| Author |
Message |
    
Paradoxbox
Tinkerer
Username: Paradoxbox
Post Number: 5
Registered: 03-2012
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, March 27, 2012 - 12:40 am: | 
|
Hey all.
I have a Rolleiflex with a 3.5 lens - I picked it up cheap as it had light fungus in the lens. I cleaned out the lens and it's perfect now but the focus is out of adjustment.
I have read that the adjustment can be made by adjusting some screws but I don't know how to access them, and taking the leather off is a big pain - it is the original leather and tears easily.
Any easier way to align the lenses?
Also, what distance on the focusing scale should the lenses be aligned at? |
Rick_oleson
Tinkerer
Username: Rick_oleson
Post Number: 1192
Registered: 07-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, March 27, 2012 - 04:57 am: |
|
First, check the taking lens, using a ground glass in the film plane. If the taking lens is off, unless there is impact damage or incorrect assembly, the problem is generally in the focus knob. You can unscrew the cover from the knob, loosen a lock nut inside, set the lens so it focuses at infinity and then set the knob to infinity and tighten the nut.
Next, the viewing lens. There are 2 options, the Right Way and the Easy Way. Both work in practice. The Right Way involves peeling off the front leather (it's real leather, so it doesn't tear and chip as badly as Japanese leatherette), remove the front panel, loosen the lock nut around the viewing lens and rotate the lens to adjust focus. The Easy Way involves removing the focusing hood (4 screws around the sides, unless you have a later model), and inserting spacers. To move the screen up, place spacers between the screws, in between the hood and the body. To move the screen down, remove the screen from the hood and insert the spacers between the screen and the hood. The Easy Way only allows for a small amount of adjustment, so if you're way off it's not a good option.
I have more notes on both of these, if you'd like to email me at rick_oleson@yahoo.com |
Paradoxbox
Tinkerer
Username: Paradoxbox
Post Number: 6
Registered: 03-2012
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, March 27, 2012 - 03:14 pm: |
|
Hi Rick, thanks for your message.
The taking lens seems to be OK - at infinity focus it appears to be sharp as best I can see using my "scotch tape ground glass".
I found out last night that my camera's viewing lens is not secured by any kind of lock-nut, the whole viewing lens assembly was able to be unscrewed from the lensboard and taken out. I wonder if someone else did this repair and left out the screw, or maybe my camera is from before they decided to add the lock-nut to the design?
So anyway, I used a friction tool to adjust focus until infinity looked good and sharp. I think I've got it now. Hopefully the focus is sharp in both close and far focus positions. We'll see when the next roll of film goes through..! |
Paradoxbox
Tinkerer
Username: Paradoxbox
Post Number: 7
Registered: 03-2012
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, March 28, 2012 - 01:07 pm: |
|
Well, before putting a new roll of film in I double checked the focus up close and I found it wasn't matching. Maybe my ground glass observation wasn't good enough.
Anyway I decided to take apart the viewing lens to clean it up some (looked like there might have been some fungus starting up, put a stop to that).
Taking it apart turned out to be a chore as the external barrel stuck and the internal elements unscrewed and came out - now I can't quite figure out how to put it back together, woops. Not terribly difficult to put back together but I don't know the reassembly order.
I've got the bottom element which is flat on one side and convex on the other, the middle element which is concave on both sides (I'm assuming the deep concave side faces the bottom element's convex side?) and 2 washer/spacer things.
Do the washers go in first or does the bottom element go in flat against the bottom of the outer lens barrel?
This would be a 1minute reassembly if it was written in the rollei repair manual..! |
Paradoxbox
Tinkerer
Username: Paradoxbox
Post Number: 8
Registered: 03-2012
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, March 28, 2012 - 01:36 pm: |
|
Ok, I spoke too soon. I found a photo of the heidosmat design on a random wiki page (lucky!) and was able to reassemble the lens.
Here's the image just in case anyone else ever disassembles their viewing lens for cleaning but can't remember the steps.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Mutar-text.svg |
|
