First roll with Nokton 1.1

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thegman

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Hi all,
I just got the results back from my first roll of film shot with my Nokton 1.1 on my Ikon. I seem to have missed focus on a lot of the shots at 1.1. My first thought is my range finder is a little out of whack, but then I wondered if perhaps it is the way I'm focusing, or where I'm putting my eye in front of the finder.

I have a habit of not putting my eye *directly* in front of the eyepiece, and while that has no ill effects on slower lenses, might it make a difference here?

Basically, before I see about having the camera adjusted, should I try another roll of film and make sure I'm looking at the range finder patch completely straight?

Thanks

Garry
 
Could be focus shift, or perhaps your Ikon needs to be calibrated. Haven't had any experience with that lens though so it's hard to say.
 
I've found it very easy to get soft results with the Nokton wide open. I am pretty sure it back-focuses, but when I test it out explicitly, I see inconclusive evidence. It may be not centering my eye, which can very much result in misfocusing (although in my experience, I see a vertical misalignment if my eye is not centered, so that's the giveaway for me.)
 
At which distance were most of those shots taken, or were they all off focus regardless of distance?

If they were taken at a close distances it's very easy to get the focus off by a small unintentional movement of your head.
 
I've tried it a few times. I got sharp focus with the 50mm 1.5, but couldn't with the 1.1. I just took it to mean the 1.1 is soft wide open (i.e. not razor sharp). It is still usable though...
 
sahe69 said:
At which distance were most of those shots taken, or were they all off focus regardless of distance?

If they were taken at a close distances it's very easy to get the focus off by a small unintentional movement of your head.
Click to expand...

Thank you all for the replies. I seem to miss focus regardless of distance, and it always seems to be focused further away than I intended. Not all my shots are mis-focused, but a lot are, and I was being quite careful to focus correctly, knowing how thin the the DOF would be.

I had my Ikon aligned somewhat over a year ago, and it's not had any knocks or anything since then, so I guess maybe it's gone off, but I'd hope it has not.

I'll post some shots tomorrow showing where I intended focus, and where it ended up.
 
Do you focus and reframe? I'm asking because that tends to produce back-focusing as well. If that's your only problem, those shots where you focused on the image center should be OK.
If you have a hunch that your camera/lens combo back-focuses systematically, do the 45°-ruler thing to find out. Use different apertures to cover focus shift while you're at it...
 
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I occasionally focus then re-frame, but I always check the focus again afterwards. Here is an example shot of my problem:

http://s3.amazonaws.com/TempStuff/backfocus.jpg

I've circled where focus was intended, and obviously it's actually focused beyond that.

Maybe another test film is required to really see if it's user error or the camera. I tried focusing and moving my eye around to see if the point of focus changes, and if it does, it's almost imperceptible, if anything, just the clarity of the range finder patch changes.

Maybe an adjustment is required.

Cheers

Garry
 
That focus error you had in the example is way more than what you would expect due to a little backfocus due to re-composing, or a little difficulty due to the wide aperture.

I would have your camera, or the lens, looked at.

Have you tried other lenses on that body recently that focused well?
 
sleepyhead said:
That focus error you had in the example is way more than what you would expect due to a little backfocus due to re-composing, or a little difficulty due to the wide aperture.

I would have your camera, or the lens, looked at.

Have you tried other lenses on that body recently that focused well?
Click to expand...

I used a Summicron wide open at f/2 recently on the ZI, seemed fine to me.

Here is another example of the issue:

http://s3.amazonaws.com/TempStuff/backfocus2.jpg

I focused on the sticks, but seems the purple ornament is in focus more. Maybe I'll try one more roll to make sure it's not me...

Garry
 
Your lens looks off. Mine back-focused on the M8, and a little less so on the M9. I used copper tape to build up the RF cam, 0.05mm for the M8. This is about as much as you might expect between cameras. Yours looks like it is off by much more.

My test shots on the M8 after using Copper tape to build up the Cam.

http://rangefinderforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=100333

Yours looks like it is off my greater than 0.1mm.
 
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I got one of the first copies of this lens and had no problems with sharp results wide open (too sharp really). I did read some of reports, at that time, of backfocus problems that others were having. Sounds like your lens is the problem and it needs to be calibrated.
 
Thanks to Brian and Joel. I'm actually expecting a roll back from the lab shot with the Summicron this week, almost all at f/2, so maybe we'll see once and for all if it's lens or body. What I'm going to do is shoot another roll as soon as I can to confirm there is indeed a technical fault, not just my incompetence. If it comes back with back focused shots, and I expect it will, I'd like to send the pair off to get looked at by an expert.

I'd like to walk in somewhere in London, but for a real expect eye, I don't mind sending it somewhere.

Can someone recommend somewhere really good in London? Alternatively, Brian, do you offer your services internationally?

Thanks

Garry
 
thegman said:
Thanks to Brian and Joel. I'm actually expecting a roll back from the lab shot with the Summicron this week, almost all at f/2, so maybe we'll see once and for all if it's lens or body. What I'm going to do is shoot another roll as soon as I can to confirm there is indeed a technical fault, not just my incompetence. If it comes back with back focused shots, and I expect it will, I'd like to send the pair off to get looked at by an expert.

I'd like to walk in somewhere in London, but for a real expect eye, I don't mind sending it somewhere.

Can someone recommend somewhere really good in London? Alternatively, Brian, do you offer your services internationally?

Thanks

Garry
Click to expand...

If you'de like to avoid the hassle of sending your equipment outside of Europe, I can recommend CCR in Luton (UK), as well as Will van Manen in The Netherlands. Probably be more expensive than work done in the US, however.
 
I read somewhere that CCR had a backlog of a couple of months, but I'll check out Will van Manen.

Ideally, I'd like it to stay in London, maybe Red Dot Cameras, but my priority is to find someone who will truly understand the problem (in a way that I don't).

Thanks

Garry
 
Neare, do you mean measure out 1 metre or something and see if focus matches the markings on the lens? Is that accurate enough, considering DOF at one metre will be about an inch or something?
 
Well, lay a ruler down on a table or so and get a tripod setup so that the camera in facing the ruler on about a 45* angle. Focus the lens to the minimum focus distance (1m on the f1.1 yeah?) and move the tripod so that at 1m, the part of the ruler that is in focus is exactly half way (so on a 30cm ruler, focus exactly at the 15cm marking etc.) then get the film developed and see what marking of the ruler is in focus the most. Wide open expect 1 or 2cm of focus shift at that distance, that should be normal. If it's a lot more than that there is probably something wrong.

Do a few shots moving through using the different apertures as well.
 
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