A handy improvement.

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The 7Artisans tab in place on the Canon 35mm f/2 LTM lens.

Leica originally fitted its 35mm lenses with a locking plunger as a focus collar aide. This would lock focus at infinity, making removal from the M’s bayonet mount easier (there’s little to grip at the base of the lens) as well as providing purchase for the left index finger for focusing. It works well.

Some time in the 1960s this plunger gave way to a shaped protrusion which is, if anything, even better. Some lenses retained the infinity lock though that’s largely gone out of fashion. The point remains that the focus collar on small 35mm lenses is narrow and not that easy to grasp and the protrusion makes focusing much easier.

I am finding that the 35mm f/2 Canon LTM lens, with a bayonet adapter for the M body is an outstanding optic, very much at home on the M10. Small, fast, wonderfully sharp, and pretty much the standard lens for street snapping. Having added a glued-on half dome index for easier mounting of the lens, it remained to do something about the total absence of a focus tab. Strangely, while Canon includes a locking tab on the 50mm f/1.4 LTM lens, none is to be found on any of the many versions of the 35mm optic.

7Artisans to the rescue.

Correct placement.

The 7Artisans ‘focus wrench’ (!) is available from Amazon for under $10, and includes a (3M, no less, if you believe that) sticky contact patch. It adheres well. What’s not to like?