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Graflexdreams
Tinkerer
Username: Graflexdreams
Post Number: 1
Registered: 05-2008
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, May 31, 2008 - 06:41 pm: | 
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Hello!
I've owned 4 of these over the past 5 years, used each pretty heavily, and seems like at one point, nearly all of them had a focus issue at some point. Meaning, no matter where I was focusing, NOTHING was completely in focus. After having the problem fixed by several different qualified professionals, they all pretty much said that this happens from time to time, especially with heavy use.
My question is this: Rather than having to take my camera in or worse yet mailing it somewhere and waiting for one to three months for what they say is a relatively easy fix, is this something I can adjust myself? Even though I live in San Francisco, my repair options are becoming more limited every year, as qualified techs retire or die.
I've got an original user manual for my TLR, I just downloaded the HUGE assembly manual, and I have a Thomas Tomosy book that sort of covers the basic TLR repair, but can anyone give me advice on troubleshooting this focus problem? I feel that if I'm going to keep using these cameras, which I LOVE, I need to be able to start doing my own repair.
Thanks a lot for any help!
Shane |
Rick_oleson
Tinkerer
Username: Rick_oleson
Post Number: 584
Registered: 07-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, May 31, 2008 - 07:05 pm: |
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Hi Shane:
I've owned a number of Rolleis and other TLRs and I'm not sure exactly what your problem is or how it "happens from time to time". The only way I can visualize that NOTHING comes into focus is if the lens gets moved too far back so that it's focused beyond infinity... but with the 5mm of so of focus travel in the lens board, it would have to get shoved WAY back, to an extent not physically possible in a Rollei body. Something that might occur is damage that puts the lens board out of square so that the viewing and taking lenses disagree. In this case, the viewing lens comes into focus, and the taking lens comes into focus, but since they don't match, none of your photos come out sharp. This can happen, but if it happens to you often my suggestion would be to treat your camera a bit more gently. Jamming the camera into a tight bag with the lens racked out to 1 meter focus, for instance, could cause this kind of damage, but something as simple as making sure it's racked back to infinity before jamming it into the bag will go a long way toward preventing it.
Adjusting focus is not particularly hard, but preventing damage beats repairing it every time. |
Graflexdreams
Tinkerer
Username: Graflexdreams
Post Number: 2
Registered: 05-2008
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, May 31, 2008 - 10:29 pm: |
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Rick:
I hear ya. The most frustrating and baffling thing is that I did a lot of shooting over two days about a month ago, with lots of outdoor shots that had details from near foreground to mid-ground to infinity in full sunlight, shutter at 1/250th sec. I also did a whole series of shots indoors on a tripod with objects from 10-25 feet away, shooting at about f5.6 and shutter speeds from 1/4 sec to 1 sec with a cable release, and focusing on the mid-foreground. If it were merely a case of my eyesight going bad, or a viewing/taking lens discrepancy, or an issue with the viewfinder ground glass being in the wrong place, SOMETHING in all the images would be in focus, right??? The focus area would either be slightly behind or in front of where I'd INTENDED it to be, but there would be a definite place in sharp focus, in both situations.
The clincher was when I shot an outdoor event the following weekend and got the exact same results shooting full-sunlight action. At first, when I was scanning all the film, I thought it was the scanner. But then I looked at the negs under a loupe and sure enough -- the images were all just a bit soft. I tried another scanner just to be sure, and they were still soft.
I guess I need to do some very careful testing to see if I can figure anything out. I'm leery of opening the camera up, but I just don't see how this can be happening.
Thanks for your response. If you think of anything else, please let me know.
