Help calibrating rangefinder

[nreed_94]

Hello everyone,
I own a really cool FED-1 rangefinder camera. The problem is, the rangefinder is not calibrated right, and my photos turn out blurry. I have looked up how to fix this, and have found a few tutorials on how to re-calibrate the camera. However, it is a bit much for me, and I haven't worked with anything like this before. I don't want to mess up my camera. Is there anyone on this forum who has experience re-calibrating cameras like this? I would be willing to pay for the services. Any help would be great!

 

[usayit]

Call up camerarepair.com or essexcamera.com (same place) and ask for a quote. Get it done right.

Even better, make sure you send the most commonly used (fastest aperture) lens with the camera and have it "married". In other words, make sure that specific lens itself is perfectly calibrated to the rangefinder mechanism in the camera.


In the Leica world, many people "marry" a Noctilux to a specific camera body for perfect calibration.

 

[nreed_94]

I emailed both places, and neither of them work with Russian cameras....there has to be someone that knows how to do this

 

[BrianV]

Post some images, and list which lenses you are using. The FED-1 is a Leica II copy, and is not hard to calibrate. BUT: the problem could be a few different things, maybe just not the RF being off. The "Cam follower" of the Russian cameras is a different shape and position than the German/Japanese Leica cameras and it will fall under the Cam of many German and Japanese lenses. The calibration standard is different.

SO: Post some pictures, list the lenses. Put the lens on camera and test that the RF lines up on an object at infinity. Post back. If infinity is off, and the lens is mating properly to the camera: a jeweler's screwdriver and a distant tree/pole is all that is required.

 

[nreed_94]

Here are some photos from the last roll of film I took with the camera. I tried uploading photos of the lens, but the file was too large. I will try again later. The focus at infinity is aligned perfectly, yet the photos still turned out blurry. Is there any other reason for blurry photos besides just the RF?

 

[nreed_94]

I just checked the rangefinder at a 1 meter distance, and it is a bit off. I think it is the RF that is messed up

 

[BrianV]

1) What lens are you using?
2) Where did you focus in the sample pictures?

If the lens distance scale and RF agree at infinity, it could be that the lens is off. Russian lenses are not as standardized as others, and often need to be adjusted for an individual camera.

You need to test the lens on the camera with a ruler or something that allows judgement of the focus error.

My shots, adjusting a Russian lens, left is after; right is before changing the shim.

 

[nreed_94]

I found out that the lens didn't match the camera body. The lens is actually older than the body, so I had it sent off to someone that deals with Russian cameras. He should be able to calibrate the lens to the camera body. The sample photos came from a roll that I put through the camera a few days ago. I used your technique, and there was a focusing error. Fixing it is a bit out of my realm of knowledge, so I'm just sending it off to a repair guy. This will also make sure everything else on the camera is working right

 

[BrianV]

Let us know how the repair came out, and who you used. Getting reasonable repair work is getting more difficult these days.

I've written a tutorial on clean-lube-adjust of a Jupiter-3 5cm F1.5 lens, if anyone ever needs it PM your Email to me. I also wrote up a step-by-step instruction for converting pre-war Zeiss Sonnars to Leica mount. It's not hard, but is easiest to do with a Digital RF camera.


Udvar Hazy, Dec 2012 by putahexanonyou, on Flickr

Test shot with a 1936 Sonnar converted to Leica mount, at F1.5.