Leica M3 and Summilux 50mm f1.4 asph

[madsolitaire]

I would like to ask fellow members who have the M3 and the 50 lux asph combo what their experience has been with close focusing. Although the lens barrel has the min focusing range as 0.7m (and closer), my M3 can only couple at 0.8m. Can anyone shed light on this?🙁

 

[Keith]

Hi Anna,

This would be similar to what happened when I put my 25mm Zeiss Biogon on a camera the other day ... the lens has a minimum focusing distance of .5 of a metre and just uncouples when it reaches the minimum focusing distance of the camer'a rangefinder. There's no problem ... it just means you can only use the camera's focusing system down the minimum that the rangefinder allows ... from there on to the lenses minimim it's distance guesswork! 🙂

 

[Justin Viiret]

I've got an M3 and a fairly late pre-asph 50 lux, and I can focus it all the way down to 0.7m; I suspect my camera body was adjusted at some stage in its past to work with the newer 0.7m lenses (like my 35/3.5 summaron) that were released with the M2.

You can probably get a Leica tech to do the adjustment for you -- I bet DAG could do it.

 

[payasam]

As thomasw_ says, you have the best body for a fast 50 mm lens. Needs adjustment for close focussing, though.

 

[madsolitaire]

Thanks everyone! Will ask the local technician if he can do the same for me.

Thomasw, can i ask which series is your M3? Mine is a double-stroke 843K series.

I also managed to get hold of the Leica M3 manual from the internet. According to that manual, the focusing range for M3 is three and a half feet (which works out to 1.06m) to infinity for a 50mm Summicron. I was quite surprised to read that. I suppose if I fit the 50mm lux to a later M model such as the M6 or MP, there would be no problem focusing at 0.7m?