Aris_Gavriilidis
Well-known member
Hello everyone,
A little while back I purchased what seemed to be a really nice copy of a Leica Elmarit - R 24mm f/2.8 lens, but I never got a chance to test it out until recently and I discovered a major optical problem. The entire right side of the lens, I'd say approximately the right 1/4 of the lens (perhaps more considering Dragon is 1.3x crop and thus can't see the entire image circle of this lens) is always soft no matter what, I've tested it at infinity on cityscapes and at closer objects, such as in this photo below, I thought something with letters would be the best thing to shoot in order to demonstrate.
This is indeed a bit unscientific, but what you see on the right is "perfect focus", the lens is physically not capable of getting any sharper. Even stopping it down to f/8 doesn't help that much. I'm a huge fan of the "leica look" and I got very excited to get my hands on this lens, but now I'm deeply disappointed. I am no lens expert, which is why I'm posting here in hopes of learning what exactly the problem might be. Is the lens decentered? Or is this something that would be caused by a mark on one of the glass elements? I contacted Duclos lenses and they did refer me to their Leica service center, but I'm a bit short on cash at the moment and I'm wondering whether or not it makes financial sense to send the lens over - since I'm based in Greece and shipping alone would be very expensive - given that I don't even know if it's something that can be fixed. Any info on what the optical problem could be and advice on what the best course of action is, will be deeply appreciated!
Thanks!
A little while back I purchased what seemed to be a really nice copy of a Leica Elmarit - R 24mm f/2.8 lens, but I never got a chance to test it out until recently and I discovered a major optical problem. The entire right side of the lens, I'd say approximately the right 1/4 of the lens (perhaps more considering Dragon is 1.3x crop and thus can't see the entire image circle of this lens) is always soft no matter what, I've tested it at infinity on cityscapes and at closer objects, such as in this photo below, I thought something with letters would be the best thing to shoot in order to demonstrate.
This is indeed a bit unscientific, but what you see on the right is "perfect focus", the lens is physically not capable of getting any sharper. Even stopping it down to f/8 doesn't help that much. I'm a huge fan of the "leica look" and I got very excited to get my hands on this lens, but now I'm deeply disappointed. I am no lens expert, which is why I'm posting here in hopes of learning what exactly the problem might be. Is the lens decentered? Or is this something that would be caused by a mark on one of the glass elements? I contacted Duclos lenses and they did refer me to their Leica service center, but I'm a bit short on cash at the moment and I'm wondering whether or not it makes financial sense to send the lens over - since I'm based in Greece and shipping alone would be very expensive - given that I don't even know if it's something that can be fixed. Any info on what the optical problem could be and advice on what the best course of action is, will be deeply appreciated!
Thanks!