Rangefinder alignment

[arturo]

Hello.

I found an explanation on rangefinder aligment in the blog of RFF member Goliathus: http://sangin1122.tistory.com/?page=4 (scroll down to the bottom).

I have this blog bookmarked because the pictures are great but normally I do not attempt to understand the text, as it is all written in Korean, I think.

Could anyone kindly translate (a summary of) this article into English? I tried with a machine translator but it is pretty hopeless.

Some months ago I tried to do a similar alignment myself in a SP but I failed miserably, in spite of having hold on an old Nikon repair manual. Eventually I sent the camera for service, I was rather frustrated.

Thanks,

Arturo

 

[goliathus]

Hi arturo, thanks for visiting!

I'm an administrator of that blog. I'll translate the article
(http://sangin1122.tistory.com/entry/Nikon-S3-Rangefinder-Alignment)
after get back home, please wait for a while : )


P.S: If you want to get an original address of some article, you should click a title of the article.

 

[awilder]

Nice post. These older RF's of the 50's and 60's (Nikon, Canon, Leica and Zeiss) were properly designed for easy access allowing minor rf adjustments unlike the current RF's of today.

 

[jonmanjiro]

The RF adjustment is pretty simple, Arturo.

First you adjust the vertical by loosening the screw shown below (accessible by removing the front plate), and then carefully rotating the gear wheel on the left up or down in small increments with a small screwdriver until the RF is aligned, then re-lock the screw.

Then you adjust the horizontal by rotating this screw shown here (accessible through a hole just above the focus helicoid) either clockwise or anti-clockwise in small increments as needed.

I usually adjust the vertical by aiming at something a few metres away, but the horizontal must be adjusted by targeting something at infinity.

Be sure to adjust the vertical before the horizontal. If you do the horizontal adjustment first, you'll throw the vertical out of adjustment and will need to redo both adjustments.

The adjustment is the same on an SP, though the vertical adjustment is a little less accessible than it is on an S3/S4.

Not sure about an S or S2 as I've never needed to adjust one, but expect it would be similar.

(hope you don't mind me using your photo, goliathus)

 

[arturo]

Thanks, that was pretty clear.

I did not expect it to be particularly difficult.

About one year ago I needed to align the rangefinder of a SP. I got a hold to a 'Repair manual Nikon SP' from Internet but the explanations put me off. I never found some of the screws mentioned there (pg 6: 'loosen the screw n. 210 fastening the rotating wedge prism mount n. 193'. Where the heck is screw n. 210?)

Eventually I sent the camera to a professional workshop, where they did a fine rangefinder alignment and CLA.

Next time I will try myself.

Arturo