[Leica] Konica Correction

["Dante A. Stella" <dante@umich.edu>]

Erwin has (at least to me) clarified his statements on tolerances, and I
apologize to Erwin for any misunderstanding this may have caused.  The
nominal tolerances are, as he described them to me,

27.80 +/- 0.01 (i.e. 27.79 to 27.81)
vs.
28.00 +/- 0.03 (i.e. 27.97 to 28.03)

So that answers any questions I have about the relative ranges, overlap,
etc.  My goal was not to antagonize Erwin but to find out what was
behind these conclusions.  I was just looking for a way to square
Erwin's  statements with what owners here have said.  I also think I
miscomputed the total ranges.  Too many hours in the office waiting to
burst out and take pictures.

I am suspicious of the German Konica explanation because if the
tolerances were evenly distributed, and this kind of difference would
mean noticeable degradation, a lot more people here should be
complaining about it from practical experience (as in ALL of them).  I
am also suspicious of figures from Konica service because in the U.S.
they are noticeably agnostic about product specs.

I suspect that production (average as-built figures) was shifted closer
to Leica spec at some point, which would explain why a lot of Luggers
who own them (most of whom did not buy them during the first month of
sales) seem to be happy with them.  If I still had my first body and
could compare it to my second (3 months later and in the second
production run) it would be helpful.  But the second was the replacement
for the first (which was destroyed in a freak kitchen-table accident).

Mine works.  It works with my Leica stuff, and my M3 works with
Hexanons.  Both work with my Canon and Nikkor LTM lenses.  I think that
the proof of whether a system works is whether or not it puts the image
on the film.  In my case, it does the job.

Dante