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Mike
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, April 12, 2006 - 09:40 am: | 
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I have a FED 5 that works fine (asside from the usual light leaks). The problem is in the viewfinder window. The viewfinder is too dark on the far right of the window to be usefull in anything less than full sunlight. The focus window is normal brightness.
Is there a way to correct this, or must I replace the canted half mirror? |
Rob
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, April 13, 2006 - 12:06 pm: |
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Have you taken the top off of the camera? Are the front and rear viewfinder windows clean? The top is easy to remove. Rick Oleson has a nice page that shows how to do it. One word of note. There is a fourth screw holding the top down that is hidden behind the nameplate between the rangefinder windows. If you slip your thumbnail into the viewfinder window and push the nameplate to the film winder side, you can lift it out and see the last screw. |
Mike
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, April 29, 2006 - 09:45 pm: |
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Man, It's been a while since I got back here.
Yes, I've done all of that. Everything has been cleaned, inside and out. The way it looks, it's more like the half mirrored glass has too thick a coating on one half of it (on the right hand side). But, every piece of the viewing system was CLA'd by me. |
Howard
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, April 30, 2006 - 01:43 am: |
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Hi Mike. I don't own one but I thought the Fed 5 had a prism rather than a half mirrored glass plate. If I'm right I think it is probable that the canada balsam has broken down in the viewfinder prism. It binds the two halves together and if it breaks down turns an opaque brown. If this is the problem you will either need another prism or repair the old one which is fairly complex but can be done. Type "canada balsam" in the Keyword Search on the right hand side of this site.
Regards. Howard |
Mike
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, April 30, 2006 - 08:34 am: |
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Hi Howard, I opened the camera up last night after reading another thread dealing with a Zorki 4. And yes, after further disassembly, I was completely wrong. It is two prisms, put together with canada balsam. So, now I need to get the proper cement, either the same, or the UV curing type. Or, get a junk Fed, and change the prism. I guess it was my Ziorki C that has the mirrors. That one works perfect. |
