M rangefinder alignment

[rxmd]

Hi,

I've come back home from a longer trip and picked up my M5 again, which has been sitting in a cupboard since April, only to discover that the rangefinder is out of horizontal alignment at infinity. It's the first time I'm confronted with a misaligned M rangefinder, hence the somewhat more detailed post here.

Two questions:

(1) Is it possible that the rangefinder drifts? It shouldn't, unless some eccentric screws turn all by themselves.

(2) I gather that the M rangefinder is relatively easy to adjust. At least as compared to the M. Adjust for infinity, check at 1m, adjust at 1m. (After adjusting for 1m, do I have to recheck at infinity? I call this the "Zorki loop", as it takes quite some time fiddling to get it right.) Sounds easy to do on the road, too. However most adjustment guides I read recommend to check at 10m as well. I guess this is for checking meter linearity. How crucial is this? On the road it might not always be easy to find a 10m target, and does meter linearity drift on the M or get knocked out easily?

The (earlier) Contax and Kiev still use a much better system, though.

Philipp

 

[pvdhaar]

Rangefinders going out of alignment can happen, especially when the camera receives a bump, or goes through big temperature variations.

The Leica M rangefinder adjustment is one of the more complicated ones, as in contrast to most RF's having three controls, Leica has four; horizontal (infinity), vertical, linearity, overtravel.

 

[JNewell]

Highly unllikely that anything changed just sitting there, unless you live in an area with lots of seismic activity or close to a major rail line or something like that.

Have you checked results with a couple of different lenses?

Vertical alignment is relatively straightforward, horizontal is not.

 

[rxmd]

OK, it looks like the lens is the culprit. It's a 50/2 and the difference is small enough that DOF eats up the focusing inaccuracy. Also it's a J-8 which needs a CLA anyway sooner or later. (If only Kim would send me back my J-3 at some point!)

What's more likely to get out of alignment during normal camera usage - vertical or horizontal? Given that horizontal alignment appears much more complicated to adjust than vertical, it would be nice if it was at least more stable.

 

[Olsen]

Philipp,

My general impression is that Leica is somewhat more reliable regarding rangefinder misalignment than other rangefinder cameras. Further; Leica has a world wide service organisation to fix it. - If your M5 hasn't been adjusted since it was new, then it is remarkable.

But this 'misalignment at infitity' has turned into a hysteria. I have a Zeiss Ikon that is off at infitity, but the pictures I get out of the camera is dead sharp. Both at infinity and close up. - So, what is my problem? My M8's rangefinder is dead on at infinity and other distances with all my lenses, but front focuses about 10 cm with my Noctilux 50 mm 1,0.

Before panicing; try out the camera and see if the rangefinder misalignment has any negative impact at all.