old bob
Newbie
I recently came across an old agilux agima rangefinder camera (UK) the camera seems to be well made and in good condition but the rangefinder patch and part of the "bright lines" are dim, the actual patch very hard to see, looking binsude the camera I can see the glass thatv has the coatingb on it and it has been mostly rubbed off, possibly because of uncorrect cleaning anyway this glass is easily removed, just a spring clip, so, what would be the result if I were to remove the glass clean off what remains of the coating and then carefully adhere a yellow or other coloured gel to the face of the glass, would it resolve the problem
old bob
old bob
KoNickon
Nick Merritt
I think the problem is that the semi-silvered coating has been removed. That's what enables you to see the second image in the viewfinder. If you had a usable patch (i.e. there is some coating left), putting a yellow or orange gel on the face of the RF window (as opposed to the front of the viewfinder) could help. But if the semi-silvering is gone, the coating needs to be reapplied (or you need a replacement piece of glass).
juraj_v
Member
Inside the viewfinder is a semi silvered glass called beam splitter mirror and it probably needs to be replaced, yellow gel doesn't help here. It reflects the rangefinder patch from the mirror to the eye. Over time the coating deteriorate, it's a pretty common problem, mainly with older cameras. Sometimes also the rangefinder mirror(which is located under that little hole on the left side) needs to be replaced...It's a very precise task, if the mirrors are incorrectly installed the proper rf calibration will be impossible.