npeters
Member
This is a thread from flickr I have contributed to about how to set up the rangefinder & focus for a Lynx 14E - hope you find it useful:
Anyone have any ideas on calibrating a Lynx 14e rangefinder so that the rangefinder indicates the correct focus distance that the lens is actually set to?
There is a metal cover on the surface of the shoe that can be gently pulled off using a screwdriver. There are 3 screws underneath the cover to remove in order to take the shoe off, and removing it will reveal two openings in the top plate. The screw below the right one sets the distance if I remember correctly. Maybe the left one sets the up down alignment. Check the tutorial link below for definite intformation.
I'm pretty crude and don't have a laser of any kind, so I used a tape measure from the film plane to measure some various distances around the house and turned the screw (doesn't take much turning) until the distances matched up for close and far measurements. Then I checked infinity outside, which looked fine. Took about 10 minutes.
Bugger - I can't get out the bloody metal slide-in shoe cover. grr. Any ideas to get it out without destroying it in the process? Otherwise, it's off with the lid....
OK - Focus issue finally sorted. This is how you do it properly.
1) Remove the top cover (winder, rewind knob, 2 screws).
2) Unsolder the flash synch. wire. Be careful of the front plastic name plate that has the light meter cell attached.
3) Remove the internal brass cover over the guts of the rangefinder - be careful not to bend it!.
4) Attach the camera to a rigid tripod. Put up a focus target at say 5 meters (I used a cross about 10 cm across made with a black marker pen on white paper). Open the back cover, and stick on some removable Scotch magic tape across the film opening to use as ground glass to focus on .
5) Point the camera at the target. Make sure it is perpendicular to the target too. Carefully measure the exact distance to the film plane you have selected to your target.
6) Set the shutter at B and the lens at f1.4. Open the shutter (and keep it open). Using a loupe, carefully focus the image seen on the Scotch tape.
7) When properly focussed at the film plane, adjust the horizontal coincidence of the rangefinder using a flat blade screwdriver - the screw is the biggest visible inside the rangefinder, on the left of the angled clear beam splitter (as you look from the back of the camera). Make sure it the rangefinder coincides properly - don't touch the lens focus ring at this stage!
8) Using a really small, flat blade driver, partially unscrew the 3 small retaining screws located at 120 degrees around the focus ring. Gently turn the focus ring when it is loose until it reads 5 meters. Do up the screws.
9) Check the focus again at the film plane with the loupe and through the rangefinder. Adjust iteratively until all is OK.
10) Do the same for infinity focus - if you have measured really carefully, all will line up at all of the proper distances.
11) Reassemble, replacing the decayed foam gasket around the rewind spindle, and don't forget to re-solder the flash synch wire too.
Voila - a properly adjusted Lynx 14e.
Anyone have any ideas on calibrating a Lynx 14e rangefinder so that the rangefinder indicates the correct focus distance that the lens is actually set to?
There is a metal cover on the surface of the shoe that can be gently pulled off using a screwdriver. There are 3 screws underneath the cover to remove in order to take the shoe off, and removing it will reveal two openings in the top plate. The screw below the right one sets the distance if I remember correctly. Maybe the left one sets the up down alignment. Check the tutorial link below for definite intformation.
I'm pretty crude and don't have a laser of any kind, so I used a tape measure from the film plane to measure some various distances around the house and turned the screw (doesn't take much turning) until the distances matched up for close and far measurements. Then I checked infinity outside, which looked fine. Took about 10 minutes.
Bugger - I can't get out the bloody metal slide-in shoe cover. grr. Any ideas to get it out without destroying it in the process? Otherwise, it's off with the lid....
OK - Focus issue finally sorted. This is how you do it properly.
1) Remove the top cover (winder, rewind knob, 2 screws).
2) Unsolder the flash synch. wire. Be careful of the front plastic name plate that has the light meter cell attached.
3) Remove the internal brass cover over the guts of the rangefinder - be careful not to bend it!.
4) Attach the camera to a rigid tripod. Put up a focus target at say 5 meters (I used a cross about 10 cm across made with a black marker pen on white paper). Open the back cover, and stick on some removable Scotch magic tape across the film opening to use as ground glass to focus on .
5) Point the camera at the target. Make sure it is perpendicular to the target too. Carefully measure the exact distance to the film plane you have selected to your target.
6) Set the shutter at B and the lens at f1.4. Open the shutter (and keep it open). Using a loupe, carefully focus the image seen on the Scotch tape.
7) When properly focussed at the film plane, adjust the horizontal coincidence of the rangefinder using a flat blade screwdriver - the screw is the biggest visible inside the rangefinder, on the left of the angled clear beam splitter (as you look from the back of the camera). Make sure it the rangefinder coincides properly - don't touch the lens focus ring at this stage!
8) Using a really small, flat blade driver, partially unscrew the 3 small retaining screws located at 120 degrees around the focus ring. Gently turn the focus ring when it is loose until it reads 5 meters. Do up the screws.
9) Check the focus again at the film plane with the loupe and through the rangefinder. Adjust iteratively until all is OK.
10) Do the same for infinity focus - if you have measured really carefully, all will line up at all of the proper distances.
11) Reassemble, replacing the decayed foam gasket around the rewind spindle, and don't forget to re-solder the flash synch wire too.
Voila - a properly adjusted Lynx 14e.