help! anyone tried to fix their RF misalignment themselves?

cam

cam

the need for speed
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first, a mea culpa. my Epson was left languishing as i used my M8. aside from pulling it out now and again for high ISO shots or when i let somebody play with my Leica, i really haven't used it in several months.

my M8 stopped working, so i pulled out my trusty R-D1... initially, i thought my disappointment with the images was the lower megapixel count, etc... then i took it on holiday and was so disgusted with it, i pulled out my Ricoh GRD... huh?

after testing it yesterday, i finally realised that the RF was off. really really off! even with a wide angle lens, stopped down... how did it take me so long to figure out? :bang:

i have absolutely nowhere to take it here that can fix it... sure, i can put it away and take it with me to LA the next time i go, but that means i will be without an RF for a few more weeks at least whilst my M8 is being fixed and that is making me very cranky.

has anybody tried to fix it themselves using the directions from Rich's site?

how easy/difficult was it? i am used to tinkering with electronics, but have never gone into a camera before... i can ge my boyfriend o help a bit, but he isn't into rangefinders.

any advice, cautions, etc., will be greatly appreciated!
 
It's quite easy if you take your time and have proper tools: a small Phillips screwdriver to remove the hotshoe screws and a small flat screwdriver (about 2mm width) long enough (>50mm).

Do it on a table, test and adjust if possible with a sturdy tripod with something far away to adjust infinity and it won't be a problem. It is not always easy to retain the tip of the flat screwdriver in the screw while turning, especially when it is a bit tilted, but if you are patient and proceed slowly, you will succeed.

I did it once on a beach, it took me quite a while to find the last screw under a pebble 🙁
 
what is the best lens and/or f/stop (most of my lenses are luxes) to do your infinity adjusting?

and how far is considered infinity? closest point you see when going to infinity?

argh! can you tell i've never adjusted a rangefinder before? (and, to be honest, i rarely ever shoot at infinity...)

btw -- thank you!!!
 
just an update after surgery...

perfection? not quite... will have to learn the quirks if i want to use my longer lenses wide open... however, my pre-asph 35 Lux looks close to spot on (it used to be my favourite lens on this camera) so i am thrilled!

and this was adjusted by a non-rangefinder user, btw. he wouldn't let me get close 😀
 
LCT said:
Do you mean that the RF patch is misaligned? If so horizontally or vertically?
Click to expand...

no, it was the focus that was off. way way off.

excuse my bad english (even if it is my first language).

it looks very good after my boyfriend tinkered with it so fingers crossed. but i need to take it out on the street and see how it does before i figure if it needs more.

the only issue i'm having with it now is the damned shutter speed dial. sometimes it goes smoothly, but most of the time it won't budge... i don't remember having this problem before... a little WD40 maybe?
 
Jeez, between Moving Countries and Camera Troubles
YOU need a Good Change ....😱....🙂

well I suppose this might Give YOU a Chance to play w/ the orphaned M2....😀
Miss You ...Best-H
 
yes, Helen, i do feel a little like Typhoid Mary 😱

still, all's well that ends well!

i have a working rangefinder and, even if not perfect, makes me much happier than i was -- thinking my eyes had gone and than Epson was not nearly as good as i remembered... silly me. if it hadn't been for all the fuss and bother and emotionality of the move, i would have been right on it :bang:

when i get the M8 back, i'll probably tinker more with the Epson so i can nail wide open shots with my big lenses (the high ISO is so much better on the R-D1!). in the meanwhile, i'm very happy to have it play nice with my 35. now i just need to go somewhere interesting as the only people in town are tourists...

(and the M2 will come out once i feel a bit more confident about my metering skills. i am brilliant in the dark, it's sun that confuses me -- not a lot of practice 🙄 )
 
Already posted elsewhere, this is the method I have successfully used for checking out a newly acquired RF cameras and adjust if necessary:

"I also use a lens with 1m minimum focus as a tool...the lens barrel markings are too ambiguous. However, I verify that by placing a thin Nikon FM focusing screen on the film rails and observe with a 12X loupe.

