[Leica] Re: Hexar RF-yes, one more time

[Dante Stella <dante@umich.edu>]

Akhil:

At what point does people's fixation with "putting it right" end?  
There are plenty of mathematical, physical and practical proofs that 
there is no difference worth worrying about.  Against this, there is 
anecdotal evidence from a couple of people who endlessly repeat their 
story based on a single body.

This whole thing comes from ambiguous statements from people at Konica 
who do not want to have warranty costs driven out of sight by 
guaranteeing compatibility with the products of a manufacturer Konica 
does not control (i.e., Leica).

You might be surprised to learn that you can put Ford wheels on a GM 
car.  Your car will even work properly.  But there is no way that GM is 
going to take responsibility for the failure of those Ford wheels.  So 
why do you expect Konica to suck up what may be poor QC on a Leica 
lens?  When you get into the old lenses that may have been disassembled 
a few times, who's to say they're even Leica spec?

To tell you the truth, the Konica people have no awareness of Leica's 
specs or what differences are between Leica and M-Hexanons are (ha - 
none!).  That is not their job (just as it is not Leica's job to make 
my new Summilux - which has a bad RF coupling - compatible with my 
Hexar).  Konica's repair service goes by the book, of which I have a 
copy.  It doesn't mention Leica at all.  The workers are told they 
cannot guarantee compatibility, and so they tell you that.  It's just 
like the Chevy dealer telling you he can't guarantee compability with 
non-OEM wheels.  It does not mean that there are incompatibilities.  
People take these statements to mean that there are incompatibilities 
and work themselves into a frenzy.

Also consider:

1.	Any non-warranty work by Konica is expensive.  Try $174 per item for 
a simple rangefinder adjustment.  For that much, you may as well try 
the camera/lens combination.

2.	Konica does not do custom work of the type you are describing.  They 
will tell you on the phone that it can be done, and in the real world, 
they NEVER do it.  Everytime I have sent a body in to have the RF 
adjusted with 3 lenses (usually 2 Konica and 1 Leica), even with the 
proviso that I wanted the body to work primarily with a 35 Summilux,  
it STILL comes back with a note that compatibility with Leica lenses is 
not guaranteed (in actual use, there has never been a problem).

By contrast, when you send in 1 Konica M39 (i.e., Leica spec) lens and 
2 M-Hexanons (which, if you buy the back focus argument should not be 
the same thing), it comes back with no notes like that and everything 
works properly.  If that does not suggest strongly that this is a 
brand-oriented issue, I don't know what does.

3.	Contrary to what people may believe about the use of lenses to 
calibrate RFs, the M-Hexanon lenses are built around a 
lens-flange-to-RF coupling (at infinity) of 6.47mm -0/+0.03.  Lenses 
are tested using a special tool, and bodies are calibrated using a 
Konica reference lens.  When you send in the rest of your lenses, they 
basically set the camera with the reference lens and then check it with 
each of your lenses.

Dante

On Wednesday, February 12, 2003, at 09:41 PM, A. Lal wrote:

> Hello Everyone,
>
> Over the past two days I've had a number of phone chats with a good 
> friend who is retired, an M6 owner and was about to buy the Hexar RF 
> as a lower priced second body. Even a clean second hand M6 TTL is too 
> dear for him and he does not (yet) want a Bessa R2 because he prefers 
> the features of the Hexar.
>
> He called Konica USA to enquire about the back focus issue, and to ask 
> if they would remove the shims from the mount to make the back focus 
> more Leica-like. The response he got from the service department was 
> quite interesting. First they claimed it could not be done, then he 
> got a "senior person" on the phone who said they would do it, if 
> pressed, but that even then compatibility with Leica wide angle lenses 
> could not be assured. It was implied that, as supplied, not only is 
> the Hexar's back focus off, but that the linear travel of the Hexar 
> rfdr cam is also slightly different to that of the Leica. This means 
> that even if the back focus were correct and the lens collimated at 
> infinity, the focus tracking for Leica lenses would not be accurate 
> over the entire range. Shades of the old Nikon & Contax RF mismatch !!
>
> I mentioned to my friend that in the past UK based Lugers had been 
> able to get their bodies put right (i.e, to Leica standards) and 
> suggested he contact Konica UK.  He contacted Konica UK's service 
> department and got the stock 'we know nothing" response. The "senior 
> person" there said they had never received any requests to take shims 
> out, had never done this for anyone in the past, and were certainly 
> not about to do it for him. Here the matter rests.
>
> My question to Hexar owners in this group, particularly those based 
> outside the US, is how did you get the Hexar back focus adjusted and 
> did you hear anything about the difference in cam travel? This is a 
> new one to me, and I wonder if any list members can confirm this. Has 
> the cam travel issue been discussed on the Hexar group over at Yahoo?
>
> Regards,
> AKhil
>
>
____________
Dante Stella
http://www.dantestella.com

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