Canon 7 question

[dougcee]

Hi, new member here!
Quick question. I am now the owner of a nice clean Canon 7. All working fine except one thing. The rangefinder works as it should and is clean, but there is a noticeable double image all the time on the patch, even when split images have converged. Alignment or mirrors de-silvering?
Thanks!

 

[02Pilot]

Is it a vertical double image? If so, you just need to adjust the vertical alignment of the RF.

 

[dougcee]

O2, it is vertical and horizontal. It's frustrating because the rest of the camera is just great. I haven't run a roll of film through yet, so I'll see if it focuses OK the way it is.
There is a local repair guy who said it might be mirrors going south when I described the problem to him over the phone.
Thanks for your input! 🙂

 

[02Pilot]

So the images never line up properly? More than likely it's just a combination of vertical and horizontal adjustment. If the mirror was shot, the image would be hard to see, not out of alignment.

 

[dougcee]

Well, there always seems to be a faint but noticeable double image even when the main images merge. It's usable I guess, but always the slight horizontal and vertical shadow.
Imagine looking at a sharp 3 dimensional letter T that was against a wall and casting a horizontal and vertical shadow less than the letter's own thickness. That's what it's like.
Thanks O2!

 

[02Pilot]

OK, I think I understand what you're describing. I suppose it could be a mirror issue, but if you can focus accurately without too much distraction from the double image, I'd be inclined to just leave it alone and shoot it.

 

[dougcee]

Yes, I'm inclined to agree. I'll see how the first roll of film looks and if good I'll probably just deal with the minor irritation. Appreciate your help on this 02!🙂

 

[DavidC]

ghost image

ghost image

What you describe is called a ghost image. Canon rangefinders mostly the 7 series seem to uniformly suffer from this ailment. Whether it is the mirror design I don't know. Even my latest Canon 7Sz suffers from this problem although to a lesser degree. That is why Leica rangefinder patches are so good--no flare and ghosting.

 

[shawn]

Take the cover off and clean the prisms in the rangefinder. It made a big difference on mine.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w7diog_cxus&

Shawn

 

[Swift1]

Ghost images and zombie threads... 😀

 

[davhill]

With a back-silvered mirror (as most glass mirrors are) you can get a secondary reflection from the face of the glass, especially as the glass ages. I expect the shadow image is caused by this. I do not know if old glass can be cleaned to restore (remove) this or not.