FED5 - How to Enhance Rangefinder Contrast?

[Avispartner]

Hi all,

I'm rather new to this forum and have only quite recently started with being interested in Rangefinders. Have been bitten by both FSU rangefinder and Zeiss Ikon Folders bug, with probably no chance for healing 😀.

Had started my FSU rangefinder collection with a Zorki 4K and have now purchased a FED5 at the incredibly cheap winning bid of £ 0.99 on the large online auction portal 🙂. It looks to be in good technical order although the RF needed adjusting (both vertical and horizontal alignment were way out of focus...).

So, ready for shooting, but one small thing bothers me a bit. The rangefinder contrast is veeery low, makes it quite hard to focus.

I'm quite sure somebody else asked on how to improve this, but I don't find any threads right now...

Is there anything I can do in order to enhance contrast? I know, I paid nothing for the cam, but it would still be fun to find a focus :angel:

Thanks for any hint.

Cheers from sunny Switzerland.
Rob

PS: ah, yes, it's a FED-5B with an Industar 61

 

[Highway 61]

Look at the famous Rick Oleson's website, there is a great article titled "Resurrect your dim rangefinder" - the trick works actually very well and will cost you £ 0.00 😀

 

[rbiemer]

As Highway 61 suggests, Rick Oleson has a very good and inexpensive way to deal with this.
See here:
http://rick_oleson.tripod.com/index-165.html

Rob

 

[robin a]

Go for it,works great..................

Robin

 

[Avispartner]

Ha, that was quick! Works great indeed!

Thanks very much!

Rob