Rangefinder alignment drama...

[JohnnyRangefinder]

Hi all --

I am experiencing endless alignment problems with my R-D1. I am beginning to think that mine is a lemon -- my 'patch' has a mind of its own. That or the 'focus gnomes' are sneaking in to my home at night and messing with my gear.

On any given day, I might find my vertical alignment off, or my infinity out of focus... It makes 'trusting' my camera more and more difficult with results much more hit or miss.

To make things worse, I have been shooting my M6 a lot lately and it is so rock solid it only makes the problem more noticible and infuriating. Any others out there with unlivable alignment issues?

Who gave up on their R-D1's because of it and who had them 'fixed' by DAG or Steve and were happy with the results? How long do you find most of your finders remaining aligned?

Needless to say, I have become adept at opening it up and adjusting the finder myself, but it is becoming a drag. I understand that our Epsons are cousins to the Bessas. Are they as prone to misalignment as the Epson is? Am I too hard on my camera?

Finally, is the M8's build quality such that this is not as much of a problem (like my M6?) I am seriously thinking of parting ways with my R-D1 and moving up to an M8...

Cheers,

Sasha

 

[vha]

Mine RD-1 had a visit of the focus gnome recently and i discovered it this weekend, think i´m making a call to Epson Norway, the warranty is out so i´m just calling them to hear if they have someone to recommend for adjusting it back again.
Else the camera have been just fine, sometimes its convenient to have the photos soon. That said a M3 or a M6 is different, but nor digital 😉

vha

 

[Edward Felcher]

I had to exchange my refurb 3 times and finally got a late 47XX R-D1 that is perfect.

I had DAG adjust another I had. It's been excellent since.

Every once in awhile I have to get out the screwdrivers and monkey with it. They are sensitive.

I think that this is just something you have to live with when you own an R-D1.

 

[foto_fool]

I just received my used R-D1 and guess what? - of course the RF patch is misaligned. Same with my recently-acquired R3A.

Looking at Rich Cutler's excellent resource on DIY adjustment I note that screws 2 & 3 have a dab of green goop on them. Looks like Loctite to me. So I think I am going to head to the auto parts store for a fresh tube before I reach for my jewelers screwdrivers.

If they go out of adjustment again I guess both are off to DAG. Oh well.

- John

 

[Edward Felcher]

Don't use Loctite. You'll be sorry.

 

[ferider]

I just received my used R-D1 and guess what? - of course the RF patch is misaligned. Same with my recently-acquired R3A.

Looking at Rich Cutler's excellent resource on DIY adjustment I note that screws 2 & 3 have a dab of green goop on them. Looks like Loctite to me. So I think I am going to head to the auto parts store for a fresh tube before I reach for my jewelers screwdrivers.

If they go out of adjustment again I guess both are off to DAG. Oh well.

- John

John,

don't use lock-tite. A little nail polish applied with a tooth pick will
work well (did on my R3a) and let you readjust the camera later.

Roland.

 

[rxmd]

Hi Edward,

depends on the flavour of Loctite. There's more than one. Low-strength threadlocking variants such as Green should be OK.

Philipp

 

[foto_fool]

Hey Roland - Thanks for the heads-up. Philipp is right - there are different flavors. Some are like Super Glue and others - like the green stuff - are just sticky and designed to allow future adjustment. If the green Loc Tite doesn't hold - like what CV used in the first place - then the nail polish tip will be my next stop.

 

[ferider]

Hey Roland - Thanks for the heads-up. Philipp is right - there are different flavors. Some are like Super Glue and others - like the green stuff - are just sticky and designed to allow future adjustment. If the green Loc Tite doesn't hold - like what CV used in the first place - then the nail polish tip will be my next stop.

Riding a Harley I know the lock-tites very well, John, in particular the red type.

🙂

Cheers,

Roland.

 

[foto_fool]

Riding a Harley I know the lock-tites very well, John, in particular the red type.

🙂

Cheers,

Roland.

HA! Me too. Not the Harley, but I built a R75/5 basket case from the ground up and wrenched on my RZ350 (R-siezed it 3 times!) and GS750E for years. Now I have a Vespa. 😎

So my drama starts. I believe that I am going to send my R-D1 out for repair after all. Before I pulled the hot shoe today I saw that the RF patch is starting to rise in the window as I focus from infinity to close. Focus is spot on, but the patch moves.

I got the hot shoe off and it looks like someone beat me to the LocTite application - actually it looks like pink nail polish dabs on the screws.

Anybody have any recommendations for a good repair technician? Does Stephen G do the R-D1? It would be nice if I did not have to ship the body across the country.

Thanks - John

 

[Edward Felcher]

If it's in warranty, Epson in Indiana is now doing an excellent job of alignment with less than one week turnaround.

Make sure you call the direct number to Indiana and ship it directly to them via FedEx. They apparently have somewhere there capable of repairing it.

 

[foto_fool]

If it's in warranty...

Aye and there's the rub. Picked mine up off eBay last week; relatively low SN (14xx) - warranty service is out of the question.

Thanks for the tip, Edward - I'm about to call the service center's toll-free. If they will do the work out of warranty I will let all know how it goes.

BTW - my apologies to Sasha for sort of hijacking this thread. At least we are still on-topic.

