Little black specks in the viewfinder.

[Andy H Van Nuys]

Thanks to eBay I am the proud owner of two Zeiss-Ikon Contaflex rangefinder cameras.

I already repaired one of them, and then the second ZIC arrived and it seems to be in working condition, but when I look through the viewfinder I see a lot of black specks.

I tried cleaning the lens and blowing air through the back, but the specks remain. Will these show up in my processed photos?

Thanks for any advice.


Sincerely,


Andy

 

[Andy H Van Nuys]

Instruction manual calls it a range finder.

Instruction manual calls it a range finder.

I have the 1957 Contaflex instruction booklet in my hands. On p. 11 it says, "The correct distance is found by means of the built-in split-field range-finder."

on p. 6: "The lens is automatically focused by means of the split-field range-finder or of the ground glass screen ring within the viewfinder."

What are they talking about?

 

[P3tr]

Re:

Re:

They are talking about this

If the image in the circle isnt separated by the line in the middle of the screen, you are in focus. Its called (horizontal) split-image rangefinder.

 

[bob cole]

Little black specks in the viewfinder.

I tried cleaning the lens and blowing air through the back, but the specks remain. Thanks for any advice.
Andy

================================

I blew air over the mirror area of an SLR once -- but never again...It blew all the dust around inside the camera and made it worse...

My suggestion: Don't blow any more air inside the camera...

 

[Doug]

I'll guess that the black spots are dirt particles on the ground glass focusing screen and will not affect your pictures.

Terminology can be confusing sometimes... Most reflex camera focusing screens have some kind of focusing aid in the center, maybe a coarser ground glass circle, could be a microprism spot that ripples on out of focus objects but clears up when in focus, or perhaps a split-prism rangefinder spot, where an out of focus line in your subject appears not to line up between the two halves. Despite this rangefinder-style aid, this is not a rangefinder camera.

On an RF camera, you view the subject through a separate optical system with windows on the front of the camera, not through the lens. The windows are separated by a distance called the baseline and with moving prisms and mirrors can line up the overlaid views through two windows so that they coincide when the subject is in focus.

This kind of optical-mechanical rangefinder has a long history in fields other than photography. Artillery, for instance; both land-based and naval artillery in years past used large rangefinders to determine distance to the target. Hand-held versions are still used by hunters. Built-in rangefinders for cameras are linked mechanically to the lens; focusing the lens moves the RF mechanism so that range-finding and focus occur together.

 

[Andy H Van Nuys]

Thanks for the clarification.

A