Ljós
Well-known
Folks,
this writeup is a bit on the long side, and I may be totally wrong. So please share your thoughts and experiences. The CLE-Rokkor has so many followers on RFF, it should be possible to get to the bottom of this.
In brief: I think the CLE-Rokkor couples down to about .75m, not .8 meters. And that means one has to be careful when using it on a CL (or any body, if there is one, that couples only to .8m).
Here goes:
putting my newly acquired Leica CL through its paces I checked, among other things, for alignment of the rangefinder. With my CLE-Rokkor at closest focusing distance the negatives (sorry, no pictures - developing my film as I shoot is the best I can do at this moment. I am so backlogged with printing in the darkroom (have to rent), it's not funny...), viewed with a loupe, showed a frontfocus of about 5 cm.
After looking at it in more detail, playing around with the Rokkor 40mm on my main shooter (M2), I realized that the Rokkor (mine at least
) actually focuses about 5cm closer than the 0.8 printed on the focusing scale, and the .8m mentioned in all the info on the net I could find.
I never ever read about this, and I thought/think I have read all the threads and shreds of information about this lens and the CL. Twice. ;-)
In detail: mounted on the CL, focusing ever so slowly past the 0.8 printed on the barrel the cam disengages, and I can turn the "0.8"-marking on the lens a few millimeters past the focusing index of the lens. Cycling back towards infinity, I can move the focus tab without the rangefinder patch in the camera moving, then at .8 there is a faint "bump" and the rangefinder kicks in.
On the M2, the lens is coupled all the way down, past 0.8. Focus tests with the Rokkor on my M2 and the lens at minimum focus show perfect focusing.
Another test: put my M2 with Color Skopar (close focus .7m) on a table, marked the position of the body and focused at 0.7. Switched lenses and checked how many cm I could pull back the M2 until the patch aligned. About 5 cm
My conclusion: the (my) CLE-Rokkor is capable of coupled close focusing to about .75m (typo corrected, thanks Joe B.) That's a good thing. It means the difference in close focusing capabilty between this fine lens and the likes of CV 40 1.4, or other modern M-mount lenses is only about 5 cm, not 10 cm.
And, more importantly: if used on a CL, it is a bad idea to rack the lens to minimum focus. The patch will show alignment, you think you focused at .8 m - and the lens will actually frontfocus by 5cm. When checking your combo for alignment, set the lens to .8m/the point where the cam on your CL actually engages. Otherwise you might experience frontfocus, even though your camera and lens actually are properly calibrated.
Gonna be interesting what you folks say. I never read about this, and in all the Rokkor-versus-1.4-Nokton-comparisons, there is always talk about .7 versus .8m.
All the best,
Ljós
this writeup is a bit on the long side, and I may be totally wrong. So please share your thoughts and experiences. The CLE-Rokkor has so many followers on RFF, it should be possible to get to the bottom of this.
In brief: I think the CLE-Rokkor couples down to about .75m, not .8 meters. And that means one has to be careful when using it on a CL (or any body, if there is one, that couples only to .8m).
Here goes:
putting my newly acquired Leica CL through its paces I checked, among other things, for alignment of the rangefinder. With my CLE-Rokkor at closest focusing distance the negatives (sorry, no pictures - developing my film as I shoot is the best I can do at this moment. I am so backlogged with printing in the darkroom (have to rent), it's not funny...), viewed with a loupe, showed a frontfocus of about 5 cm.
After looking at it in more detail, playing around with the Rokkor 40mm on my main shooter (M2), I realized that the Rokkor (mine at least
) actually focuses about 5cm closer than the 0.8 printed on the focusing scale, and the .8m mentioned in all the info on the net I could find.I never ever read about this, and I thought/think I have read all the threads and shreds of information about this lens and the CL. Twice. ;-)
In detail: mounted on the CL, focusing ever so slowly past the 0.8 printed on the barrel the cam disengages, and I can turn the "0.8"-marking on the lens a few millimeters past the focusing index of the lens. Cycling back towards infinity, I can move the focus tab without the rangefinder patch in the camera moving, then at .8 there is a faint "bump" and the rangefinder kicks in.
On the M2, the lens is coupled all the way down, past 0.8. Focus tests with the Rokkor on my M2 and the lens at minimum focus show perfect focusing.
Another test: put my M2 with Color Skopar (close focus .7m) on a table, marked the position of the body and focused at 0.7. Switched lenses and checked how many cm I could pull back the M2 until the patch aligned. About 5 cm
My conclusion: the (my) CLE-Rokkor is capable of coupled close focusing to about .75m (typo corrected, thanks Joe B.) That's a good thing. It means the difference in close focusing capabilty between this fine lens and the likes of CV 40 1.4, or other modern M-mount lenses is only about 5 cm, not 10 cm.
And, more importantly: if used on a CL, it is a bad idea to rack the lens to minimum focus. The patch will show alignment, you think you focused at .8 m - and the lens will actually frontfocus by 5cm. When checking your combo for alignment, set the lens to .8m/the point where the cam on your CL actually engages. Otherwise you might experience frontfocus, even though your camera and lens actually are properly calibrated.
Gonna be interesting what you folks say. I never read about this, and in all the Rokkor-versus-1.4-Nokton-comparisons, there is always talk about .7 versus .8m.
All the best,
Ljós
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Ljós
Well-known
Giving this a bump after three weeks. No one else have any experience/observation with this?
All the best,
Ljós
All the best,
Ljós
ferider
Veteran
Interesting, Ljós. I never noticed it because I practically very rarely shoot that close; usually use a longer lens to get in closer. I wonder how the CLE (camera) behaves.
Graham Line
Well-known
What ferider said: for close distance work I prefer an slr. BUT, the CLE with the M-Rokkor 40/2 appears to focus and frame reliably at 29"-30", which does work out to a little less than the .8 meter distance marked.
Bear in mind that the CLE rangefinder has a longer effective base length than the CL and is a completely different mechanism.
I'm assuming that .75cm in your message is a typing error and you meant to say .75 meters, which would make the difference .05m. Not worth thinking about.
The patch on the CLE doesn't show coinciding images at less than the minimum focusing distance.
Bear in mind that the CLE rangefinder has a longer effective base length than the CL and is a completely different mechanism.
I'm assuming that .75cm in your message is a typing error and you meant to say .75 meters, which would make the difference .05m. Not worth thinking about.
The patch on the CLE doesn't show coinciding images at less than the minimum focusing distance.
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