G1 Seems to be backfocusing...(warning dialup, several images)

[StuartR]

Hello all, I was just wondering if any of you had some advice for me. I recently bought a user Contax G1 and 45/2 planar from a local student. I have been both pleased an disappointed with it. I only paid 200 dollars for the pair, so that makes it all a bit more bearable. The problem is that most of the shots I have taken with the camera have turned out to be rather soft. I shot the first roll in the evening at the beach, so many of the shots were at slow shutter speeds and shot wide open. I have shot this way many times with Leicas and have not had a problem.

I wanted to make sure that everything was in order so I set up a test at home and put the camera on the tripod. Here are two shots, one with the 45mm planar at f/2, and the other with the 90mm sonnar at f/2.8 (I bought this right after I got the G1 and 45). The 45mm seems to be much more off than the 90mm for some reason, yet both are definitely off. If you look carefully you can see the sprigs of lavender towards the rear are sharper than those in the front. In both photos I pointed directly at the butterfly's center and held down the focus button halfway while recomposing.

In comparison, here is a shot taken with the 90mm M-Hexanon at the same aperture:

In normal use it also seems to be backfocusing. Here is a shot of a magnolia taken at f/2. The point of focus was the blossom, but it appears to be the branch behind it that is in sharpest focus:

And at a distance, this shot at the beach is quite soft, though it does not appear to be from camera shake:

A crop from that shot...I focused on this kid:

So, my question is do I send it in for repair, or this a problem with my technique? I know from seeing other's results that these lenses should be bitingly sharp, and they just aren't for me. So if it does need repair, who does it go to now that Contax is dead?

 

[Socke]

I noticed the display on my G1 to be up to 2/3 feet to far but haven't noticed anything in the pictures, yet.

Mine is overdue for service since I still need the ROM update for the 35, but I've allways a film in it which I need to fill


One problem is the the AF indicator, the AF point may not be in the center of the area indicated by the brackets.
But to be true, your pictures don't look as if the AF locked on anything else.

 

[arothaus]

Hello,
have you checked the distance shown at the display with a rule?

 

[Issy]

http://www.focustestchart.com/chart.html

If you want to be really scientific, use the chart at the bottom of this page(mounted at 45 deg to the plane of the film), but I would mount it on it's side so the focus target line is vertical, and test the camera that way to confirm if there is an issue or not.

 

[KoNickon]

That's certainly a great price for the camera and lens. But I think if you're taking the time to carefully place the focus on an object and it's not focusing accurately, I think it needs service. You didn't say whether the camera has the green sticker in the film compartment; if not, then the camera has not been upgraded to work with the 35mm and 21mm lenses. I believe that they will check out the focusing generally when they do that upgrade, and I bet that will fix the problem. If it does already have the green sticker, then I guess it definitely needs servicing! The only question is whether Kyocera is still doing servicing on these cameras. I believe their U.S. service center is in New Jersey. I had this work done, and they checked out my 90 because it was not focusing correctly. They were very pleasant to deal with.