Now that I own the J3

[valdas]

Well, bought that lens locally, paid 120 EUR, focus was stiff, so paid another 10 EUR for CLA. Now the lens is smooth, glass is very clean... but... on M body focus is off. Infinity is fine, but at closer distances it backfocuses. I am considering the following options:
- sell the lens;
- get the FSU body (locally I can get a decent/CLA'ed Zorki 4k for 20-25 EUR) and hope it will focus properly;
- adjust J3 so that it focuses properly on M body (probably won't do it myself, so it will cost additional money);
- use it "as is" on digital body only (I tested it on X-E1 and I quite like it).

What would you do?

P.S. I thought "Now that own the J3" and it immediately reminded me Sparks lyrics (and kinda same question):


Now that I own the BBC
What am I supposed to do with that thing

 

[taemo]

what adapter are you using, an inexpensive one or a voigtlander?

 

[valdas]

what adapter are you using, an inexpensive one or a voigtlander?

el cheapo from the *bay. but the same worked fine for J8.

 

[Huss]

Wait, you paid 10 EUR for a CLA?!!! That is $11.36!

In LA they'll charge you that just to park out front of the shop...

 

[daveleo]

^ I was equally amazed at this !!

My lab wanted $15 just to asses if they could properly CLA my lens !!!

 

[Ko.Fe.]

Nothing surprising here. Most of FSU lenses needs to be shimmed for M. I even have to shim it for FED-2 to get 1.5 as it is shown on my recent pictures in J-3 pictures thread.
If it focuses "before" shims to add, if "after" shims to be removed. Super easy. Lens block unscrew as one thing. The alignment of focus and aperture rings is not very difficult as well.

 

[ForestCap]

If it back focus a lot on M body, I guess it would also back focus when mounted on a FSU body.

My J-3 was a mess when I bought it. It didn't even focus to infinity on FSU bodies. I shimmed it, or rather say rebuilt it, for my Zorki-6. Now the focus is spot on at 1m, f/2, and focus to infinity is fine too. It even behave the same on my Canon L2 and Canon 7, which are considered to be "real Leica standard" bodies.

My suggestion is: Shim it yourself. With a piece of ground-glass or matte tape stick to the film rails, it's easy to observe and adjust, and repeat, until you hit. It takes time, but it's worth it.

 

[valdas]

Wait, you paid 10 EUR for a CLA?!!! That is $11.36!

In LA they'll charge you that just to park out front of the shop...

That type of work is still very cheap in Eastern Europe. I live between Vilnius and Helsinki and can do a good comparison. I still pay 1.4 EUR for film development in Vilnius, but when I am in Helsinki it cost 7-8 EUR. But so are different the salaries - average salary in Lithuania is about 800 EUR and in Finland >3000 EUR.

 

[Scrambler]

Well, bought that lens locally, paid 120 EUR, focus was stiff, so paid another 10 EUR for CLA. Now the lens is smooth, glass is very clean... but... on M body focus is off. Infinity is fine, but at closer distances it backfocuses. I am considering the following options:
- sell the lens;
- get the FSU body (locally I can get a decent/CLA'ed Zorki 4k for 20-25 EUR) and hope it will focus properly;
- adjust J3 so that it focuses properly on M body (probably won't do it myself, so it will cost additional money);
- use it "as is" on digital body only (I tested it on X-E1 and I quite like it).

What would you do?

P.S. I thought "Now that own the J3" and it immediately reminded me Sparks lyrics (and kinda same question):


Now that I own the BBC
What am I supposed to do with that thing

I own a calibrated for Leica J3 (bought it that way) and would recommend that you (1) accept that you cannot exactly get everything and (2) you can do better than you have. As has been suggested, adjust to get correct focus at a suitable (for you) near point. The infinity will cover. Greater than F2 will cover.

And yes, digital for manual focus is great.

 

[David Hughes]

Hi,

The J-3 is a version of the old CZ Sonnar designed for the pre-war Contax, I think/believe. Early ones were exact copies and later ones were improved or modified slightly.

So read this and you might see the answer:

http://www.rangefinderforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=155534

And if you are interested in a little background try here:

https://luminous-landscape.com/zeiss-sonnar-50mm/

I shall probably be drummed off of the forum for suggesting it but...

Regards, David

 

[valdas]

Hi,

The J-3 is a version of the old CZ Sonnar designed for the pre-war Contax, I think/believe. Early ones were exact copies and later ones were improved or modified slightly.

So read this and you might see the answer:

http://www.rangefinderforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=155534

And if you are interested in a little background try here:

https://luminous-landscape.com/zeiss-sonnar-50mm/

I shall probably be drummed off of the forum for suggesting it but...

Regards, David

Thanks David,

I am aware of this and surely could go for it... But I guess I bought J3 because it is cheap. Not that i can't afford Zeiss, but it's probably not the lens that I will use extensively, so spending money on something that will sit on the shelf is not a good idea to me.

 

[brbo]

Thanks David,

I am aware of this and surely could go for it... But I guess I bought J3 because it is cheap. Not that i can't afford Zeiss, but it's probably not the lens that I will use extensively, so spending money on something that will sit on the shelf is not a good idea to me.

And there is also the middle road. 1,5/50 Sonnar/J-3 in Contax/Kiev mount + Amedeo adapter. You will then have correctly calibrated lens through the whole range. If you pick the new (dedicated) Amedeo Adapter you also get rangefinder coupled focusing down to 0.7m.

 

[mburns]

Your lens seems to be within the factory specifications from your clear description. So pickup an FSU rangefinder to match it, one with a nice viewfinder.