| Author | Message | ||
     Jeff Schroeder Rating: N/A |
I recently received a Zorki 3m direct from the Ukraine. After running a test roll through it I noticed that the focus was out of adjustment. I tried adjusting the horizontal portion of the rangefinder using the adjusting screw near the bottom of the viewfinder window. I adjusted it for both infinity and for 1 meter. Thinking I had fixed the problem I shot another test roll and found the camera still mis-focusing. It appears to be focusing in front of the subject. I have been shooting at f2 or 2.8 on the Jupiter 8 so that I could check this. I then took the lens off and checked the cam arm. It had some slop in it which tells me it did not fully engage the rangefinder mirror arm above as quickly as it should. Apparently, when I had adjusted the rangefinder for proper infinity/1 meter focus I had to back off the adjusting screw so much that it didn't readily engage the prism arm. I then checked the patch with my Zorki 4 (which does focus properly). I found that the rangefinder patch in the viewfinder was considerably farther to the right in the 4 than in the 3m. I am comparing the location of the patch in the viewfinder with the lenses off both cameras. This is when the cam which contacts the lens is in it's full "resting" position. To sum all of this up - I think the actual prism is out of alignment and the adjustment screw near the viewfinder does not have enough travel to compensate. I then took the top cover of the camera off to see what was happening. I cannot see how to adjust the prism. There are 4 very small screws on the end of the prism mounting block but I am not sure what their function is. And to unscrew the bottom ones I would have to remove more of the shutter speed mechanism. So before I do any of that I was hoping someone here could give me some advice. Any ideas on how to fix this would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance, Jeff |