[Leica] infinity focus

["Michael Darnton" <mdarnton@hotmail.com>]

  Might I suggest a test for those who are concerned about the focus of 
their lenses and rangefinders? I put a yardstick on my desk, with a pencil 
pointing to any specific point near the middle, then shoot a test shot of 
the yardstick, from one end, from any distance, at a relatively wide 
opening, while focusing on the point where the pencil is pointed. This is 
pretty easy, because the two images in the rangefinder form an X, which you 
can move up and down the yardstick by focusing the lens, until the center is 
right at the pencil-indicated spot.
  When you develop the film you can then use a magnifier to assure yourself 
that the lens has focused where you intended--the numbers on the yardstick 
drift in and out of focus through the focused-on area in a way that's very 
easy to see exactly what's going on. This is a much more telling test than 
just popping off a shot at infinity because you can actually *see* the zone 
and placement of focus.
  Of course, for this to work, YOU have to have good enough eyes to focus 
the camera correctly :-) When testing this, I try to use a distance that's 
meaningful for the kind of photos I do (which are almost never at infinity, 
anyway).

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