Vivitar 35es out of adjustment

[Brennotdan]

Hey, I could use some help with my Vivitar (greyhoundman, if you're out there....). I adjusted the rf on the vivitar 35es to infinity using a cloud. I shot a roll and everything was out of focus. I checked it with an SLR and a piece of film at the film plane and found it to be over at infinity. I then adjusted the vivitar to match infinity at this point (around the 15 foot mark on the lens) and now the closest focus distance is around 2 meters, and the rf goes past infinity. Is this a problem I can fix, or a deeper rooted problem with the lens collimation?

Regards,
Brendan

 

[greyhoundman]

Don't use clouds. 🙂
Use a tower or tall building with sharp edges about 1/2 mile from you. Set the lens to infinity as per markings. Then adjust the RF to make the images match.

 

[Brennotdan]

Don't use clouds. 🙂
Use a tower or tall building with sharp edges about 1/2 mile from you. Set the lens to infinity as per markings. Then adjust the RF to make the images match.

I used a cloud, as well as a radio/cellphone type tower across the river (about 1/2 mile) and they agreed. Using a cloud sounds funny though so I wrote that.

 

[greyhoundman]

Has the camera taken a hit on the lens area? It just suddenly went out of adjustment?

 

[Brennotdan]

Has the camera taken a hit on the lens area? It just suddenly went out of adjustment?

It hasn't taken a hit, I only brought it out once and it was used gently. What I am saying is that the SLR method and distant object method of adjusting the rf are not agreeing with one another, although I may have done one or the other incorrectly. 😱

 

[greyhoundman]

I have never done the slr bit. I have a very nice tower about 1/2 mile away. 🙂
I would try the distant tower again. Take your time and be sure the two images are exactly lined up. It doesn't take much error to have blurry pics.

 

[Brennotdan]

update: I adjusted the rangefinder using a distant object, shot a roll wide open and the focus was about 3 feet behind the subject! I then used a tape measure to adjust to .9 m for close focus. The split images now focus way way past infinity, but now let me focus on a close up object. I happened to be in a dim hardware store with the camera so I had my friend hold a tape measure so I could shoot it and see how far off it was(2 inches, which gets further off as you increase distance from subject right?). It also gave me a better idea of the DOF at 1.7 at this distance (about 3 inches). I love this camera stopped down, and from this last roll, I can tell that once I am able to shoot it wide I will be very very happy.