FN-SK screen was optimized for 300mm lenses or longer and it showed. It could not be used for shorter lenses. So maybe the R matte screen is the problem? Opinions requested. Regards, Dave Strang dstrang@up.net - ----Pentium Pro/Windows NT 4-SP3/Zip100/Zip250/Jaz2GB/Astra 600S scanner/RedHat Linux 5.0/MSVC++ 5.0/MSVC++ 6.0/PowerStation Fortran 4.0/Photoshop 4.01/Photoshop 5.0/Illustrator 7.01/KPT 3.0/KPT 5.0/PhotoTools 3.0/Portfolio 4.0/Total XAOS/Matlab 5.0/Maple V/Office 97 Pro+SR2/MacOpener 4.0/AMIGA 1000/AMIGA 2000-GVP030 Combo/AMIGA 3000(2)/Indigo 2 XZ/IRIX 5.3/IRIX 6.2/ and member of UP.NET!