Carl Zeiss 50mm f1.4 Planar troubles

pentaxpete

pentaxpete

Messages
1,584
Name
Peter
Edit My Images
Yes
I have had my suspicions for a while about my 50mm f1.4 Carl Zeiss Planar T* on my 'Gift' Contax RTS II Quartz in that it seems to suffer from 'back focus' - I did a few tests and submit two -- the Ruin Wall was taken at f1.4, the Supermarket one was at f2.8
Focus was on the wall of the ruin but bricks in building behind are sharper
Back Focus 1 by Peter Elgar, on Flickr

Focus was on the wire baskets but the Old Gent is OUT and things inside are IN ---
Back Focus 2 by Peter Elgar, on Flickr
 
The lens doesn't suffer from back focus, it is the lens-camera combination.

Anyway, isn't this manual focus camera and lens?
 
Sounds like your focusing screen has slipped out of register/alignment.

Aren't they interchangeable on a Contax RTS? If so, take it out and put it back in carefully. Maybe it's taken a jolt over the years.
 
Richards explanation is the most plausible but also check that the pressure plate on the door is holding the film at the correct register distance.

Bob
 
Canon Bob said:
Richards explanation is the most plausible but also check that the pressure plate on the door is holding the film at the correct register distance.

Bob
Click to expand...

That reminds me of Leica problem, following mystery sharpness issues with the 50mm f/1.0 Noctilux lens. It turned out that if the camera was left unused for a while, the film that was sitting just out of the cassette would form a slight bend. When it was advanced to take a picture, the bent bit prevented the film from lying absolutely flat and with depth of focus (not field) being so very shallow at f/1.0, there would be an unsharp zone down the image - but only on that first frame. That's possibly another cause at f/1.4. Maybe a long-shot!
 
Thanks - last night I took out the focus screen carefully and put it back pushing carefully -- well today I wanted to go into garden and test with camera on tripod but 'the Boss' wants a new Microwave as ours gave up the ghost so so far no time -----
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top