Leningrad rangefinder coupler problem

K

kievan81

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Apr 15, 2013
Messages
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Hi all,
I just received my leningrad, I haven't done much test about in but I've already encountered one major problem. The rangefinder coupler doesn't spring back, it just stay in whatever last position it was. any way to fix this?

Any help will be greatly appreciated
 
It needs lubricating. First, give it a good cleaning with some lighter fluid and then a drop of oil. Be careful not to let any oil to get into the rangefinder housing.
 
No, remove the lens and cleanup the cam that rests at the back of the lens. try some lighter fluid first and then a drop (small) of lubricant.
 
It would be a good idea to gently work the focus cam back and forth over its whole travel fifty times or so to ensure that the oil works in properly. What you are doing here is rejuvenating the old lube which has gone all crusty by dissolving it in the new oil. That is an acceptable technique unless the old lube has picked up a lot of grit.

Congratulations on your Leningrad. This is in my opinion the very best of FSU cameras, well made, and with features found nowhere else. Parallax-correcting moving framelines in a finder good for 35, 50, 85, and 135mm lenses, and a genuine, clear, split image rangefinder instead of the coincident image RF found in all screwmount Leicas, Canons, Nikons, and other FSU cameras. Leitz only got the clue for this kind of RF with the M series. It is a pity it never found its way into another FSU camera.

And of course its major trick is the spring winder, which is noisy but effective. The wind spring is also very strong, so I would suggest that repeatedly firing it with no film in it would probably be a bad idea.



It is certainly a unique-looking camera, and will inspire comment when you carry it around!

Cheers,
Dez
 
Thank you guys! It is a unique camera like i've never seen before. Can stop staring at it :eek:

It's not quite ready to use though, the rangefinder vertical alignment is way off, haven't check the horizontal alignment, seems a bit off too. Any idea how to remove the small round cover without buying a $50 wrench?

Oh, one more thing, does the J-12 fit on it?
 
If you don't have a pin wrench (a good investment if you are going to service cameras) take a cheap set of long-nose pliers and grind or file the tips until they will fit nicely into the holes in the little manhole cover on top of the camera. An alternate approach is to cut a paper clip in half, fit the cut ends in the holes and grip carefully with a pair of pliers. The cover is a bayonet fit, and comes off when the cover is turned CCW until the holes line up front to back. It should take very little force to turn it.

A J12 should fit just fine. It's OK on mine. The full field of the VF is a good approximation.

Cheers,
Dez
 
I have to remove the entire top cover anyway, coz the viewfinder window is dirty (there's fingerprint!) I read somewhere that it is easy to open, but i just found out the eye piece need to be removed separately before I can remove the top cover.

is it just a simple twist?

it's really hard my finger hurt and so far only manage to turn it a half turn (I have almost no tool available at my home)
 
It should unscrew easily. With the shape of the ring it is very difficult to put any kind of wrench onto it. Something I find very useful for things like this is the anti-skid material you buy to put under mats and rugs, The kind I have is made of some kind of rubber, and is a mesh of little (~1mm) balls. This stuff greatly increases grabbing power.

Cheers,
Dez
 
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