Zeiss Ikon rangefinder alignment

[Adam H]

I have just bought a Zeiss Ikon second hand, fortunately with a warranty. The rangefinder is normally perfectly aligned but a coupe of times I have picked up the camera to use and the focus has been way off (horizontally rather than vertically). This seems odd as I would have thought the alignment would work or not, rather than come and go. Any thoughts on what may cause this? I will be dropping it back at the shop shortly.

Adam

 

[thegman]

Not sure, what lens are you focusing on it?

 

[stupid leica]

sounds like maybe something is loose inside it?

My infinity(horizontal) and vertical were both off a smidge when i got my (used) Ikon, and one day the horizontal alignment was good... lol

these damn crappy cosina-made cameras!

 

[Adam H]

Tried with both the Zeiss 50mm Sonnar and Leica 35mm Summicron - same result with both, it didnt focus then it did. Adam

 

[thegman]

If the lenses are attached correctly, then that sounds like a fault to me, at least you're under warranty...

 

[jonmanjiro]

Out of curiosity, what's the serial number of your Zeiss Ikon?

If you search the archives here, you'll find discussions about Zeiss quietely improving the rangefinder mechanism to increase stability some time (maybe a year or two) after production started. At one stage even Pop Flash was advertising Zeiss Ikons with the "new improved finder" on Ebay. But once we started discussing it here, it got removed from the Ebay ads and the official policy suddenly became "there have been no changes".

 

[Adam H]

Useful thanks. I will pull out the number. Sounds like Zeiss will know what to do when it goes back.

Adam

 

[stupid leica]

for sure look into that, and let us know how it turns out.

 

[Luna]

I put my Ikon in the backseat of my car and then it decided to go out of alignment.
Then one night I went out with some friends and drank a few beers. When I got home, the Ikon mouthed off to me so I slapped it a few times.
Next day, the alignment was back to normal.

Welcome to rangefinders. In this world, the cameras do what THEY want. Unless you are mean to them.