- John

 

[foto_fool]

Well. THAT was most unsatisfying!

Toll free number gets me to Epson Corporate in Long Beach. They give me a driect number for Tech Support that first takes me to the help desk in India, where the gentleman informs me that he must transfer my call about my R-D1 INKJET PRINTER to another department. He refused to hear that the R-D1 is a camera, so I hung up and tried again. Instead of letting the help desk pick up the call I started pressing buttons and ended up finally getting a menu that allowed me to select support for a CAMERA product. The gentleman I finally spoke with referred me to two local authorized service providers. The first and closest frankly told me that they have no idea what to do with a camera body. Called the second and he said "we don't work on that model but we can take it apart and see what can be done."

😱 😱 😱 No no no you di-unt just say that!

And then "if we can't fix it we will forward it to Epson for repair". Want $75 up front and will provide an estimate after "looking it over". Estimated turnaround - "probably less than two months if parts aren't back ordered".

Well, as we say in Texas - f*** me with a chainsaw!

Edward, do you have any better contact information? Anybody else have a service tip?

Time to pick up the kids at school and then go home and pour some wine.

- John

 

[Edward Felcher]

This is the direct number for R-D1 suppport.

Do not call the toll-free number. If by some chance you get someone who does not know what the R-D1 is, hang up, call again.

Don't get frustrated, do not let them talk you into sending the camera anywhere but Plainfield Indiana.

Out of warranty repair is about $500 for anything. I recommend DAG instead.

562-276-4315

You must speak ONLY to Epson in Plainfield, Indiana. You must only speak to someone who knows what you are talking about. Don't waste your time with anyone else. Be specific and direct. Ask a few test questions to make sure the person you are talking to understands what the camera is. Do not waste your time with outsourced techs, such as those in India. Hang up immediately.

If you're good at "human engineering", you might get them to fix it out of warranty.

You have got to use your brains and comprehend what you are dealing with. Over politeness or allowing incompetents to send you on wild goose chases is not the way you will solve your problem. It's not hard, but don't be a passive consumer. There ARE a number of people at Epson who can help you, but you have to find them.

 

[JonasYip]

Before I pulled the hot shoe today I saw that the RF patch is starting to rise in the window as I focus from infinity to close. Focus is spot on, but the patch moves.

If you're describing what I think you're describing, this is normal. The patch stays in one place, while the framelines correct for parralax. So the patch ends up in the upper left as you focus closer. Unlike a Leica.

BTW, Steve's Camera in Culver City is the west-coast place to send R-D1's for repair. Steve has fixed quite a few at this point:

Steve's Camera
4355 Sepulveda Blvd
Culver City, CA 90230
(310) 397-0072
http://www.stevecamera.com/

There has been discussion of various people's repair experiences there in other threads...

j

 

[LCT]

...RF patch is starting to rise in the window as I focus from infinity to close. Focus is spot on, but the patch moves....

The frame lines move to compensate parallax but the RF patch stays still actually.
This is normal with R-D1 and R-D1s.

 

[foto_fool]

Jonas & LCT - Thanks for the heads-up. My brain saw the patch moving, but I just switched to the 50 frameline, thought about it differently, and yes, it is the framelines moving for parallax correction. Jonas - thanks for the tip on Steve's; they are in the rolodex now.

Edward - you and I have similar attitudes toward the corporate approach to customer "support". I routinely hang up on the offshore "help" desk, and when presented with the interminable "press 1 to..." or "say yes or no..." I just start pressing zero until I get a human on the line - works with most systems. Yesterday it was 4pm PDT when I took on this project - not the best time for me or for the people I was talking to, and not time when I was likely to get anyone on the line in Indiana.

Last night tried the Canon 50mm/0.95 on the R-D1 and simply could not get close focus at all with the lens wide open. Ended up putting the camera on a tripod, setting the focus to minimum and moving the target back and forth up to 6 inches an inch at a time - not in focus anywhere. Stopped down even just to f2 the focus improved considerably and was fine by f4. I have noticed a similar behavior with the Zuiko 50mm/f1.2 on the E-300.

The Canon does not show this behavior on the M6, Ikon or even the Hexar RF. The R-D1 does not show this behavior with the 40mm Summicron C, 40mm Nokton or 50mm Hexanon wide open.

After crying wolf and being corrected, I'm going to bet this isn't an RF alignment problem. Comments? Thanks.

- John

 

[LCT]

...tried the Canon 50mm/0.95 on the R-D1 and simply could not get close focus at all with the lens wide open...

The base length of the rangefinder is too short to focus accurately a 50mm lens at that aperture, unless one use a magnifier.

 

[foto_fool]

The base length of the rangefinder is too short to focus accurately a 50mm lens at that aperture, unless one use a magnifier.

Nope - the 50/0.95 focuses fine on my R3A also (just got a test roll back). It is not a question of accurate focus, it is seemingly an inability to focus. I will experiment some more.

- John

 

[LCT]

You forget the crop factor. The circle of confusion is not the same. According to the formula b' = (e * f^2) / (k * z) where b' is the effective base length, e the visual acuity (0.0003 at approx. 1 arcmin), f the focal length, k the aperture and z the circle of confusion (0.030mm for 24x36, 0.020mm for APS-C), you would need an effective base length of about 39.50mm where that of the R-D1 is only 38.20mm.