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John
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, June 29, 2006 - 09:28 am: | 
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Hello all,
Just picked up a Vitomatic IIb at a thrift shop. I sofar see 2 issues with the camera.
1) The lense assembly is loose. Anyone know how to get into it and tighten it up? The focus and aperture mechanisms still operate.
2) Never having played with a rangefinder, I'm not exactly sure how prominent the secondary image used for focusing is supposed to be. If I point the camera toward a distant light source, I can barely make out the secondary image. Moving the focus ring, the image moves. How visible should it be? What kind of cleaning would it require? |
M Currie
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, July 01, 2006 - 08:22 am: |
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If you can make out the secondary image reasonably reliably on well defined objects, it's probably about as much as it was meant to be. On a camera like the voigtlander, with a single viewfinder, it can't be too strong without disturbing the view.
You might get some brightening if you take the top off and clean the visible lenses and mirrors, but most of a V'lander's rangefinder optics are in a block that's glued together. If yours has not come unglued and failed, there might be an old saw regarding "sleeping dogs" that applies here. |
john
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, July 04, 2006 - 08:05 am: |
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I can only make out really bright objects where there are points of large contrast (i.e. light bulb in front of a dark backgroound.)
I'll attempt to clean as much as I can without touching the mirror. I've read how fragile the mirrors can be.
Thanks,
John |
john
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, July 04, 2006 - 08:07 am: |
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B.T.W.
I took the lense assembly apart and found the 5 base screws which had loosened considerably.
It was a hell of alot of fun to dig into this mechanical system and see how it works.
john |
