My newly acquired M3 does not focus as close (0.9m) as some of my lenses (0.7m). How can (DIY) I adjust the close focus of my M3?

-- chris chen (chrischen@msn.com), February 27, 2002

Answers

http://greenspun.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg.tcl?msg_id=004LL9

I covered the modification in detail in the above post from the archive.

-- Andrew Schank (aschank@flash.net), February 27, 2002.

Take off lens and back door from your M3, look at the mecanism of following arm, figure out how it work and why it stops from focusing closer (is quite obious) then push that little pice of metal that stops in the rund base, I did it with mine, was quite easy, I followed instructions in this forum, JUST BE CAREFUL NOT TO GO VERY FAR AND MISS INFINITY FOCUSING. Hope some one can explain better.

-- r watson (al1231234@hotmail.com), February 27, 2002.

Thanks Andrew!

-- r watson (al1231234@hotmail.com), February 27, 2002.

As Andrew notes in his original thread, some early M3s can't be adjusted to focus all the way down to the minimum. My '55 will focus down to about 0.75m, but the last couple of inches of lens focus aren't coupled to the rangefinder. After adjustment, my '59 works throughout the entire range.

-- Mike Dixon (mike@mikedixonphotography.com), February 27, 2002.

Here's a little trivia about the later 50mm M Summicrons-the current lens focuses slightly closer than any of the earlier tabbed versions. After I made the adjustment, my M3 would focus all the way to the minimum with the older tabbed 50mm lens I had, but the current 50mm f2.0 lens I now own(with built in hood)focuses closer and I can't get the M3 couple for the last inch or so. Let us know how you make out with your "modification".

-- Andrew Schank (aschank@flash.net), February 27, 2002.

Thanks alot for the information! I made the adjustment on my ´63 M3 today and it was very simple! I took a small plier to bend that piece of metall alittle backwards without putting any pressure on the cam. Took me about 5 minutes and now the lens focusses to 0.7 m. J.S.

-- Jürgen Schliehe (juergen.schliehe@t-online.de), March 01, 2002.