whats wrong with my minolta himatic 9?

[Kat]

I have a Himatic 9 whose shutter was stuck and RF misaligned when I got it. After having both fixed, I tested it out, and my pictures were all out of focus except for 1. I took it back to the repair guy, he said he replaced some worn screw thing, tested it out again. The results were not much better, unfortunately. I have another, same camera and I saw what the lens on the himatic can do, I'm frustrated as to why the other one is not performing as well. I even switched their front elements (couldn't take out the rear), but the results were the same. Any ideas as to what (other than a misaligned RF) can affect the pictures this way?

Also, I stupidly dropped and killed the meter of the well-performing HiMatic. If I can't fix the one with the focus problem, would it be a major task to transplant its meter to the former?

 

[colyn]

I have a Himatic 9 whose shutter was stuck and RF misaligned when I got it. After having both fixed, I tested it out, and my pictures were all out of focus except for 1. I took it back to the repair guy, he said he replaced some worn screw thing, tested it out again. The results were not much better, unfortunately. I have another, same camera and I saw what the lens on the himatic can do, I'm frustrated as to why the other one is not performing as well. I even switched their front elements (couldn't take out the rear), but the results were the same. Any ideas as to what (other than a misaligned RF) can affect the pictures this way?

I'm betting the rf is still out of alignment. One or more of the mirrors may be coming loose from its mount thus causing mis-alignment.

Also, I stupidly dropped and killed the meter of the well-performing HiMatic. If I can't fix the one with the focus problem, would it be a major task to transplant its meter to the former?

It would be easier to transplant the rf from the broken one to this camera providing the rf was not damaged in the fall also.

Before writing off the dropped camera I would have it looked at to see if the galvanometer needle can be reset into its bearing. This is the most common cause of an inoperative meter after a fall.

 

[Kat]

Ah, thanks, Colyn! I had a repair guy take a look at the dropped camera and he declared it dead, although we don't have repair folks here (locally, I mean) as good as some of the guys here in RFF and the professional folks abroad. Perhaps transplanting the RF would be the best way to go...The cosmetics of the out of focus camera is much better, too.🙂