FED-2 Rangefinder Horizontal Adjustment (Infinity)

[ABingham]

I recently picked up a FED-2 at a camera swap for $35, with the Industar-26 lens and the original case. I also scored an old Tower hand-held lightmeter for $5 (works, seems about right). Not too shabby! Camera is brown, but after looking at cameraleather.com, I don't know how long it will stay that way ;P

Shutter speeds work fine, I've read the manual, don't change speeds without cocking shutter, etc.

The one issue is that the horizontal RF alignment is off at infinity. At close range, it's fairly accurate (at least, it agrees with my Canonet, since I don't have a meterstick handy) but at infinity, things are noticeably off.

I know I'm supposed to remove the screw next to the 'E' and turn another screw under it until things way off in the distance line up nicely, and then I'll be all set to shoot.

However, the 'under' screw seems to be eluding me. Is it the (brass?) piece immediatly under the exterior top shell, which the exterior screw screws into, and also appears to have notches as if it were meant to be turned? Or is it located deep in the dark depths of the hole that the exterior screw is screwed into? How much force is required to turn it? Which way? These are the questions that have been driving me insane.

Don't want to poke around too much for fear of damaging something else. I'll probably take the top off and clean everything out to make the VF nicer once I know everything works - it seems to have some internal reflections going on, so I plan on painting the inside of the top cover black to help contrast.

Help?

 

[ABingham]

How small is 'very small' though. I ask only because I have a tiny, tiny screwdriver, smaller then the eyeglasses screw ones, and it goes in the hole a long way and never seems to engage anything.

 

[ABingham]

Hrm... Didn't get it... Something doesn't seem right in there :\

Any other suggestions?

 

[DaveP]

Why not go ahead and remove the top? I imagine the rangefinder glass needs to be cleaned and you can do some lubricating while in htere. Then you will see the little screw and how it works. since you cant feel it now, maybe its gone! The top is very easy to remove, the whole job including lube is only about 45 minutes.

 

[pshinkaw]

Removal of the Fed-2 top is fairly painless as long as you don't drop a screw on the floor. The only tricky part is getting the diopter adjustment tilted to the proper angle to facilitate removal and reinstallation.

The Fed-2 and most Soviet era LTM rangefinders use a dual rangfinder calibration setting system. The screw described above is the infinity stop limiter. It only stops the internal mirror/prism from moving when the lens helical reaches infinity. For distances closer than infinity you must turn the eccentric cam found inside the top of the lens mount (after removing the lens). By turning the cam you are essentially changing the radius of the rangefinder follower and allowing the rangefinder to indicate a different close focus setting for a given lens setting. The Leica does this with a precision calculated and machined wheel which does not require adjusatment. The Soviets did it differently.

To turn the cam, Maizenberg suggests making a small wrench with a similar shaped cut-out. I use a piece of Lexan (plexiglass) from a broken plastic window. It's about 3/8 inch wide and 2 1/2 inches long. It can be flipped over to get a more advantageous angle.

To set the near focus, pick a target a known distance away. Set the focus scale on the lens to that distance and note the relatie position of the images. Remove the lens, Put a pencil or marking pen refernce mark on the cam and turn it slightly in either direction using the wrench. Put the lens on again and check the image position. It will take several tries before you get the images to match.

Some people do this at 1 meter distances. I set my cameras at 5 meters. Due to a peculiarty in the lens helical design. Soviet lenses become progressively harder to calibrate at both infinity and close distances. The error is not very much as close to 2 meters and I seldom use a rangefinder to shoot photos at 1 meter anyway.

You may have to go back and reset the infinity again after this procedure. Also, if you need to adjust the vertical, do it first, before setting anything else. The vertical setting adjustment can throw all of the above described work out of the window.

The Fed-2 is the easiest Soviet era camera to work on at home. Just be patient and you should be successful.

-Paul

 

[ABingham]

Worst case scenario being that the little tiny screw is not there or is damaged, what are my options then?

I need a spanner to get the RF window lenses out.

My close focus adjustment seems to be fairly accurate, so I hate to mess with the whole thing too much... Just infinity is off.

But hey, can't be much worse then working on the procedures for flight hardware assembly on spacecraft at work 😉

 

[pshinkaw]

The little tiny screw is actually a little tiny screw head on a real long threaded pin. If it were missing, the rangefinder probably would not work at all. More likely scenario is that the slot head is damaged, or the entire assembly is slightly skewed within the housing.

The rangefinder window lenses can be removed by making a home made wrench. Take a piece of wood, wider than the lens, 1/8 to 1/4 inch thick and 2 inches or more in length. Drill a shallow hole in one end slightly smaller than the ribbed rim of the lens. Use a pocket knife to cut v-notches in the edge of the hole until the hole fits snuggly over the rim.

Put a drop of alcohol at the edge of the rim to help loosen some of the hold crud thats probably there. Wipe the outside dry, apply the wood and wiggle it back and worth to loosen the lens before attempting to turn it. It is right hand threaded.

-Paul

 

[DaveP]

I remove the rangefinder windows with a rubber bottle stopper. On stubborn ones I take a small square of inner tube and place over the window,then find a socket or nut driver that will fit just over the edges of the viewfinder window diameter. Press down and turn, it usually comes right off then.........

 

[domdel]

Hello there,

I just found an issue with the rangefinder horizontal alignment on one of my beloved FED 2 cameras... The screw just won't work anymore, it seems the thread is dead or something...

I mean the adjustment screw below #5 in Maitzenberg's diagram below:


It seems like screw #6 in this other diagram doesn't link with cam #5 position:


I wonder whether I can fix this in any way, or if I have to revert to adjusting cam #6 in first diagram (the one linked to the lens) at infinity and close range. Would that work?

Thanks for your tips!

Cheers from Switzerland,
Dominique

 

[nzeeman]

Hello there,

I just found an issue with the rangefinder horizontal alignment on one of my beloved FED 2 cameras... The screw just won't work anymore, it seems the thread is dead or something...

I mean the adjustment screw below #5 in Maitzenberg's diagram below:
View attachment 110316

It seems like screw #6 in this other diagram doesn't link with cam #5 position:
View attachment 110315

I wonder whether I can fix this in any way, or if I have to revert to adjusting cam #6 in first diagram (the one linked to the lens) at infinity and close range. Would that work?

Thanks for your tips!

Cheers from Switzerland,
Dominique

before anything done tell us what is the problem? when you put lens to infinity what happen to image in viewfinder when looking at distant object ? does image pass through or never reach alignment? same goes for objects 1m away when you put lens on 1m where is the yellow image?

 

[domdel]

The images don't align at infinity, and acting on the horizontal adjustment screw doesn't change anything - there is no correction happening at all, so I'm not able to fix the alignment. Very close range is mostly OK, but from 3-4 meters away I start noticing misalignment.

 

[xayraa33]

Try an RF vertical adjustment via rotating the round window once you unscrew the round chrome beauty ring, it could be just a slight adjustment or it could be a vigorous one ...I had the same problem as you have with RF horizontal double image at infinity on my Fed 2 and only managed to fix it in the manner I just described.

 

[domdel]

I have been there, and already tried vertical alignment. This one is fixed already and does not influence the horizontal one. It's really that the image sent by the rangefinder at infinity won't go enough to the left to align with the one from the viewfinder.