Elmar 50/2.8: is this OK?

[ymc226]

I bought an old silver chrome collapsible Elmar 50/2.8 from a reputable dealer stating an EXC+ condition to try on the M Monochrom. Lens is for portraits.

Looking through the lens with a strong flashlight, there appears to be no haze but just tiny dust particles. The pictures though look "soft" wide open.

Can anyone opinionate whether the attached pictures look normal for this lens?

2.8

4

5.6

8

11

16

 

[siracusa]

IMO the dust is not a problem - vintage lenses will always show something when you shine a strong flashlight through them. The Elmar 50 2.8 is softer wide open than a modern lens, but as your test shots show, it sharpens up stopped down. By F8 it is plenty sharp. In real life shooting when you aren't photographing test charts, it's going to be fine. Great for portraits at F2.8. So I personally wouldn't worry. IMO your lens is fine - it's just a vintage lens.

Edit: The caveat in this is that I've never photographed a test chart, so it's harder for me to say how "normal" this looks than it would be to see a real world photograph. But the fact that your lens sharpens considerably stopped down suggests to me that it's fine. These are soft/softer wide open, but test charts will probably exaggerate our awareness of that softness.

 

[Roger Hicks]

Looks fairly typical to me.

Cheers,

R.

 

[ferider]

Seems to front focus quite heavily.

 

[ymc226]

Thank you all. I guess I need to send the lens to DAG for fixing as well.

 

[gdi]

I agree that it seems to be front focusing, assuming you focused on the "0" or vertical target. The "2" looks much sharper at 2.8 and 4.0.

 

[V-12]

Can anyone opinionate whether the attached pictures look normal for this lens?

I would agree the lens seems to front focus, but there is nothing 'normal' about using a test chart with a rangefinder camera, too many possible variables aside from the lens. A better test it to use it photographing the things you normally photograph.

 

[gb hill]

Go out & shoot normal photo's. Then you can decide wether or not the lens is preforming to standards. Heck, your shooting with a digital so it isn't like you are wasting a roll of film. I think the lens will serve you well.

 

[ymc226]

Go out & shoot normal photo's. Then you can decide wether or not the lens is preforming to standards. Heck, your shooting with a digital so it isn't like you are wasting a roll of film. I think the lens will serve you well.

That's good advice. I will shoot at all apertures for close up portraits and see if the results are good enough for me.

As an aside, this is what my cosmetically mint rigid Summicron does at f/2:

This is using a tripod and a 1.4 magnifier. Needless to say, this lens just got shipped to DAG today.

 

[notraces]

I never understand why people waste their time with these tests. And -- how do we know the scanner you're using is focused properly? Way too many variables and silliness.

If you bought the lens to take portraits, then, take some portraits and see how the negatives look. Hopefully, you have a decent loupe and light table. Go out and take some portrait - focus on the eyes of your subject -- put the negs on the light table and take a look -- you should be able to tell pretty quickly if there's a focus issue (provided you used a steady tripod - focused properly - etc...

 

[ymc226]

I understand you notraces. I just have been taking pictures for about a year with my M9-P with various lenses noting one lens to be sharp, (21 SEM ASPH) similar to all of the pictures posted on the various Leica forums.

The other lenses were soft even focusing with the magnifier. Mind you, these were taken handheld in daylight. I could not get them to be sharp at all. Theses lenses (50 Lux ASPH, 35 Cron ASPH, 21 Lux ASPH) were all bought new as well as the M9-P. I took all of theses pieces (over several trips) in person to Leica service in Allendale NJ and they confirmed while I waited that both the camera and the lenses were all out of spec.

That's why I am a little paranoid.

Still waiting for the Leica M9-P, 35 Cron and 21 Lux to be returned from service.

 

[gdi]

ymc, there is nothing at all wrong or abnormal with using a test chart to test focus when you are seeing problems, no matter what you are being told. Just going out and shooting picture to see what happens when you have already confirmed that the system is front focusing is what is silly (it looks the rigid seems to have the same problem). If you want to figure out where the problem lies - camera RF or lens calibration - you need to control the conditions as best you can, and the chart and a tripod is much more controlled than just shooting pictures and looking at the results.

Hearing that you are having this problem with multiple lenses, and seeing the two you've shown misbehaving in a similar manner, is a strong indication that the RF cam of the M9 may need to be tweaked, and that has been confirmed by the service center. When you get all components back you'll likely find that you can then be sure how each lens works on a well calibrated camera. If it were me, I would then test each lens again- using your test chart - at each aperture setting to understand if there is any focus shift, so I could compensate as needed.