Summilux-R 50mm f1.4 focus adjustment

[shawn]

I picked up an E55 Summilux-R 50mm f1.4 and found that it couldn't focus to infinity on my R bodies. Furthest focus distance was about 20' away. Turns out this is easy to adjust on the Summilux-R but took a little bit of work to get there. This would also work if your lens focuses past infinity and you want to correct that.

You really only need rubber ring tools and a lens spanner. The tricky part is the lens spanner needs to be very thin to get to the focus retaining ring. None of mine fit so I ended up having to modify one to work. I purchased one of these spanners.

I ended up having to use a bench grinder to really thin down the spanner so that it would fit in the lens properly.

The tips have to be quite thin or it won't fit down into the slots in the ring. This is my first flat bar based spanner and I prefer it to the two rod spanners. More solid when tightened down.

(Broken into multiple posts due to the 3 picture limit of the forum)

 

[shawn]

First step is to remove the trim plate on the lens using the rubber ring tool.

This just unscrews counter-clockwise.

Next up is using the spanner to remove the ring that holds the built in lens hood in place.

This also just unscrews counter-clockwise. Once you get the ring a little loose use the rubber tools to take it out the rest of the way, less chance of damage that way.

 

[shawn]

Now we are where we need to be. The focus ring includes the infinity stop. The focus ring is held in place against the helicoid by the focus retaining ring and it is just friction between the focus ring and the helicoid (based on the retaining ring) that adjusts focus.

The focus retaining ring to loosen (but not remove) is the outmost one down the outer sides of the lens.

Before you loosen it put your lens on the camera and optically focus to one of the marked distances on the lens focus ring. For example, optically focus on an object 15' away. Don't turn the focus till after the focus retaining ring is loosened.

Hold the lens such that you are preventing the focus ring and the lens body from turning relative to each other (changing focus) and use the thin spanner to loosen the focus retaining ring. After you loosen it bit (quarter of a turn should be enough) the focus ring will be able to spin without actually changing focus. Set the focus ring to the distance you optically focused at earlier. In the example above I focused at 15' so turn the focus ring to the 15' mark. Again hold so that the ring and body can't turn relative to each other and tighten down the focus retaining ring. Check your focus on camera and readjust as needed.

Then put the lens hood back in place and tighten down its retaining ring and then screw back in the trim plate.

Done!