Lens Alignment Fed 1 ?

[dee]

Hi
I have received my Fed /Leicas from Oleg , but one of them won't centre the lense in the mount .
Pics taken before the cla show this to be there when I bought it from moscowphoto.
I used it on holiday , but it's not really noticeable with the I22 ''Elmar ''
Can anyone tell me if it's easily fixed ?
dee

 

[wolves3012]

I don't follow "won't centre the lens in the mount". Can you explain better and post the "before" pic?

 

[dee]

Hi
The alignment mark of the lense is around to one side ... so it's difficult to read the scales etc.

 

[peterc]

The alignment mark of the lense is around to one side ... so it's difficult to read the scales etc.

This may mean it's not the lens originally sold with the camera. A lot of the early Fed 1 cameras had a lens mated to the camera. Other lenses may not necessarily focus properly on the body or line up as expected.
The Fed 1 I have is an example of this. The 50/3.5 that came with it is fine. No other LTM lenses I have will focus properly.

Peter

 

[wolves3012]

Looking at the front of the camera, with the lens at infinity, the infinity lock lever should be roughly between 8 and 10 O'clock position. There can be variation on this. Where's yours? Did you say the lens was an Industar 22? That's not the standard lens on a FED 1 - Industar 10 is AFAIK, although they are just marked "FED".

It may be possible to rotate the mount, I'm not sure. Zorkis have a machined section at the top which means they can't (easily) be rotated. My FED doesn't seem to have this, however.

The man who is likely to know is Jay Javier (ZorkiKat). If he doesn't chip in on this you could PM him...

 

[dee]

No it's not the original lense , but I have been assured that it does not matter - the rangefinder still works OK .
The camera is an ID stolen '' Leica '' , plus '' I 22 / I 10 '' elmar '' ? I !so any lense matching issues have long been eliminated...
I know , I know , I was silly ... but I love my little black babies !

 

[peterc]

The mount was probably reshimmed to LTM spec. However, the mount was probably aligned for the original lens and now other lenses end up being a little off.

Peter

 

[Nickfed]

I have been assured that it does not matter - the rangefinder still works OK .

Indeed. I submit this is nothing more than a bit of evidence of the factory being a bit slack-assed with the thread starts - either on the lense, in the mount, or both.
So long as the lens is the right distance from the film, and there is nothing to suggest it isn't, all is well. Any story about shimming is absurd. If you remove the lens mount from the body, you will see a flat section at the top that means it can be installed in one position only. I recall that you could machine other flats thereby allowing installation at 90 increments and I believe somebody recently did that. Is it worth it? Just call it a "feature" and keep loving the little black baby.....

 

[peterc]

Any story about shimming is absurd.

From the Fed 1 survival site:

Very early prewar FED (such as those with „NKVD“-markings) did not have standard lens focus registers. The values varied greatly from camera to camera, and each camera had its lens calibrated specifically for it. Other lenses won’t likely be able to focus correctly on this cameras. If you suspect that your prewar FED doesn’t have its original lens, you can adjust focus register to standard 28,8mm, using the method given below. The lens can then be adjusted so that it will have the 28,8mm register as well.

Peter

 

[Nickfed]

This is irrelevant and misleading. The problem is the rotation of the lens, not its position fore and aft. Shim for all you are worth, and you will fix nothing - and incur more problems.

The only time when you might faintly consider shimming anything, particularly with an f3.5/50mm, is as a last resort when you clearly and irrefutably have a problem with focus. There is no suggestion that there is such a problem, in fact quite the opposite.

 

[ZorkiKat]

Dee

If Oleg said that the RF was calibrated for the lens and the camera mount had been shimmed to conform with the lens, you should have no problem focusing with it. The off-mounted lens will indeed be somewhat inconvenient to use, but that's the worst of it.

Jay

 

[ZorkiKat]

This may mean it's not the lens originally sold with the camera. A lot of the early Fed 1 cameras had a lens mated to the camera. Other lenses may not necessarily focus properly on the body or line up as expected.
The Fed 1 I have is an example of this. The 50/3.5 that came with it is fine. No other LTM lenses I have will focus properly.

Peter

Peter

The prewar FED and many of the immediate post war ones (those found with the small shutter release buttons with non-flaring collars are suspect) seem to have a different camming length as well. I've several of these which will only work with the lens they have. These won't even work with other Soviet LTM lenses.

They can however be recalibrated- new shimming for the 28.8 register, RF readjustment for infinity, and RF sensor tip reorientation for minimum focus, such FED can be used with other Soviet LTM lenses. Their original lens however, will be rendered useless. These lenses won't even work with later FED or just about any other FED or Zorki.

Jay

 

[ZorkiKat]

This is irrelevant and misleading. The problem is the rotation of the lens, not its position fore and aft. Shim for all you are worth, and you will fix nothing - and incur more problems.

The only time when you might faintly consider shimming anything, particularly with an f3.5/50mm, is as a last resort when you clearly and irrefutably have a problem with focus. There is no suggestion that there is such a problem, in fact quite the opposite.

The lens mount can be installed to three other possible positions. The screw holes will still line up. However, the back of the mount which is immediately over the front part of the top plate (after reorientation) must be milled to make clearance.

Shimming must be modified when the lens mount orientation is changed.

Jay