Lens Focusing problem

[nomade]

I'm not sure if this is the correct title for this thread, but be patient, i know i can be tiring at times 😀 Anyway using my fed 3, i noticed there's a problem when focusing, using J12 or N61 on my fed 3...Well it's been presisting, but i didn't really care for it, i just frame my subjects and try to estimate the right focusing distance, with a small aperture i'll get a better depth of field...

But it's really bugging me now specially if i need to increase the aperture, how to fix that?? How to make the range finder and the lens work together in a proper way... 😕

 

[back alley]

can you describe it a bit more, the problem that is.

is the distance on the lens not the actual distance from the subject?

joe

 

[nomade]

Yes, i mean in ur view finder there's a the white circle(range finder) coupled with ur original view finder, and then u r focusing, the coupled range finder image is matched on ur normal view finder image, that's what i mean, so when focusing, the range finder gives me a fake distance, not even close..Focusing on a subject that is 10 meters away, the coupled range finder focuses on 4-6 meters...

So when i reduce the lens aperture, there's a bigger depth of field which gives me a bigger focused range...How to fix that?

 

[Sonnar Brian]

If the RF is off with all the lenses, it needs to be adjusted. I have not done a Fed 3, but I suspect the adjustment is under a cover screw near the viewfinder.

You will most likely need some jewelers screwdrivers for this, set a lens to infinity and find a pole or tree branches, something at about 300ft. With the lens at infinity, adjust the RF until the images come together for the object at "infinity".

If the camera works with some lenses, but not others, it gets harder to solve. The lenses will need to be adjusted.

 

[nomade]

Thx Brian, this problem was with both lenses i use on the Fed3, i f someone knows where it is exactly in a fed 3 please tell me, i think i'll do it after finishing this roll...

 

[pedro.m.reis]

If the RF is off with all the lenses, it needs to be adjusted. I have not done a Fed 3, but I suspect the adjustment is under a cover screw near the viewfinder.

You will most likely need some jewelers screwdrivers for this, set a lens to infinity and find a pole or tree branches, something at about 300ft. With the lens at infinity, adjust the RF until the images come together for the object at "infinity".

If the camera works with some lenses, but not others, it gets harder to solve. The lenses will need to be adjusted.

Brian, is 300ft (+- 100m ) enought to calibrate the focus when we are collimating the lens?
I have an I-61 L/D that i relubed and now i'm not shure if it is collimated....

 

[w3rk5]

I've made RF adjustments on my bro's FED 3 B a couple of months ago. Check out this site. Scroll down approx. mid page.

http://www.photoethnography.com/ClassicCameras/index-frameset.html?Fed3.html~mainFrame

For infinity focus try using this method mentioned here. It works great for me. Scroll to the bottom of this page.

http://members.tripod.com/rick_oleson/index-123.html

 

[Nickfed]

Thx Brian, this problem was with both lenses i use on the Fed3, i f someone knows where it is exactly in a fed 3 please tell me, i think i'll do it after finishing this roll...

You can be sure that it is a screw behind the screw by the bottom left corner of the viewfinder window. The one you can see will be very short and there is another hidden behind it. I assume that not only are both lenses giving you trouble on the FED-3 but also that they both work fine on the FED-2, and therefore there is nothing wrong with them.

I'm sure there will be some diagrams on the various websites for this job if you aren't too confident about it.

 

[Nickfed]

Thx Brian, this problem was with both lenses i use on the Fed3, i f someone knows where it is exactly in a fed 3 please tell me, i think i'll do it after finishing this roll...

No need to wait till the roll is finished. You can be sure that it is a screw behind the screw by the bottom left corner of the viewfinder window. The one you can see will be very short and there is another hidden behind it. I assume that not only are both lenses giving you trouble on the FED-3 but also that they both work fine on the FED-2, and therefore there is nothing wrong with them.

I'm sure there will be some diagrams on the various websites for this job if you aren't too confident about it.

 

[pedro.m.reis]

I've made RF adjustments on my bro's FED 3 B a couple of months ago. Check out this site. Scroll down approx. mid page.

http://www.photoethnography.com/ClassicCameras/index-frameset.html?Fed3.html~mainFrame

For infinity focus try using this method mentioned here. It works great for me. Scroll to the bottom of this page.

http://members.tripod.com/rick_oleson/index-123.html

Nice info. The diagrams show how to collimate a lens on a SLR using a RF, i need exacly the oposite 🙂

 

[Sonnar Brian]

300 ft should be good for checking a lens at infinity. If you use the Russian lenses on a Leica or compatible, you are best to check the focus close-up. I would rather have the lens focus wide-open and close-up, and then stop down for infinity. The "regular rules" do not apply as the focal length is different than what the Leica is calibrated for.

 

[derevaun]

You can collimate a RF with a SLR exactly the same way. Put a focusing target on the film rails of the RF (I use a broken CD cover with very light scratches on the side facing the rails). Put a light source behind it, open the shutter on bulb, and look through the SLR with both lenses set at infinity. If the scratches are perfectly in focus, the lens is in focus for the RF body.

After that, you can calibrate the rangefinder's infinity with the lense mounted and set at infinity. The cover is the shortest screw on the front of the chrome top. A tiny screwdriver adjusts the infinity.

It still might be off due to a RF follower cam being out of adjustment--my FED-2 had that problem. There are instructions near the end of the FED-2 article pinned at the top of this subforum. Use a distinct object at 2 meters and rotate the cam until the RF focuses on the object when the lens is at the 2 meter mark. Then you get to reset the RF's infinity 🙂

 

[nomade]

U r a bunch of wonderfull people, thx all, it worked!

 

[nomade]

I did something stupid, 2 hours later after adjusting the range finder, i felt like moving it to the right a bit more, and then i unscrewed the screw, i donno what happened exactly, but many things fell and moved, the view finder parallelism moved for ex...

I removed the roll that was inside and i'm going to remove the cover to see what happened exactly today, i've a small question, how to remove the film rewinding lever??
Anyhow i'm not feeling very bad as long as everything can be put in its place, also i need some vertical adjustment...So it's all good in the end, what size is the screw driver that is needed to remove the winding lever??

 

[nomade]

Forget all that, after replacing the view finder and the range finder, and putting back everything in its right place, same problem happened and I readjusted the horizontal alignment, but there's a problem with vertical adjustment it's just not working, oh and the focus is completely off...