Dropped the Bessa R4M - Rangefinder out of alignment

[shorelineae]

The Bessa R4M slide off my car front seat thanks to someone who had braked in front of me. It had the 21mm f4 Skopar (screw mount) lens attached with the lens cap on and I didn't notice any issue.

I now notice that the rangefinder is out of alignment. I can see vertical lines align fine, but horizontal lines stay out of alignment even at infinity. I also tried another lens and the same issue happens....

I found several threads here about this topic but can't find the reference document on http://www.arransalerno.com to open it up and tighten some screws. (That website is down).

Any suggestions?

Thanks

 

[Out to Lunch]

And in which place on speceship earth did you happen to be when that happened?

 

[shorelineae]

And in which place on speceship earth did you happen to be when that happened?

Hmm? I was driving. It was my fault for pulling out the camera before I had parked the car.

Thanks for taking the time to reply.

 

[Out to Lunch]

And so that happened in Ulan Bator or in Venice...or someplace else?

 

[MaxElmar]

I think Peter was trying to find out your location so as to recommend a repair person. This is a reasonable suggestion as it is not a particularly easy job. Be advised, some of the repair information out there is flatly incorrect. As the misalignment was caused by a significant impact, it would be wise to have a knowledgeable repair person check for damage before attempting to adjust it.

 

[Guest]

Years ago my Hasselblad SWC/M fell onto the floor when I braked, broke the winder, that winder was very expensive.
I was at the Grand Canyon last December, slipped on ice and did $700 damage to a Rolleiflex F3.5 should have it back by April for a New York trip.
So you are not the only one to have this problem.

 

[shorelineae]

I think Peter was trying to find out your location so as to recommend a repair person. This is a reasonable suggestion as it is not a particularly easy job. Be advised, some of the repair information out there is flatly incorrect. As the misalignment was caused by a significant impact, it would be wise to have a knowledgeable repair person check for damage before attempting to adjust it.

Thank you for the clear question. I am new to this forum and didn't realize I had not filled in the Location field. I live in Dubai and we definitely do not have a repair shop that fixes rangefinders here.

I guess I will wait until I travel to a country with an appropriate repair shop to get it fixed. I'm developing a roll now to figure out how the photos came out despite this.

Thanks again, Max Elmar.

 

[retinax]

This seems to be the ultimate thread on the subject: https://www.rangefinderforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=4447

If you feel comfortable with small screwdrivers and know when to stop before breaking things, give it a try.

 

[maigo]

Dropped the Bessa R4M - Rangefinder out of alignment

Hi,

A little bit of googling brought me to this sites review of Dubai camera sales/repair shop:
http://www.jaffatelaqlam.com/placevents/2014/2/6/f49p3kupp1m9haztil97nrwo299lae

The Dubai Repairing Camera shop above can be found at this link:
https://www.repairingcamera.com

Both Google Cache and Internet Archive do not contain a copy of the Arran Salerno instructions for Bessa alignment.
http://www.arransalerno.com/blog/2008/05/voigtlander-bessa-r3a/

There are some instructions on photo.net but I they are behind a login or paywall to see the images. I can not see detailed pix from my phone browser.
https://goo.gl/images/jjSwxW

Hope this helps.

Failing this, I am sure there are some excellent shops in Singapore that you could FedEx the camera to for repair.

Michael.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Huss]

u could also contact japancamerahunter for repair shop recommendations.
I wouldnt worry about shipping as long as u pack well. i’ve shipped cameras overseas for repairs.

 

[shorelineae]

Hi,

A little bit of googling brought me to this sites review of Dubai camera sales/repair shop:
http://www.jaffatelaqlam.com/placevents/2014/2/6/f49p3kupp1m9haztil97nrwo299lae

The Dubai Repairing Camera shop above can be found at this link:
https://www.repairingcamera.com

Both Google Cache and Internet Archive do not contain a copy of the Arran Salerno instructions for Bessa alignment.
http://www.arransalerno.com/blog/2008/05/voigtlander-bessa-r3a/

There are some instructions on photo.net but I they are behind a login or paywall to see the images. I can not see detailed pix from my phone browser.
https://goo.gl/images/jjSwxW

Hope this helps.

Failing this, I am sure there are some excellent shops in Singapore that you could FedEx the camera to for repair.

Michael.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Thanks Michael for the comprehensive message. I gave it in for repair to the shop in Dubai, let's see what they say....

 

[maigo]

Hi OP,
Did the Dubai shop fix the camera?


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[shorelineae]

Yes they did. Reportedly, the "optical assembly" was damaged. It took about 2 months and three attempts as they didn't catch the issue properly the first few times. I sold the camera subsequently.

 

[maigo]

Yes they did. Reportedly, the "optical assembly" was damaged. It took about 2 months and three attempts as they didn't catch the issue properly the first few times. I sold the camera subsequently.

Thanks for the update.
That is too bad.
I hope you are still using a rangefinder.


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[shorelineae]

Thanks for the update.
That is too bad.
I hope you are still using a rangefinder.

Yes, I am 🙂 I got a Leica M5 and I'm very happy with it. Ironically, after all the GAS, I circled back to a Voigtlander Bessa L.

Thanks man.