Correction: It does front focus pretty heavily but it actually focuses beyond infinity when set to the mechanical stop. That's weird. The front focus is indisputable (focus on the text by the arrow):
The next thing is more interesting - the beyond infinity. This is the test scene, shot from a tripod:
I started off at mechanical infinity, which is the first image. Then I pulled back ever so slightly (#2) then a bit more (#3) and finally even more (#4). Of the focus bracketing #3 was really sharp.
Looks like your run of luck ran out, and you need a lens calibration. That's pretty wacky. You could try tweaking the rangefinder wheel, if you feel up to using a hex key, but I think you can't correct the infinity stop and the front-focusing at the same time.
Funny, my 75 cron revealed my rangefinder was out of calibration. Mechanical infinity is always a little 'iffy' on telephoto M lenses though.
carstenw wrote:
Looks like your run of luck ran out, and you need a lens calibration. That's pretty wacky. You could try tweaking the rangefinder wheel, if you feel up to using a hex key, but I think you can't correct the infinity stop and the front-focusing at the same time.
You can, by adjusting the focus throw... But that's not something I'd recommend others do, I'm a little surprised I did it given the cost of the camera. Oh wait, you can adjust infinity convergence if your rangefinder is saying you're not reaching infinity or are beyond infinity when the lens is at mechanical infinity, but you cannot adjust mechanical infinity of a lens yourself. Especially not on a floating element lens like the 75 Cron.
Dan, wow .. awesome shots! Love the ZM 25 shot. I almost prefer the ZM 35 C Biogon shots. I really like the portrait with the 75 Cron Apo too
Joakim, congrats on the 50 Lux! Really nice shots! Just love the feel to the shots. The 50 Lux is definite favourite
Luka, congratulations with 75! Love the leaf shot The lens does have amazing rendering qualities IMO. It does appear there is front focus issue. Could be the M9 or the 75 Cron. Have you checked it against the 90 Elmarit?
Joe, nice shot
Adam, I am with you here. There is a difference in finding a RF package that works for taking portrait shots. Whether it is 90, 85 or 75 is not an issue for DSLR's. Actually my favourite FL is 105mm for portraits, but then the lens I had was the classic Nikkor 105mm. Moving to Canon it is the 85L II and the 135L. My perspective it really depends on rendering and design of the lens that is availble in the FL and the useability factor. With the ZE's it is the 100MP. The MFD whether it is 0.7m or 1m is large factor for me, as you are limited already with the RF. I find a MFD of 0.7m is very workable, but I now find a MFD of 1m can be frustrating now. So having both the 90 Cron (On its way to Solms to be repaired), and the 75 Cron (on its way from Austria...just purchased), will be great for portrait shots. On travel trips, I will only take one of the lenses. But these two lenses, I really like the rendering, and the IQ they portray. They are both different, unique and more of the modern Leica look. More importantly, the 75 to 90 FL for the RF seems to the max optimum for focusing with a well calibrated setup.
Thanks Charles, I almost didn't manage to edit that shot, but I have refined my blending technique to look passable. It was 3 exposures and a rapidly receding tide made finding a good boulder to shoot tricky. It was taken at the Moeraki boulders near Dunedin, quite surreal.
75 Cron. This is what I was talking about before, this is a single exposure and the highlights were recoverable and none of the shadows clipped.
12mm CV again
I posted the unedited version of this a while back, they're very similar, this one just has a bit more detail in the shadows and the highlights brought back from a bracketed image.
18mm Distagon
Annoyingly, that last shot was the last point (half way) on a 19km hike (1km of vertical gain!) to get water... and the water cup and half the rope was missing.
carstenw wrote:
Looks like your run of luck ran out, and you need a lens calibration. That's pretty wacky. You could try tweaking the rangefinder wheel, if you feel up to using a hex key, but I think you can't correct the infinity stop and the front-focusing at the same time.
I toyed with the rangefinder calibration a bit until I realized that it was perhaps not a good idea and that it should probably be done in a more systematic way. There was however no problems in restoring it back to correct settings.
