| Author |
Message |
    
Haig Hovaness
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, March 15, 2004 - 06:34 pm: | 
|
How does one adjust the infinity stop position of the lens on the Vivitar 35ES? The rangefinder alignment is OK, but the lens moves past the infinity focus point. The camera appears to be similar in construction to the Minolta Hi-Matic 7sII. I believe this information was posted previously, but I can't locate it. |
Winfried
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, March 15, 2004 - 11:58 pm: |
|
Peel back the leatherette on both sides of the lens, and remove the top cover.
There are two screws holding the focus ring hidden in grooves at the 11 and 5 o'clock position approx. and one more set screw on top of the focus ring accessible from the top. |
Mick
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, March 16, 2004 - 08:21 am: |
|
@Winfried: Does this instruction hold for the Konica Auto S3 as well? |
Winfried
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, March 16, 2004 - 02:52 pm: |
|
Don't know, I have no S3 (yet). But the S3 looks VERY similar to the Revue400SE/Hi-Matic7SII/Vivitar35ES. Although not made from the same die I think the design is almost identical. |
Haig Hovaness
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, March 16, 2004 - 07:44 pm: |
|
Thanks Winfried. I had a devil of a time making the adjustment, because there is very little room in the area available for adjusting the top set screw, but I finally got it. These old rangefinders are the devil to repair because of their tight dimensions.
My 35ES has a great lens, but I wish it had a longer rangefinder base. None of these little RF's seems to have the right combination of viewfinder/rangefinder and shutter features. The Hi-Matic E has a great viewfinder and rangefinder, but the auto-only programmed shutter. The 7SII, S3 and 35ES have more shutter control, but inferior viewfinders. It may be time to build a Frankenstein camera. |
Winfried
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, March 16, 2004 - 11:58 pm: |
|
The Ricoh500G/GX have a small rangefinder base but the rangefinder is very accurate. The lens has f/2.8 only but is very decent otherwise. Unfortunately the Ricoh500G are even more difficult to repair due to their strange body design. |
Mick
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, March 17, 2004 - 08:06 am: |
|
It is an often repeated tale that the rangefinder precision only depends on the effective baselength. This is not true. The brightness and quality of the viewfinder itself does play a big role. For example the base of the Olympus RC is very small, but focusing can be done with rather high accuracy due to the good finder.
In that respect the finder of the Konica Auto S3 is superior to that of the Vivitar and Revue clones and also the HiMatic 7SII. It is brighter and there is much less barrel-shaped distortion.
Once I find the time (sigh...) I will make a listing of all the subtle (and obvious) differences between these cameras and refer to it in this forum.
Mick |
Haig Hovaness
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, March 17, 2004 - 09:45 am: |
|
Thanks for the clarification on rangefinder accuracy. It is true that the rangefinder on my Oly 35 RC is very precise. I am starting to think that more of the relative performance differences among RF cameras are attribuatble to focus error than to intrinsic lens quality differences. I would be curious to know your opinion. |
