A pro colleague has a problem with his Nikon D1. Image looks sharp in the finder and on the LCD but when downloaded is unsharp. Shot with manual focus not AF. Lens works fine on F5. A puzzle. I know this is not really a Leica question but if anyone has any ideas or contacts I'll pass them on. To me, it seems yet another reason why Leica should steer clear of high-end digital.

-- David Killick (dalex@inet.net.nz), February 21, 2002

Answers

While your colleague might be facing a real problem, your conclusion does not make sense: most pîctures in today's mainstream news and sports mags are shot on digital. And they are sharp. Only a very marginal portion of news pics might still be shot through a Leica. This is yet another reason why leica should urgently publish its high- end digital roadmap.

-- Jacques (jacquesbalthazar@hotmail.com), February 21, 2002.

May be Jacques. But not before the bugs are ironed out.

-- David Killick (dalex@inet.net.nz), February 21, 2002.

If the problem is that the image is sharp somewhere behind where your friend actually focussed, this is a widely known "backfocus" problem with the D-1. Most frequent complaints seem to be with the 20-35 or 17-35 lenses. Have him check out the D1 forum at www.robgalbraith.com for messages covering that subject and just about every D1 subject imaginable.

-- Dave Zapotosky (davezap@accesstoledo.com), February 21, 2002.

I owned a Fuji FInepix S1-PRO (based on Nikon body)and recently switched to a Canon D30 and have not had such a problem so it is definitely not endemic to digital SLRs. In fact my D30 sees most of its action with Leica R lenses.

-- Jay (infinitydt@aol.com), February 21, 2002.

Jay, How does that D30 prform with those Leica R lenses? Is an adapter needed? Got any images up on the web?

-- Don M (dmaldonadomd@excite.com), February 21, 2002.

Dave's diagnosis sounds bang on. Sounds like what's known in computerspeak as "a known issue". Many thanks and I'll pass the info on.

-- David Killick (dalex@inet.net.nz), February 21, 2002.

Thanks for the Nikon posts! I have a similar problem with Kodak DCS620X - an F5 based model- especially with 17-35mm lens. Also sometimes this camera as well as a film F5 will focus, take a picture and then immediately defocus the lens. Igor

-- Igor Osatuke (visionstudios@yahoo.com), February 21, 2002.