rfaspen
[insert pithy phrase here]
OK, I've been using my film Ms and M8 happily for a while, but for reasons due to crop factor, I got an M9. I will let go of the M8 soon...but....
The M9 has serious focusing issues. After a lot of frustrating "testing", I find that nearly all of my lenses focus farther out than my subject (that which I focus on in the rangefinder). The worst offender is my favorite lens -- v4 summicron 50/2. However, almost all of my lenses exhibit this behaviour to some extent. Although my Canon LTM 50/1.4 (adapted to M) is almost spot on, odd.
All of my lenses focus quite well on the M8 and film Ms (including the Canon 50/1.4). So, I'm guessing a rangefinder problem in the M9. I don't know why the Canon works in the M8 and M9.
*My question: What does it mean if my lenses front focus more at farther subject distances than at close distance? For example, my summicron front focuses about 1 to 2 inches beyond the subject when the subject is at 1m from the camera. The same summicron front focuses 2 to 10 feet when my subject (that I focus on in the rangefinder) is at 30 feet. I'm hoping this behaviour provides some hint at exactly what is wrong with the rangefinder mechanism in the M9.
In addition, with most of my lenses I cannot get the rangefinder to reach infinity. In other words, I rotate the lens focus all the way to infinity (as marked on the lens), but the rangefinder images don't reach coincidence. The greatest difference between lens infinity and image non-coincidence happens with my summicron. For some reason I fully reach coincidence at infinity with my Elmarit 90 (old version). All of my other lenses are somewhere in between.
Other lenses in this case are M-Rokkor 90, Biogon 35/2, Canon 50/1.4, Canon 50/1.8, CV 35/2.5, and I guess that's all I've tested so far.
The M9 has serious focusing issues. After a lot of frustrating "testing", I find that nearly all of my lenses focus farther out than my subject (that which I focus on in the rangefinder). The worst offender is my favorite lens -- v4 summicron 50/2. However, almost all of my lenses exhibit this behaviour to some extent. Although my Canon LTM 50/1.4 (adapted to M) is almost spot on, odd.
All of my lenses focus quite well on the M8 and film Ms (including the Canon 50/1.4). So, I'm guessing a rangefinder problem in the M9. I don't know why the Canon works in the M8 and M9.
*My question: What does it mean if my lenses front focus more at farther subject distances than at close distance? For example, my summicron front focuses about 1 to 2 inches beyond the subject when the subject is at 1m from the camera. The same summicron front focuses 2 to 10 feet when my subject (that I focus on in the rangefinder) is at 30 feet. I'm hoping this behaviour provides some hint at exactly what is wrong with the rangefinder mechanism in the M9.
In addition, with most of my lenses I cannot get the rangefinder to reach infinity. In other words, I rotate the lens focus all the way to infinity (as marked on the lens), but the rangefinder images don't reach coincidence. The greatest difference between lens infinity and image non-coincidence happens with my summicron. For some reason I fully reach coincidence at infinity with my Elmarit 90 (old version). All of my other lenses are somewhere in between.
Other lenses in this case are M-Rokkor 90, Biogon 35/2, Canon 50/1.4, Canon 50/1.8, CV 35/2.5, and I guess that's all I've tested so far.