Reinvigorating a dim Yashica rangefinder

[schofferhofer]

Does anyone know how to go about getting a bit more presence out of the little rangefinder square on a Lynx 5000e?

I haven't had a rangefinder before, so I really don't know how to clean/restore them or whatever. I heard they're pretty easy to take apart.

 

[Paolo Bonello]

I'm pretty sure you gotta stay away from cleaning the beam splitter mirror on the lynx I've done Electros without probs but I've read that the coating on the lynxes is more delicate. That would not stop you cleaning the front and rear glass though. Perhaps if the patch is hard to see you could do something like the following. http://www.rangefinderforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=107245

 

[schofferhofer]

so how exactly does the tape work?

 

[Paolo Bonello]

Have you ever looked at mirrored glass on a building at night? The windows where the lights are switched-on behind the glass you can see straight into the office. the ones with a dark office reflect the outside lights etc. I'm assuming that's more or less the laymans explanation. the tape just puts a black background in the centre where you're wanting the reflected (beam splitter) image. An expert can probably give you a better definition but that's my understanding. It's a crude sort of fix but it's better than nothing and it's reversible if you don't like the results.