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Archive 2017 · Voigtlander 58 1.4 - cannot focus to infinity

  
 
buthurt
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p.1 #1 · p.1 #1 · Voigtlander 58 1.4 - cannot focus to infinity


Hey guys,

I have the opportunity to purchase a Voigtlander 58 1.4 SLII lens at a decent price. The only defect with the lens is that it cannot focus to infinity (i.e., when rotating the focus ring right to infinity hard stop, focus indicator shows additional right rotation is required). Just curious to see if anyone has seen similar issues on the 58/1.4 and experience repairing it - my understanding is that the QA on this lens is fairly good so I was surprised to see a sample with bad focus (there wasn't any signs of drops/previous repairs).

Thanks!



Dec 12, 2017 at 03:52 AM
hmzimelka
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p.1 #2 · p.1 #2 · Voigtlander 58 1.4 - cannot focus to infinity


Unfortunately this isn't that uncommon; In fact most Zeiss lenses I had all had various infinity hard stops. I had to settle on a third copy of my Makro Planar 100mm ZF, since the first copy very noticeably didn't reach infinity by the hard stop, and the second over shot it by a mile.

Also, different cameras can have different flange distances even if they are "within tolerances" although I have found camera flange variation to be much much lower than the infinity hard stop calibration of lenses. Also, lens focus can vary depending on temperature.

Anyways, can you buy a different copy or is it a private sale where you don't have a choice? Did you check whether infinity is reached in live view? It could also be that the AF module isn't indicating accurate focus for that lens, which isn't uncommon either.



Dec 12, 2017 at 04:45 AM
buthurt
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p.1 #3 · p.1 #3 · Voigtlander 58 1.4 - cannot focus to infinity


hmzimelka wrote:
Unfortunately this isn't that uncommon; In fact most Zeiss lenses I had all had various infinity hard stops. I had to settle on a third copy of my Makro Planar 100mm ZF, since the first copy very noticeably didn't reach infinity by the hard stop, and the second over shot it by a mile.

Also, different cameras can have different flange distances even if they are "within tolerances" although I have found camera flange variation to be much much lower than the infinity hard stop calibration of lenses. Also, lens focus can vary depending on temperature.

Anyways, can you buy a
...Show more

I actually had a chance to test the lens on both D600 and D800, and compared it against my 55/1.2 at same apertures. This should rule out any camera variance, and based on the images it was clear that the 58/1.4 was not sharp at all at infinity hard stop vs my 55/1.2, so I'm pretty certain that the infinity focus on 58/1.4 was not working right. Unfortunately this is a private sale (at a pretty good price), so I'm tempted to maybe attempt a fix after purchase or just shoot bokehs at 1.4.



Dec 12, 2017 at 05:32 AM
hmzimelka
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p.1 #4 · p.1 #4 · Voigtlander 58 1.4 - cannot focus to infinity


Ah, ok.

Infinity calibration isn't hard to do, it just depends on if you have these services around that can offer you the repair for a cost that still keeps the lens under the value of the same lens somewhere else.

Good luck.



Dec 12, 2017 at 05:49 AM
buthurt
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p.1 #5 · p.1 #5 · Voigtlander 58 1.4 - cannot focus to infinity


hmzimelka wrote:
Ah, ok.

Infinity calibration isn't hard to do, it just depends on if you have these services around that can offer you the repair for a cost that still keeps the lens under the value of the same lens somewhere else.

Good luck.


Usually not. If I can find some information as to how to tear this down I can probably do it myself.



Dec 12, 2017 at 07:13 AM
yishenh
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p.1 #6 · p.1 #6 · Voigtlander 58 1.4 - cannot focus to infinity


Hey, wondering if you end up fixing the infinity focus problem. My copy had the exact same issue. What was really screwed up was, if I tilt the lens up, it can reach infinity again. Tilting the lens down and it loses infinity focus. Seems like the internal unit was sloshing back and forth just a hair. Returned it right away.


Mar 03, 2018 at 03:02 AM





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