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Gary Whitehead
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, October 23, 2004 - 05:29 pm: | 
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Hi,
How does one make a vertical adjustment on the Ricoh 500G rangefinder?
I've seen the posts describing the blanking screw for the horizontal adjustment (which is perfect on mine).. Any similar simple method for the vertical?
Cheers,
Gary. |
Werner J. Becker
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, October 29, 2004 - 10:47 am: |
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Hi, Gary,
I'm afraid vertical alignment is not so easy. It is usually done with an alignment screw for setting the appropriate angle of the small mirror inside the viewfinder housing, which usually is situated directly behind the mirror itself, but the design of the Ricoh RF is different. If you open the camera (peeling off leatherette on the front plate, removing both diaphragm ring -3 screws- and front plate -4 screws-, offers access to screws of the top cover plate)you'll see a strip of black self-adhesive tape with a hole in it. Underneath there is the alignment screw for vertical adjustment (turning the screw makes the steel holder of a small glass lens move up or down which projects the light of the RF on the viewfinder glass. The screw you'll have to turn can be seen if you look diagonally into the viewfinder (maybe before you start the operation). It can be seen far to the right of the rear viewfinder glass.
Reassembly should be easy ! |
Scott
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, October 30, 2004 - 06:26 am: |
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I have the Sears-branded version- the Sears 500rf. I could not find any screw to adjust the vertical rf image, and finally decided that there was none. But as the swiveling part of the rf mechanism is on a piece of sheet metal, it was easy to bend it enough (very gently) to bring it into alignment. |
Werner J. Becker
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, November 01, 2004 - 07:22 am: |
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If one removes the above mentioned strip of black tape covering the oval hole in the viewfinder housing the screw becomes clearly visible underneath, but, alas, this refers to the usual type of Ricoh 500 G, 500 GX and Hanimex Compact R which is a rebadged but somewhat more attractive 500 G. Unfortunately there is no access to the screw from outside with the 500 G, whereas it can be reached from there by removing a tiny plastic stopper in the top plate of some versions of the 500 GX.
Simpler viewfinders types were used in the more recent Ricoh 500 models which usually come in black aluminium bodies and are differently made. There is no "front plate" any longer, but the ordinarily designed top cap, there is an awful lot more cheap plastic parts, etc. The shutters and diaphragm mechanisms - never a problem with early 500's - are carelessly designed and very often sticky due to vagabonding grease from the helicoil, all in all it is better to stay away from these end-of-the-era cameras. |
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