Shane |
Lucas
Tinkerer
Username: Lucas
Post Number: 71
Registered: 07-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, June 01, 2008 - 01:52 am: |
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It could be your eyesight. I have been having some similar problems since I started needing reading glasses. When I preset the distance or focus with the loupe the images come out sharp. |
Rick_oleson
Tinkerer
Username: Rick_oleson
Post Number: 586
Registered: 07-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, June 01, 2008 - 11:55 am: |
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Surely in a series like you did, SOMETHING should come out sharp... Rollei's Planar and Xenotar lenses are not soft. I'm sure there's an explanation that I'm just not thinking of, but the only thing (other than being focused past infinity) that comes to mind is some sort of lens issue such as dirt, fungus, surface damage or a loose element.... |
Dgillette4
Tinkerer
Username: Dgillette4
Post Number: 215
Registered: 04-2007
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, June 01, 2008 - 01:30 pm: |
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Could there possibly be a calibration needed so that both taking and viewing lenses focus to the same point? This is usually done by loosening a set screw and checking the viewing glass against a piece of ground glass on the film plane while the shutter is locked open and turning the viewing lense to make it agree. Honestly I have seen few cameras in this state unless they get rough treatment maybe you bungee jump with them or mountain climb. |
Berkbs
Tinkerer
Username: Berkbs
Post Number: 9
Registered: 10-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, June 01, 2008 - 04:01 pm: |
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Really sounds like a loose element in the taking lens. |
Rick_oleson
Tinkerer
Username: Rick_oleson
Post Number: 587
Registered: 07-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, June 01, 2008 - 04:34 pm: |
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The bizarre thing in all this is the fact that you have had the same problem with 4 separate cameras over 5 years. I've been using them off and on since the 1970s and doing repairs on others along the way, and I can only recall one instance of a focus issue beyond a simple disagreement between the two lenses. That one, I think, had to do with impact damage and a tilted lens board, but it might have also involved damage to the lens itself. Anything (almost) can happen once .... but to see it so many times over such a tiny span of time as 5 years is just inconceivable unless you've been using the cameras as wheel chocks for your truck. |
Toomanycams
Tinkerer
Username: Toomanycams
Post Number: 3
Registered: 05-2008
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, June 01, 2008 - 06:12 pm: |
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Hi Shane,
Just a few thoughts. If you aren't sure about focus you really should do some simple test shots. I shoot a large brick church which has a huge wall that is a perfect flat and contrasty test grid. Use a tripod and make sure you are perpendicular to the wall. You can then check focus accuracy by shooting a similar surface at an angle (focus on some obvious feature in the middle of the frame and the angled surface will swing from nearer to farther). Your scanner will tell you if the sharpest point is at the feature you focused on or in front of or behind it.
When I first got a scanner I thought it wasn't well aligned because most of my negatives looked a little soft. Only when I scanned some negatives of lens test charts I'd shot with various cameras on a sturdy tripod, did I see really sharp scans. The inference: hand held shots of real subjects seldom give you the full resolution your lens is capable of. Scanners make it real easy to blow up an image way bigger than you will print it. The real test is whether you are happy with the resultant print.
I did have a TLR that had been dropped and the lens board was out of allignment. Take a careful look at your Rollei as you focus from a near distance to infinity. The lens board stamping should approach the body perfectly evenly. This gap (between the back edge of the lens board and front of the body) drops to virtually zero at infinity focus and any misallignment will be easily visible by eye. That is, the gap at each of the four corners should shrink to near zero at infinity. No corner should touch, at least not before another corner. Try to rock the lens board and it should be fairly stiff and resistant to tilting.
If you truly have focus variation I wonder if film flatness could be an issue? Also, do you have a removable focusing screen and is it properly seated and not loose?
David Smith |
Lucas
Tinkerer
Username: Lucas
Post Number: 72
Registered: 07-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, June 02, 2008 - 12:49 pm: |
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Is the pressure plate set to 6x6 or for the rolleikin? this could perhaps give issues with the film flatness. You could try holding a focusing screen where the film normaly sits to see if the taking lense gives a different result than the viewing lense. That way you actually see what the taking lense sees. Otherwise the only thing I can come up with concerning having nothing in focus, is movement of the camera as you make the exposure. |
Rick_oleson
Tinkerer
Username: Rick_oleson
Post Number: 588
Registered: 07-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, June 02, 2008 - 08:45 pm: |
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the pressure plate is a good thought, hadn't occurred to me..... |
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