I'll try to exchange it for a new copy today. I have not seen any return policy on the website of the store where I bought it, but hopefully I can convince them just to hand me a new copy instead of sending it in for repair. I've heard horror stories about the time Leica takes to calibrate a lens and/or camera.
charles.K wrote:
Luka, congratulations with 75! Love the leaf shot The lens does have amazing rendering qualities IMO. It does appear there is front focus issue. Could be the M9 or the 75 Cron. Have you checked it against the 90 Elmarit?
Thanks Charles. I have checked it against my Zeiss 35 Biogon. The Zeiss focuses perfectly both at MFD and at mechanical infinity. No, it's the cron alright. At about 10-15 meters the rangefinder and the lens are in sync:
It's really unforgivable given the price of the lenses that Leica quality control is so poor. Ok, I can understand a rangefinder alignment getting out of whack in transport. There is really no such excuse for the lenses though.
thrice wrote:
You can, by adjusting the focus throw... But that's not something I'd recommend others do, I'm a little surprised I did it given the cost of the camera. Oh wait, you can adjust infinity convergence if your rangefinder is saying you're not reaching infinity or are beyond infinity when the lens is at mechanical infinity, but you cannot adjust mechanical infinity of a lens yourself. Especially not on a floating element lens like the 75 Cron.
Yeah, I can go so far as to play with the horizontal range finder calibration (which I did) but I'm not going to try to disassemble the lens - especially as I think there is a good chance I can just exchange it for another copy.
Beautiful shots Dan! My favorites are the CV 12mm photos of the two round rocks.
Thanks really a specialty lens, I have a ton of cathedral interiors I'll try and get around to processing from NZ. Just landscapes for now.
Sucks about your 75 Cron, and yes, for 'hand-assembled' products Leica gets it horribly wrong sometimes... Surprisingly often with the 75 cron - one guy got two in a row with upside down aperture rings!! (ie. numbers on the bottom) WTF?! Unforgivable and yes you should get a direct swap.
Luka, yes it is damn frustrating Just exchange it for a new one and test it out in the store. If needed, the turn around at Solms is about 3 weeks, and for a local authorized dealer it only takes a day or two. My 50 Lux went there, and it is great now. My situation is that these lenses were about 5 to 10 years old, bought second hand as is, so I accept that responsibility. But new, they should be set as per the master calibration. Good luck!
I must admit when I acquired Canon L series lenses, there are a number of them that now in hind sight should have been sent back or recalibrated, the 50L, 35L and the 85L I, previously when I had the 5D and there was no calibration adjustment.
Tough luck with the 75 cron and I agree with you that quality control for such an expensive lens should be much better, I guess I need to do some more specific testing of my 50 Lux as well but so far it looks good.
thrice wrote:
Surprisingly often with the 75 cron - one guy got two in a row with upside down aperture rings!! (ie. numbers on the bottom) WTF?
. I guess they should introduce a rule for the people that assemble the lenses forbidding them to work while drunk
charles.K wrote:
Luka, yes it is damn frustrating Just exchange it for a new one and test it out in the store. If needed, the turn around at Solms is about 3 weeks, and for a local authorized dealer it only takes a day or two. My 50 Lux went there, and it is great now. My situation is that these lenses were about 5 to 10 years old, bought second hand as is, so I accept that responsibility. But new, they should be set as per the master calibration. Good luck!
Thanks Charles. Unfortunately there is no local authorized service in Sweden. The closest one is in Denmark. Three weeks does not sound too bad though. I've heard 6-7 weeks and that would be a real problem as I'm going to Egypt in about six weeks. It was one of the reasons why I got a tele lens for the M9 - so I can leave my 5DII at home.
joakim wrote:
Tough luck with the 75 cron and I agree with you that quality control for such an expensive lens should be much better, I guess I need to do some more specific testing of my 50 Lux as well but so far it looks good.
It did not take too much testing to see the 75 cron was out of whack though as it misses infinity by a large margin.
My bad luck did no end there though. This is what the Elmarit looks like:
100% crop:
I'm not 100% sure that it's fungus. It could be just dirt. I have however discovered a mechanical problem with it. The rangefinder coupling is off - it stops before infinity. When I reach the mechanical stop I'm still getting heavy double vision. Yesterday was really not my day
the 75 cron does have a problem with blue veiling flare when bright indirect light hits the front element.
. I guess they should introduce a rule for the people that assemble the lenses forbidding them to work while drunk 
