Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2000/09/14
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Since this looks like a new thread, and not a religious war, I will address this issue. I have had two of these. Both have *apparently* had the RF go past infinity with the 50mm Hexanon. I asked Konica USA about this and they told me that infinity was far, far, far away - their service materials even told them so. When I took these to my office, from which I have a clear view of Canada (3/4 mile distant) and across downtown (at least a mile), the rangefinder does line up. I think people who wander in out of a camera store and keep exchanging cameras until they get one that lines up at "infinity" are in reality subconsciously trying to get one that doesn't line up at the *real* infinity, which is not the usual two blocks. Although Erwin Puts could probably better comment on this, where that rangefinder square lines up at infinity is a product of (1) how precise the camming is in the lens - which is itself a product of focal length and maximum aperture; and (2) the actual base length (if you've ever compared cameras with different actual BL using the same lenses. As the actual BL goes up, the distances required to hit infinity with the RF will go up - a Canon P (41mm BL) hits infinity at two blocks. A 7 (58mm BL) hits at half a mile. A Hexar RF (69.2mm BL) is about 3/4 mile to one mile. Having plugged quite a few lenses into the Hexar, I can't say that the focus has been a problem, even with 1.2 and 1.5 lenses, wide open and close up. I think that the whold thing might be an old wives' tale. Of course, if you had to pick a camera that went past infinity or didn't get to infinity, you would always want to choose the former - it would have you focusing a little closer - - a good thing, since you have twice as much DOF behind the focus point as in front - meaning that you wouldn't focus on people's ears instead of their eyes. As to the denials of coMpatibility, Konica got burned by Olympus for patent infringement for the Hexar silent drive. Like it or not, Leica M is a trade name once owned by Ernst Leitz Gmbh and now by Leica AG. It's the same thing in the Hexar RF glossy catalog. They say the 50/2 is a double-gauss and the 90/2.8 is an Ernostar design. It's not. The 50 is essentially a Summicron and the 90 is a more modern Sonnar. But Sonnar is still a trademark of Zeiss and Summicron of Leica. Why don't they care if you experience the problems with Leica lenses? Too expensive. The part of a product price related to warranty is calculated by the failure rate of *your* product. That's why every manufacturer of everything tends to tell you that you need to use all of their accessories. When you factor in the sheer number of things you can mount to an M-mount body, why would any manufacturer want to take a bath fixing its cameras due to failures that could belong to, or be caused by, other peoples' products. This is especially true when with a new camera one repair option is body replacement (which even Leica does). I'm sure Leica doesn't fix rangefinder problems that arise using other peoples' lenses. They'll tell you that only Leica lenses should be used on Leica cameras. Just like GM tells you to only use Goodwrench, and so on. Everyone knows that car parts are generic, just like everyone knows the film-flange distance is the same and rangefinder mechanism is probably also identical. The other issue is that there may be a noncompete agreement related to supplying subassemblies or other things in the future. I just noticed today that the RF's viewfinder multicoating is identical in colors to that of the Midland 35 Summicron. Some other weird things (1) the "mirror box" is cut out to take the 35 Biogon or Jupiter (2) the shutter is placed to just clear a colllapsed Summar or Summicron Finally, that frameline issue is related to not having the lens turned all the way (until it clicks). Not a problem with lenses, mainly LTM adapters. Of course, if the framelines are funky, it should be a warning that you could lose the lens. John Collier wrote: > I have read on this list and other lists: > > http://www.greenspun.com/bboard/q-and-a.tcl?topic=Leica%20Photography > > that the Hexar rangefinder often focuses past infinity when the lens is set > to infinity. The writers have not had focus problems but have found this > annoying none the less. Also the automatic frameline selector has been > reported to not couple with some lenses very well. Finally, my chief > complaint is that Konica will not acknowledge that they have copied the > Leica M mount so if you have any of the above problems using Leica lenses > they are not interested in investigating the problem. > > John Collier > > > From: Thomas Kachadurian <tom@kachadurian.com> > > > > On what basis would you say the Hexar RF is of a poorer quality than > > the Leica M? Again, based on real data. > > > > No one has still answered my question: On what objective basis is the > > M6 better than the Hexar RF, and history, conjecture and mystique > > don't count. > > - -- ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Dante Stella http://www-personal.umich.edu/~dante