50 f2.8 ELMAR & closest distance

[goldfish]

What is the closest distance of 50 f2.8 Elmar lense "Unfortunately with M

lenses you can't tell whether is it in focus or out of focus ..many thanks.

[terry_rory]

0.7 metres. And yes you can tell when it is in (or out of) focus with the Elmar-M 50mm. Just move your head slightly back and forth and you will see the rangefinder images converge/diverge as normal....

 

<a href=" title="Trevor Hare 2006"><img src="http://static.flickr.com/40/117163230_9470f1367c_o.jpg" width="750" height="530" alt="Pew" /></a>

[terry_rory]

<p> That last one was with an Elmar at 0.7 metres and this one was with a Summicron at 0.7 metres </p>

 

<a href=" title="Trevor Hare 2005"><img src="http://static.flickr.com/39/77623542_5778080841_o.jpg" width="511" height="715" alt="Jug & glass" /></a>

[david_l3]

My 1959 vintage 50mm Elmar (not Elmar-M) focuses to 1 meter.

[robert_haller]

dudes ... set 0.7 or even 1meter and stop down to 16 ... then you can go pretty close .. try it

[terry_rory]

F/16 indoors in low light as well Robert? You carry your tripod everywhere I assume? (You always use ISO 12800 film?) You think all manufacturers/designers of lenses with apertures wider than f/16 were having a bit of a giggle?

 

Maybe the whole idea of accurate rangefinder/SLR focussing mechanisms were pointless because we all crank it up to f/16 and don't bother focussing because 'near enough' will do and the DOF will cover the error?

 

"Unfortunately with M lenses you can't tell whether is it in focus or out of focus"

 

I don't get this.

 

What is the problem with focussing at 0.7 metres or 1 metre? If the rangefinder is correctly adjusted and the lens is correctly designed there is no problem.

[goldfish]

Thanks for all your comments and assistance.."Unfortunately with M lenses you can't tell whether is it in focus or out of focus " what I meant is Altough the object is too close to the lense,the lense keep focusing on the subject I mean there is NO change UNlike the SLR once the object is too close ot the lense it will become blurred.and one more question "what is the purpose of the front part of the lense that coming forward?..many thanks ,regards

[al_kaplan1]

Don't think of it "as the lens comes forward" so much as "the lens collapses". When you're not shooting with it you can push the lens back into the camera and make a more compact package out of your camera.

[john_shriver]

I think I see gold fish's real question. So I'll answer it, instead of being another wiseguy.

 

Early Leica cameras only focused to one meter. Sometime after the M3, they changed the cameras' rangefinder mechanism to focus all the way down to 0.7 meters. They also started making M lenses that focused to 0.7 meters.

 

Some M3 cameras can be modified to focus as close as 0.7 meters. Others can be modified to focus closer than 1 meter, but not all the way to 0.7 meters.

 

You can use these 0.7 meter capable M lenses on any M camera, but on older cameras they will de-couple from the rangefinder roller at 1 meter, or a tiny bit closer.

 

If you need to focus beyond what your rangefinder will do, you're down to using a tape measure.

 

Some models of the Nikon 50/2.0 and 50/1.4 lenses in Leica thread mount (made for Nicca cameras) focused to less than 0.5 meters. They had a tactile bump or hitch in the focusing mount to warn you when you were passing the 1 meter mark, and had to scale focus.