Dear all Based on discussion in this forum, I have just bought a used Elmarit M90 lens, the current version. The lens looks almost as new, also glasses ar fine. Focusing is smooth. However, compared to my 35asp and 50 Summicrons, the focusing mechanism needs more force, too much for my taste. Is this normal or indicative of a defect? How could it be adjusted? I would be happy to receive your comments/answers!

-- Bruno Mueller (B.Mueller@molbio.unizh.ch), December 20, 2001

Answers

Mine is the same. I think it's normal.

-- Ray Moth (ray_moth@yahoo.com), December 20, 2001.

Hello Bruno, Congradulations with your elmarit-m 90. I also have that lens (in silver) and I like it a lot. My focusing mechanism is also a bit heavy and as far as I know, it is normal. This is probabely done to allow very fine focusing. In normal use it is no problem for me and I don't see how or why it must be changed. Good luck,

-- Frederik Boone (frederik.boone@harol.be), December 20, 2001.

Many thanks for your replies! I am happy that my concerns turned out to be wrong, and I am looking forward to taking pictures with the new lens. merry christmas! Bruno

-- Bruno Mueller (B.Mueller@molbio.unizh.ch), December 20, 2001.

Just in case you're interested, I also found that out, felt that same stiffness in several samples (2.8/90). This stiffness (which I, too, don't feel in my 2.0/35 and 2.0/50) is even greater (stiffer) in the 75s and 2.0/90AAs I've used.

-- Michael Kastner (kastner@zedat.fu-berlin.de), December 20, 2001.

Bruno: I purchased the 90 Elmarit new out of the box and from day one it is a little "stiff". I really do not use the lens much but I have gotten used to this. All my other lenses are not as "stiff" as my 90.I also believe this is intrinsic to the design, for some reason.

-- John Alfred Tropiano (jat18@psu.edu), December 20, 2001.

That's funny. I have the 75 lux and the focusing isn't stiff at all. Same as the 90 Tele Elmarit. I have noted that several examples of the 90 SAA that I have tried in the past had stiff focusing. The repair folks at Kindermann told me that its the viscosity of the lubricants in the focusing mount that partially governs stiffness? Personally, I like all my lenses to have uniform stiffness (light effort) because when the temperature drops they tend to get ALOT stiffer.

-- John Chan (ouroboros_2001@yahoo.com), December 20, 2001.

My Elmarit is a little too stiff too. One just has to learn to love it.

-- Robin Smith (smith_robin@hotmail.com), December 20, 2001.

Bruno

It is my experience that the resistance to movement of all longer Leica lenses is greater than that of the 50 and shorter focal lengths, enough so that I think this is done deliberately. This resistance should decrease with use. The lubrication could probably be adjusted by an expert repairman, but I don't recommend tinkering with a new Leica lens without a very very good reason.

-- Eliot (erosen@lij.edu), December 20, 2001.

My 35mm Summicron ASPH is extraordinarily smooth in focusing. When I got a 28 Summicron, I noticed the focusing was not quite as silky smooth. Nothing wrong, but just a tad more resistance. Obviously, there are differences, even between similarly sized lenses. By the way, the 28 and 35 are, in my opinion, the best lenses I've ever owned. I am impressed!!!!

-- Tom (therbert@miami.edu), December 20, 2001.

Another data point- my 90 Elmarit M, very new, LN out of the box, is also quite stiff.

-- Tse-Sung (tsesung@yahoo.com), December 20, 2001.

The focusing stiffness of 90 lenses is known problem or could be an advantage. May be it was done so on purpose for using like focus lock. For one thing that I found it can be used to hold the lens differently. Please check of this old thread: http://www.greenspun.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg.tcl?msg_id=0038j2

-- kenny chiu (amchiu@worldnet.att.net), December 20, 2001.

There seems to be a correlation between the length of the lens and its stiffness: the longer ist is, the stiffer. At least it is the case with my 35, 50 and 90er lenses. And many answers in this thread support this idea. This correlation could be due to the facts that longer lenses have to move more in/out than shorter lenses when focusing them. In other words, a given movment of the focusing tab is translated into a bigger movement in long lenses copared to short ones. Hence longer lenses need more force and feel "stiffer".

-- Bruno Mueller (B.Mueller@molbio.unizh.ch), December 21, 2001.

So why do my Nikkor teles not feel any stiffer than my Nikkor normal lens?

-- Mani Sitaraman (bindumani@pacific.net.sg), December 21, 2001.

Hm, eiher my hypothesis is wrong :-( or Nikon has compensated for this effect and Leica did not, or...?

-- Bruno Mueller (B.Mueller@molbio.unizh.ch), December 21, 2001.

Don't get me wrong-its an insightful and plausible hypothesis. If anything stiffness should go up exponentially with focal length, because of the compounded effect on increased length of travel for a given angular movement of the focusing collar, and the increased mass of longer lenses.

-- Mani Sitaraman (bindumani@pacific.net.sg), December 21, 2001.

Bruno: I asume that's normal, as my 2/90 m, feels the same and my old 2.8/60 macro elmarit R. wich of course needs to be tight for delicate macro focusing.

-- Marco Hidalgo (marco_hidalgo@hotmail.com), January 18, 2002.