I find an "easy" way to adjust Vertical RF of IIa

[pb908]

Hi all,
in order to clean my IIA RF and Viewfinder, I follow this link below from rick oleson on how to open the top cover of IIa :
http://rick_oleson.tripod.com/index-62.html

after top cover have been removed, I removed 4 screw that hold front plate. beneath the plate, on top left area (in the center of focusing wheel), you will see a small RF window and a small plate with screw that holds it.

during the cleaning process, I try to unscrew it and remove the plate of the focusing wheel. inside there is a glass (concave surface) which glued to the frame. by mistake, I remove the old glue and the glass just pop out.

under the concave glass, I see the real glass that move with the RF mechanism. so the concave glass is just "the cover" of the RF glass behind it.

after cleaning here and there and assemble back all the parts, I just realized that the RF is not align vertically, what the heck:bang:.

again, I open top cover and front cover and try to move the concave glass under the focus plate. with trial and error, I can see that movement of the concave glass will do some effect of the RF alignment.

after some extra time experiment with trial and error (unscrew the plate, set the position of concave glass, screw the plate back), I finally get the concave glass in the correct place where the vertical alignment is PERFECT !!!

I think I,m going to put a glue on it, but rather spending some more time trial and error again (if I open the plate and something move), I'll leave it as it is. let's see if this will last long, hopefully forever..😀

 

[pb908]

Whoops.. Looks like this is not last forever.
With a small tap on the camera, RF allignment is changed again. Too bad i just finished asembly it back. for sure it will need glue !!
Looks like I need to check vertical & confirm the infinity/horizontal as well before I put glue.. Hopefully the glue make it last forever !

 

[pb908]

at the end, I finally managed to put it in correct position. not an easy way though..specially the trials and errors are driving me crazy.. but at least we have a way..

 

[rickp]

congratulations

congratulations

you are quite brave to open, adjust and reclose your camera so many times. congratulations on your current success.

rick

 

[alex.bene]

I will not recomend to do the same job to any body. You was lucky to put it back again. It's not easy to find right position of the first optical element in xyz dimentions without special tools. The best way if you find that rangefinder is a bit out of vertical aligment but the fist element is in place. (i) Check, usually original laqiuer have a crack and first optical element have some space to move in/out or the right position. In this case it possible to put in right place again by moving the camera or the element. Than better to fix it in place with plasticine (in four corners). Then check rangefinder and if it ok put small drop of glue (first only to fix it in corners, and only than fix it finally. Glue if not used correctly may move the element out of place.

 

[pb908]

Horizontal adjustment !!

Horizontal adjustment !!

I will not recomend to do the same job to any body. You was lucky to put it back again. It's not easy to find right position of the first optical element in xyz dimentions without special tools. The best way if you find that rangefinder is a bit out of vertical aligment but the fist element is in place. (i) Check, usually original laqiuer have a crack and first optical element have some space to move in/out or the right position. In this case it possible to put in right place again by moving the camera or the element. Than better to fix it in place with plasticine (in four corners). Then check rangefinder and if it ok put small drop of glue (first only to fix it in corners, and only than fix it finally. Glue if not used correctly may move the element out of place.

Yes Alex, I will not recommend this process for those who doesn't have any disassemble skill/experience as they can screw up their camera more than they fix it.

I did the same as you pointed out :
1. behind the concave glass, the frame of the glass it self is wider dimension, around 1mm space in every side of the concave glass. so the chance to screw up the adjustment is a lot !!!

2. instead of gluing the concave glass to the frame, I glued the concave glass to the small cover plate, with the concave surface facing the RF glass.
a. firstly, I clean all old glue from the frame of concave glass, this give me area to play around for adjustment (move/tilt/turn the concave glass)
b. I put the concave glass on the small plate, put small amount of glue on it's corners. wait for a while until glue dry out little bit (so the concave glass doesn't fall)
c. install the plate to the frame.
c. check adjustment, infinity and close distance as well.
d. if still error, open the plate, adjust the position of concave glass on the plate (need some simple logic to know the relation of position to the error). glue is not dried up yet, so we can still easily move the glass around. repeat step C and D until everything OK.
e. if all is OK, I just put the camera facing down and wait until glue is dried up for some time.

then we can assembly the other parts.

by mistake, I (probably) found a "way" to adjust horizontal adjustment as well. there are 2 screw behind and below the RF glass. left screw is to unlock the RF adjustment plate, and right screw to adjust the plate horizontally.
see attached picture..

first, I loosen the locking screw little bit (just a little), and adjust the horizontal alignment from the right screw, and lock it back with the locking screw (or put glue on both, faster and saver !)

I will not guarantee that all this "easy" procedure will work on yours. so everything is your own responsibility 😛

 

[Vickko]

Yep. Hard to believe, but the vertical adjustment of the IIa is by having to move the optical element and reglue it. What were those designers thinking, back then? It made it a pain in the @ss to maintain.

 

[pb908]

Disabling Infinity Lock !

Disabling Infinity Lock !

this day, I found that the focus wheel of my IIa was jammed around 6feet distance. I don't know what happen, it just suddenly stop moving from that point, so it stuck from infinity to 6fts
so I, again, disassembled it.
after removing top cover and front cover, I opened 5 screw of the lens mount ( I assumed by doing this I can see what stuck inside of the focus mechanism).
too bad, the lens mount assembly is not came out after that.

googling here and there I found from our lovely forum :
http://www.rangefinderforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2165
that to fully open the lens mount assy we need to disassemble the whole rangefinder mechanism.. remembering that in the past few days I had struggled so long to fix RF adjustment, I don't want to do it again.

by luck, I shake the camera facing down to see if something fell off from the assy. it did. there was a small metal pieces that fell down. looked like a cut of needle or spring to me.
then I check the whole function to make sure if I have problem due to that small metal, everything was working fine, except the infinity lock is not locking anymore

I see behind the top most screw of the lens mount assy, there are long metal spring. one side is held by part of the assy, the other (I assume) is pushing the infinity link up to engage if the lens set to focus at infinity. so this was the problem !

the spring is corroded, it broke during my last assembly process somehow, and the broken part jam my focus dial. I am not a fan of infinity lock, so carefully I lift the lens mount assy to the front little bit, and using a pick tool I remove/take the spring out from that area. problem solve!!

now, the focus lock doesn't engaged if I focus to infinity (maybe if I turn the camera 180 degree, it will, by gravity, maybe), this fasten up some focus process, but harden up the lens removing process. Not a big problem, I can live with this..!!

 

[alex.bene]

I prefer to fix 50 mm lens at infinity when camera is not in use. There is a simple technic of how to focuse your camera close to infinity and not to be locked. Usualy I put my right poin finger close to infinity lock and press it a bit to unlock the lens but at the same time I do not touch the focusing wheel. It gives possibility to focus the camera faster in normal way via lens barrel but not to be locked at infinity at "desicive moment". :wink: