[Kalki]

I recently aquired an LX and it is only the second time i have really used a split screen focusing system. I just processed my first roll and some of my shots are horribly out of focus, i am pretty sure i was using the focusing screen correctly. I have never had any problems with focusing before so this has kind of bummed me out as i was excited about acquiring the LX.

One of the shots that puzzled me most was a portrait of my friend in the park, taken wide open at f2, he is completely out of focus with much of the background being in focus, a much wider depth of field than i would usually expect at f2.

Anyone got any ideas to what is going on here? I was originally thinking maybe the previous user had maybe had focus adjusted to suit their eye sight, perhaps this is a possibility? Or maybe it is just user error and i need to get the hang of split screen focusing?

Maybe it is time for a CLA,even though i was trying to avoid it as i can't really afford it and everything seems to be ok apart from this and a slight problem with the shutter speed indicator being out of sync.

[Kalki]

This is the photo of my friend, which i am pretty certain was taken wide open.

[clackers]

Focus looks to be on the rug under the girl, Kalki. Try doing the brick wall test.

[Moe49]

Which part of the photo did you use to 'line up' the split-image lines?

I would have used the vertical edge of the right arm of your shooting subject. Or the verticle edge of his face.

If you in fact focused in this manner, then there is the possibility your LX's lens mounting plate is mis-aligned with it's film plane. Has your LX any history of being dropped? This was the problem with my newly aquired LX, a few years ago. Somewhere in it's history it appears to have been dropped. I had sent it straight to Eric Hendrickson for CLA after purchase (had not shot any film with it yet), and he discovered and corrected the mis-alignment.

I was originally thinking maybe the previous user had maybe had focus adjusted to suit their eye sight, perhaps this is a possibility?

Yes. Well not so much 'focus adjusted', but viewfinder adjusted. You need to adjust the LX viewfinder diopter to suit your eyesight. The procedure is somewhere in the LX manual. The LX's with FA-1 viewfinders anyway, not sure about the other viewfinders.

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Last edited by Moe49; 05-08-2014 at 06:15 AM.

[Kalki]

Yes i used the vertical edge of his face. Will have a look at the manual!

What is the brick wall test?

Thanks guys.

[TER-OR]

The brick wall is flat, so you focus on that. If your image isn't in focus - there's something wrong with the focus screen. You'll know then if it needs to be adjusted. It will also tell you if the lens is decentered, though you'll need to be as close to perpendicular as possible...

[Kalki]

OK, so i think adjusting the diptometer is what i needed to do, after doing this the viewfinder and focusing seems much clearer. However this concerns me as i had to turn it pretty much all the way to -1.5, i don't wear glasses and have never had any problems with my vision, or is it completely unrelated?

[TomB_tx]

The LX can also have a problem with the mirror stop that positions the mirror relative to the focusing screen. As mine aged (bought new), the focus accuracy got worse, as the indicated focus on the screen was different than the focus on film. Check the focus at infinity - see if far-off items look sharp in the viewfinder with the lens at the infinity stop. I had Eric do a full service on mine, and he replaced the stop which controls the mirror angle, which fixed the problem.

[Moe49]

Check the focus at infinity - see if far-off items look sharp in the viewfinder with the lens at the infinity stop.

Word of caution:
Use a manual focus lens for this test. The manual focus lens infinity stop really is at infinitly. I found out the hard way that the infinity stop on my auto-focus lenses are just beyond infinity. Oops.
I was shooting my LX with FA*80-200mm at Fleet Week, and while shooting the far-away planes soaring about, I set the lens to what I thought was 'infinity' and got a whole roll of out of focus shots. Panic insued and I rushed my FA*80-200mm off to Eric for focus calibration. Eric informed me that my lens was in perfect working order, but that the auto-focus lenses need to able rotate their focus rings just beyond infinity to be able to lock focus at infinity with auto-focus cameras. So if a lens like the FA*80-200mm focus ring is turned all the way to it's infinity stop, the focus will be beyond infinity, and fugly.

[Kalki]

I have another question that may seem quite silly but i really am new to split screen focusing and am not too technical minded. What am i supposed to see in the split screen when my lens is set to infinity? Should everything i look at through the viewfinder then line up within the split circle? Thanks again.

[manntax]

Use a manual focus lens for this test. The manual focus lens infinity stop really is at infinitly. I found out the hard way that the infinity stop on my auto-focus lenses are just beyond infinity. Oops.

I have to disagree on this one - sadly but a vast majority of manual lenses can and DO focus past the infinity - very little of lenses are actually having the infinity at the hard stop. Check with a live view mode for yourself ! It is something to do with either accuracy of calibration for short lenses and extra tolerances added during assembling the longer lenses to accommodate the temperature changes and material expansions - so they say at least

>>-manntax-->

[johnha]

I have another question that may seem quite silly but i really am new to split screen focusing and am not too technical minded. What am i supposed to see in the split screen when my lens is set to infinity? Should everything i look at through the viewfinder then line up within the split circle? Thanks again.

Presumably you have the combination split-image & microprism collar screen? A vertical line is split by the split-image, this part of the subject is in focus when the upper & lower halves of the line are lined up. The micro-prism collar (surrounding the split-image) shimmers if that part of the subject is out of focus and is clear if it's in focus. If the micro-prism collar covers parts of the subject at different distances, then parts may shimmer whilst others are clear. The diopter adjustment only helps you to see the focusing aid/viewfinder info clearly if you need glasses - it should not affect the accuracy of focus unless you can't see the focus aid clearly enough.

With a lens at infinity (noting that they don't all always stop at 'infinity'), anything that's very far away should show up clear in the micro-prism collar and lined up in the split-image. If the upper & lower images in the split-image don't line up exactly at infinity but cross as you approach it, this suggests the lens doesn't stop at infinity.

The LX focus screen is interchangeable, it could be that the screen is not properly fitted to the cradle, or that the cradle is not properly clicked into place. The cradle is accessible from the lens mount.