Hexar/Leica Lens modification

[todd_phillips1]

A good friend and one time Nat'l Geo. photographer uses his Hexar

extensively with only Leica glass (he also has an M6). He has

experienced a focus problem (back focus?) with longer lenses. The

wides seem to be OK. He called Konica/Minolta and was told they no

longer do the $50 Hexar modification as "it doesn't work", and "yes,

we should have made it compatible with Leica lenses from the

begining".

 

So my friend calls a prominent independent repair person and was told

that, yes, Leica LENSES can be modified for correct focus on Hexars

and that this modification should have no effect focussing on Leica

cameras.

 

I had not heard of Leica lens modification. Has any forum member

heard of this or had it done? And if yes, does it show and

modification marks that might detract from resale value?

 

Thanks for quick responses, he's leaving on a trip very soon and I

told him I would pass along answers.

[jay_.]

Your friend is a good example of what I described earlier: someone who may be an excellent photographer technically and artistically but clueless to the laws of mechanics and optics that govern his craft. If there is a "back focus" disparity it will affect *all* lenses, and in fact would be more pronouced with wide angle lenses since they have much shorter extensions from infinity to close-focus and thus are more sensitive to changes in lens-to-film distance. Hard as it may be to comprehend, DOF does *not* "cover" errors in the optical register. What your friend is experiencing is probably a rangefinder issue, either a maladjustment or a result of the shortened effective baselength of the 0.6x finder. My Hexar was very sensitive to eye position, rather than flare like a Leica if not aligned exactly to the eye, the rangefinder images would separate just a hair.

 

Whoever the prominent independent repair person your friend spoke with, they either had a mutual misunderstanding or ??? because if there *were* a "back focus" disparity between the Hexar and Leica and the lenses were recollimated to the Hexar body, they would definitely not perform correctly on a Leica. There's no way they could.

[christian_hilmersen1]

To me it seems like your friend just has a problem focusing the longer lenses. 0.6 magnification isn't a lot, and the 90 frame is really tiny. A french mag. I read recommended not to use the hexar with teles.

 

When I bought my Hexar, I was told that it was release 2, and that the initial production problems had been solved. I have never heard of a release 2 before....so for now I'll interpret it as a sales pitch.

[patrick_jelliffe]

I sent my Hexar RF to Ken Ruth who shimmed the focusing mount .005, using his Super Angulon as the benchmark lens. This did improve accuracy, but because of the reasons Jay mentioned, I could never focus the RF consistently/accurately. Messing about with the collimation of the lenses will surely be more expensive than the lens mount adjustment. Cheers

[gerry_szarek]

FYI, I sent my RF to Konica NJ with a 135F4 all came back perfectly. Unfortunately I did NOT measure the flange to film plane distance before adjustment. This fix was "PERFECT". If you go to nemeng site he tells how to remove a shim between the mount and the body.

 

Do NOT modify the lenses there is NO reason to do so!!!!

 

For what it's worth, the RF focused fine with a 21, it did not however with my 28,35,50,90 or 135. The focus was always short. They all work great now.

 

Contact me offline if you need more info etc.

 

Gerry

[kevin m.]

Not enough information in your question to give an accurate answer. What "long lens" is your friend using? A 135mm? The Hexar is a .6 viewfinder, so it's not going to be as accurate for the longer glass as a .72 or .85 finder would be. Back focus is not a factor with long lenses.