Contax IIa rangefinder repair

[David Murphy]

Does anyone know the best or proper way to repair vertical misaligment on the Contax IIa rangefinder. The camera repair guy I am using is having a hard time getting right on my IIa. There is an optical element in the rangefinder optical train that needs to be set into the correct position and reglued (apparently). To test the effect of a setting/gluing operation he has to disassemble and reassemble the camera for each gluing operation to see if the alignment is improved (this is my crude understanding of what he is doing). Apparently this was easier to do on pre-war Contax and Kiev. He's spent weeks on this and is dogged in his determination to get it right, but I was wondering if anyone here has dealt with this issue before? I may even need to get a Kiev to tide me over while this body is in the shop! I've got a bevy of nice Contax lenses sitting around collecting dust.

 

[Vickko]

Ouch, Yes, a prism inside the camera needs to be shifted into the correct position and reglued. Not a nice repair.

But your description is correct.

There are likely tricks to "get it right" - I've done it but probably got it right via luck rather than anything more conclusive.
Vick

 

[KoNickon]

David, I just got a IIIa yesterday with the vertical out of adjustment. My sense from reading Henry Scherer's site is that this can indeed be the result of optical elements having been never assembled properly -- which sounds like your case, unfortunately, since as I understand it the RF adjustments are pretty straightforward once you get at the mechanism. Has your guy looked at that site at all? I'm glad you have someone who seems to know what he's doing and hasn't thrown in the towel.

 

[Pherdinand]

Never assembled properly??
i hesitate to believe that a super expensive high class camera in the western germany of the fifties would have left the factory with vertically misaligned (thus always visibly misaligned) rangefinder.

Sorry, i don't know any easy fixes. Indeed for pre-war versions it is possible to use a trick, loosening the two screws on the front rf window and repositioning the little lens.

 

[kabkos]

Adjusting the azimuth misalignment is not that difficult. If the amount of misalignment exceeds the fine adjustment that was built into the prism mount then you need to unglue the prism (actually it is a rotating wedge) and then reglue it. I have found that a temporary soft set glue works to hold the prism in place so that I can adjust it with a plastic pic (you slide the wedge up/down to determine where it should be). Once you know where it should be I apply a more permanent adhesive. The key is understanding how the rangefinder works and then applying the appropriate adjustment.

 

[hugivza]

I have just got my IIIa back from Henry Scherer having first sent it to a local repairer. I am sure that there are other reputable repairers around the globe, but Henry's work is excellent if you end up not doing it yourself! I always end up with more bits left over, so experience suggests that precision repairs are not my forte.