I set out a "bench" on a table by marking on masking tape a distance of 97.2cm...the M flange to image plane depth is 28mm (27.95mm). On the camera side, I tape a short piece of wood molding as a stop for the camera body front. On the target side, I use a bookend with a newspaper square taped to it.

Checking 1m RF accuracy this way is positive. For my ZI and R-D1, I also use a Nikon DG2 viewfinder magnifier (2X) with the same thread as the eyepiece. My desk [bench] is over a window which makes it easy to also check infinity at a distant scene.

The lens I use is a 90mm/f4 Rokkor M, which has a hyper-focal distance of 68m wide open. I won't have to wait for the moon to appear, and even if there were any error, you will never know it.

If the 1m focus is off, move the bookend back and forth a little to determine how much. Don't worry if the error is under 2cm...even a 40mm/f.14 lens at 0.7m closest focal distance will have a fore/aft DoF of 2.5cm anyway."
 
thank you so much, Frankie!

i think i saw this (elsewhere) after the deed was done, but it's lovely to have in my InBox for when i want to tweak it to (near) perfection...

interesting to note that use a 90mm. i wanted to use the 75 (a lens i know is perfect and optically very sharp at the focus point at f/1.4, but the 35mm was easier for my BF to get his head around and, honestly, what i use more often...

if i used your method, can i still use the 75 (i don't have a 90, sigh) at 1m even though it focuses to 0.7m?
 
cam said:
thank you so much, Frankie!

i think i saw this (elsewhere) after the deed was done, but it's lovely to have in my InBox for when i want to tweak it to (near) perfection...

interesting to note that use a 90mm. i wanted to use the 75 (a lens i know is perfect and optically very sharp at the focus point at f/1.4, but the 35mm was easier for my BF to get his head around and, honestly, what i use more often...

if i used your method, can i still use the 75 (i don't have a 90, sigh) at 1m even though it focuses to 0.7m?
Click to expand...

You can use any lens, just use the manufacturer's specified minimum focusing distance...and double check. If specified as 0.75m then subtract 28mm in the bench-marked distance. [I often use a CV 40mm/1.4, minimum focus specified at 0.7m]

[You can also double check lens minimum focus in a digital camera by the seek-focus methods: ignore the RF, set lens at minimum focus, place target at marked distance less 28mm...and take a picture.]

However, Leica's serviceman's method was to check/adjust at infinity, 10m (practically infinity for most wide-angle lens) and 1m. Hence my method.

Use: http://www.dofmaster.com/dofjs.html to find the tolerance of your lens at maximum aperture and hyperfocal.
 
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cam said:
the only issue i'm having with it now is the damned shutter speed dial. sometimes it goes smoothly, but most of the time it won't budge...
Click to expand...

Something's jamming the dial mechanism - could be a bit of grit, or a component with a rough finish (Epson's QC during manufacture was always a bit sketchy). It needs a strip down, which, luckily, isn't too bad. Lots of small components to loose, so be careful (nothing will ping across the room though!). It can be put together wrongly (your indicated shutter speeds on the dial will be obviously wrong, and some won't show at all), but that shouldn't happen if you follow my instructions - if it does, just take it apart and reassemble it.

If you follow my instructions (http://www.richcutler.co.uk/r-d1/r-d1_18.htm), you'll be fine.

And, as you'll be halfway to taking the top plate off, you may as well go the whole hog and take it off completely. This will allow you to adjust the rangefinder much more easily and to get it perfect (and to lock the adjusting screws with a smidgen of nail varnish, to lock them). If you follow my instructions, you will get focus to be spot on for all distances. A caveat, though, nearly every second-hand lens I bought for my R-D1 (and its successor the M8) was out of adjustment - the only lenses that were spot on were new or nearly new. So, you do want check focus is consistent between lenses, so you can put aside any iffy lenses.

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