My ZM Parallax de-couples at 8.5, normal?

[JeffM]

Fellow Zeiss owners, your input is needed. Seems like I've been sending my ZM back to get fixed since I've bought it... the last time out of my own fault. I've been shooting happily with the ZI since it came back... and I JUST got it back.

Well, tonight during some close focusing I noticed that the parallax frameline movement stops / decouples at .8.5 meters. It's been so long since I've used this camera that I can't remember if this is this normal. Please tell me it is.

Opening up the back and running some tests on a tripod with opaque film and a lens that focuses to .7, the framing seems within tolerance, no cropping of what is inside the framelines as far as I can tell, even at close focus distance... it's pretty dark out so I can't test framing further out towards infinity. The patch aligns perfectly by the way, all the way down to .7 meters, and out towards infinity, film tested. So do the framelines couple all the way? Thanks.

 

[Doug]

There seems to be a little lash in the framelines movement near infinity on mine. It doesn't always return to the same point exactly, depending on how the focusing movement was done. Tiny movememts away from infinity and back may result in no parallax movement of the frame, for instance. This may be characteristic of the Z-I's RF design. Out of curiosity I checked this with my ancient M2 and slightly less ancient CLE and neither has any perceptible lash.

 

[jgeenen]

On my ZI, framelines are moving synchroneously with distance all the way from close focus to infinity, regardless which lens or which direction of focussing. However, with 50mm or wider lenses, the parallax correction between 8.5m and infinity is notable but pointless - I assume (I haven't checked it) that even with my 90mm Summicron the correction in the margins of framelines coverage.

 

[JeffM]

Thanks for the posts. I don't have any m lens longer than a 50 to test for framing accuracy, but it's definitely not movement lag, it's as if the coupling mechanism to the frame lines doesn't engage until exactly 8.5 m every time, no variation. I had to have the entire range finder mechanism swapped during the last repair, an expensive process I can't afford to repeat. Maybe something wasn't synced up right then... if so I have a feeling the fix wont be easy. If something is simply stuck that would be such a relief. It's something I could live with if the last repair wasn't so expensive and took months and months to get finished. Tony Rose is definitely the guy to go to for a ZI, but I don't want to break his willpower for good by calling him again with yet another problem.

 

[Doug]

...but it's definitely not movement lag, it's as if the coupling mechanism to the frame lines doesn't engage until exactly 8.5 m every time, no variation. I had to have the entire range finder mechanism swapped during the last repair, an expensive process I can't afford to repeat. Maybe something wasn't synced up right then...

You could be right on that last, and I'd think there's a warranty on that repair. Does the focus patch continue to move when crossing that 8.5m point or does it quit then too?

 

[JeffM]

The focusing patch moves past the 0.8.5 m mark and all the way down, a little past 0.7 m, and the focus is accurate... it's something I tested with film as soon as I got the camera back. The patch also syncs at infinity perfectly. It's just the framelines that stop at .8 1/2 meters. It's a subtle enough thing to miss when close focusing, as your eye tends to be on the patch, and like jgeenen said, the parallax change from .8.5 to .7 isn't much, but the framelines on my ZI definitely move only from 0.8 1/2 meters to infinity.

(sorry, I did mean .8.5 meters as opposed to 8.5 meters. I would have noticed no coupling from 8.5 immediately. This is a tiny amount we are talking about.)