Adjusting the Industar-61L/D for the Leica

And a digital body is a great way to test a lens if you do end up trying to adjust it. I do it with a loupe and a piece of tape across the film gate. No where near as accurate but its been workable for me.
 
Was looking at the screen on the camera before, just downloaded to the computer.

The focus seems pretty good but there is maybe a bit of a lack of contrast. The aperture ring is pretty loose so maybe some work needed after all.
 
I had different Industars and some 61 L/D´s, they actually never misfocussed on my Leica's nor on my FSU cams. So I guess Brian must have got one that had been mingled with. Also from other members here I never heard about any misfocussing, contrary to the old FED lenses that had been factory adjusted to work on one particular camera - like in the old Leica days.
 
After further testing the lens seems to focus pretty well if I start from infinity but going the other way it's a bit off. Guess I can live with that for a £20.

From what I've read I understand this is quite normal for rf lenses so if I replaced the I-61 with something better like a Canon 50mm f1.8 it would be quite likely to do the same?
 
I've heard about it happening, but I don't know how serious of a problem it really is. I think some examples of some lenses might be worse than others; I know a couple of my Soviet lenses seem a bit sloppy on the focusing, and you can feel a distinct jump as you change direction. Most of the time it seems to be down to wear, loosely fitting parts or bad grease. I know my I61L/D felt particularly sloppy until I stripped it down, cleaned it and re-greased it, but even now it feels like the lens mount is slightly loose due to enlarged holes in the mounting plate.

How does your I61 L/D feel? Any wobble? Any unusual jerks as you move through the focusing range?
 
Yeah the entire lens seems to wobble on the mount a bit. There's also a lot of play in the aperture ring and a little less in the focus ring. Like you can rattle it back an forth without actually changing the focus.

Once you get it moving proper though it seems smooth enough.
 
Sounds fairly standard. It could be wear on what I call the mounting plate, or it could simply be that the holes the screws go through are simply too large (the plate for the actual mounting mechanism isn't threaded, it's merely "pinched" between the back plate and the main body of the lens). unfortunately it's not fixable without machining a whole new part.

That said, the play in the focusing ring could probably be fixed via a relube. If you've got some jeweller's screwdrivers, some solvent, some relatively standard (and dense) lithium grease and a couple of hours, it's an easy enough job to do. I've done a few now, and you'd be amazed at how much better the lens handles afterwards. There's some instructions here or, if you're in the UK, I could do it for you.
 
I saw an I-61 L/D in the country and going quite cheap last week so I bought it, the other one I had was the plain I61, not L/D so I thought this would be an upgrade.

The L/D is in better nick than my original I61 but it's focusing closer than it should. Ie, I line up a row of film canisters and focus half way down them and the most focused point in the image is closer to me than the middle.

Now, the lens moves away from the camera as you turn the focus ring towards close focus so I figure that the optics in my lens need to be closer to the camera than they are right now (in relation to the part of the lens that moved the bit in the camera that then moves the rf patch, sorry I don't know the right terminology) does that seem right?

I'm pretty sure that's the way things need to go but most of the chat seems to be about adding shims to move the optics away rather than bringing them closer.

I've had my lenses apart and there's the split ring inside, I could machine that down but then I figure I could also just machine down (or even sand down with some wet and dry) the bit of the lens that moves the rf actuating arm?
 
If your lens front focuses, the lens is too "close" to the film. Therefore, you need to add shims. Think the other way. If you lens front focuses, you have to manually back focus a bit, right?
 
andephotographic said:
Ok, so adding shims under the split ring that the optics block sits against makes things worse, what am I doing wrong?
Click to expand...

I have not worked on this particular FSU lens, but in general if you're thickening the shim and that makes things worse then you need to make the shim thinner.
 
randomm said:
I have not worked on this particular FSU lens, but in general if you're thickening the shim and that makes things worse then you need to make the shim thinner.
Click to expand...

One would think so, but according to Alexander Voicu, front focusing should be corrected by adding shims not removing them.

My lens front focuses with no additional shims so to "go the other way" I'm going to have to remove material somewhere.

I have 2 of these lenses anyway and whichever one I don't use will be passed along to my father to use on a GF2 so rf coupling doesn't matter so I might just go for it and take some off.
 
Hi everyone,

Please excuse me for my false piece of advice. I haven't shimmed FSU lenses recently and my memory played a trick on me. You are right, it's the other way around. Front focus = decrease shim, back focus = increase shim. My apologies if my "piece of advice" gave you headaches.

All FSU lenses that I put my hands on had a slight tendency towards back focusing. In my experience, front focusing is quite unusual.
 
alexandru_voicu said:
Hi everyone,

Please excuse me for my false piece of advice. I haven't shimmed FSU lenses recently and my memory played a trick on me. You are right, it's the other way around. Front focus = decrease shim, back focus = increase shim. My apologies if my "piece of advice" gave you headaches.

All FSU lenses that I put my hands on had a slight tendency towards back focusing. In my experience, front focusing is quite unusual.
Click to expand...

No problem! At least you said to add when I needed to remove than the other way around!

I thought I had it right in my head but then the more I thought about it the more confused I got!

Just about to look at some test shots and see where I am now.
 
Reduced the split ring from 2.89mm to 2.5 and just back focusing slightly now so a wee shim in there should do the trick I think.

I still have a bit of discrepancy between focusing from close and focusing from infinity but I'm resigned to the fact thse cheap lenses will do this.
 
Unfortunately, all pictures in this thread on how to adjust Industar 61 LD are missing and not visible!? Can you please reload them again so that I can follow the instructions? Thank you!
 
Pictures are long gone, that project was over 10 years ago.







The construction is the same as the Industar-26M. Remove the light baffle at the rear of the I-61, take off the retaining ring that holds the barrel in the focus mount. Take out the screw that holds the barrel in place. I've used foil for shims, can also use paper.



Been very busy with work. When I get time, will get up a CLA for the I-26, same construction as I-61. The machining of the I-26 mount is much nicer. The I-61 is sharper.

I ended up converting the I-61L/D for use on the Nikon.




Then sold it...
 
Brian, would the later black bodied I 61 l/d lenses.. say from the early 1990s dis-assemble the same way as that silver one in your photos?
 
Yes- the construction is very-very close. Set screws holding in the focus ring and the DOF/Focus index ring. I improved the flare in the I-26M by putting the baffle from an I-61L/D into it. It's sitting on a 1952 Fed 1 now.







I bought 5 of them "need-work" for $45, made 3 good ones out of them, sold two of those, have two focus mounts for projects.
And have one that is perfect now, made in 1957.



I was hoping to transplant the barrel from the I-61L/D to the I-26M, the focus mount is that much nicer. Did not work.

I-26M, wide-open on the M9.



I found the I-61L/D that was given to me in return for doing a CLA several years ago...Construction is near identical. I used Vacuum pump grease for the I-61L/D, so focus is not as light as the I-26M.
 
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