Adjusting focus on a rolleiflex (Automat), the easy way.

This is how I adjusted the focus on my Rolleiflex Automat 3.5 MX-EVS.

Disclaimer:
- This worked for my particular model of this camera.
- I bought the camera for $25, so basically I had nothing to loose, as a CLA would cost way more then the camera was worth.
- My fungus-infected, ugly and pretty rotten Rolleiflex was way off concerning focus, making the camera effectively a dud.
- I wouldn't attempt doing this with an expensive Rolleiflex which is worth more, I advice you to send such a camera off to CLA at a reputable service man.

Prerequisites.
- You need to be able to loosen the leather and remove the front cover, so that you are able to loosen the lock-nut on the viewing lens and screw this lens in and out.
- Masking tape, the thinner, the better.
- A white wall.
- A studry non-slip base to put your camera on.
- A flashlight, the stronger the better.

The Rolleiflex Automat MX-EVS doesn't have any adjustments for the taking lens, it sits static on the lens board, which moves as you focus.
The viewing lens can be adjusted by loosening the lock nut and screw the viewing lens in and out and then locking the lock-nut again.

- Remove the leather and front-cover (4 screws) + removing the knobs for self-timer, shutter and m/x sync levers. (make sure you put the small parts in a cup or similar or they will get lost)

- Remove the lid that you normally open to insert film into the camera, completely.

- Place a piece of masking-tape over and past the rollers that the film rolls over (you'll need 4-5 inches), so that the tape lies flat on the film-plane, where the film normally lies.

- Now, poke a few holes and irregular tears in that tape with a sharp object.

- Do the same with a new strip of tape, fold the tape back on itself about 0.5 inch on each end, poke some holes in it.

- Now, place that piece of tape on your viewing ground-glass (smack on the middle). (The folds you just made, makes it easier to remove it later).

- Use a strong flash-light, place the camera on a stable base, direct the camera towards a white wall.

- Turn off the lights.

- Set camera to bulb, use a remote trigger which is able to hold the shutter open by itself.

- Trip the shutter, make sure the shutter stays open.

- Shine your flash-light into the camera from behind, adjust focus on the taking-lens via the focus-knob, so that you can see your tape, with the holes and small details clearly on the wall.

- Now shine your flashlight from above and down at your ground glass. You should see a new image on the wall. (albeit dimmer, as the focus-screen and mirror steal some light, hence you need a strong light for this)

- Loosen the lock nut and screw on the viewing lens until you get a nice, clear view of the tape on the wall, with all the holes and small details as sharp as you can get them.

- Screw the lock-nut in place, make sure you don't turn on your viewing lens when you do it.

You are done, what is sharp in the ground glass, should now also be sharp on the film-plane.

I tried adjusting the focus using a focusing screen from my Hasselblad on the film-plane, however, the Hasselblad focusing screen has some thickness, which caused my Rolleiflex to front-focus about 3-4 inches.
With the tape-trick and shining the light trough from behind the camera, you should be able to get the focus exactly right - on the film plane and on the ground-glass -

Sometimes it can help to be two people doing this procedure, because you may need to scrutinize the focus up-close. The Rolleiflex close-focusing distance isn't close enough, for you to be able to view the details on the wall, if you sit behind the camera while you do this.

My Rolleiflex Automat is spot on after this procedure. I've not found any tips like this on the net.

(I'll attach some photos later)


Now, all I need is to order some new leatherette (my old automat-dog need a whole new set anyway, it's ugly as sin, but the taking-lens is clear and sharp as a razor )

Thanks Helinophoto, wonder if that would work on the Rolliecords as well.

Mike

Typical, I can no longer edit the original post

I am not sure how your camera will work, you should do some research to check how the dissembling procedure is
(you don't want to risk a spring or something jumping out that you can never get back into place for example)

Anyway, here are some very crappy iullustrative photos, I did this now, just to show how I did it.

Front removal points (sliders and knobs can be poked loose by a small screwdriver)


Removal of back, note that one need to lift the lever pointed out with the red arrow to be able to lift the back off.


This is how the tape is supposed to be attached to the back (I did it a bit loosely for the photos here, but it should be as tight and as "film like" as possible).


Tape attached to the ground-glass


Shining trough from the back, trough the tape and towards the wall.


How the holes apear on the wall, quite a bit of detail to focus on.


Light the ground glass and adjust the viewing lens and you should be set.

Sorry for the crappy photos, was taken with my iphone, but I suppose it gets the message across. ^_^

This is the result

Focusing on the front can
View attachment 64337

Focusing on the middle can
View attachment 64338

Focusing on the can in the back
View attachment 64339

Mind you, critical focusing is a challenge with the dim and slightly foggy focusing screen, but with the good contrast of the 250ml RedBul cans, focusing was easier to assess.
(Shot with Ektar 100 at f3.5, scanned trough the plastic negative sleeve, never bothered to remove dust from these ^^)

Adjusting focus on a rolleiflex (Automat), the correct way.

Helinophoto said:

This is how I adjusted the focus on my Rolleiflex Automat 3.5 MX-EVS.

Disclaimer:
- This worked for my particular model of this camera.
- I bought the camera for $25, so basically I had nothing to loose, as a CLA would cost way more then the camera was worth.
- My fungus-infected, ugly and pretty rotten Rolleiflex was way off concerning focus, making the camera effectively a dud.
- I wouldn't attempt doing this with an expensive Rolleiflex which is worth more, I advice you to send such a camera off to CLA at a reputable service man.

Prerequisites.
- You need to be able to loosen the leather and remove the front cover, so that you are able to loosen the lock-nut on the viewing lens and screw this lens in and out.
- Masking tape, the thinner, the better.
- A white wall.
- A studry non-slip base to put your camera on.
- A flashlight, the stronger the better.

The Rolleiflex Automat MX-EVS doesn't have any adjustments for the taking lens, it sits static on the lens board, which moves as you focus.
The viewing lens can be adjusted by loosening the lock nut and screw the viewing lens in and out and then locking the lock-nut again.

- Remove the leather and front-cover (4 screws) + removing the knobs for self-timer, shutter and m/x sync levers. (make sure you put the small parts in a cup or similar or they will get lost)

- Remove the lid that you normally open to insert film into the camera, completely.

- Place a piece of masking-tape over and past the rollers that the film rolls over (you'll need 4-5 inches), so that the tape lies flat on the film-plane, where the film normally lies.

- Now, poke a few holes and irregular tears in that tape with a sharp object.

- Do the same with a new strip of tape, fold the tape back on itself about 0.5 inch on each end, poke some holes in it.

- Now, place that piece of tape on your viewing ground-glass (smack on the middle). (The folds you just made, makes it easier to remove it later).

- Use a strong flash-light, place the camera on a stable base, direct the camera towards a white wall.

- Turn off the lights.

- Set camera to bulb, use a remote trigger which is able to hold the shutter open by itself.

- Trip the shutter, make sure the shutter stays open.

- Shine your flash-light into the camera from behind, adjust focus on the taking-lens via the focus-knob, so that you can see your tape, with the holes and small details clearly on the wall.

- Now shine your flashlight from above and down at your ground glass. You should see a new image on the wall. (albeit dimmer, as the focus-screen and mirror steal some light, hence you need a strong light for this)

- Loosen the lock nut and screw on the viewing lens until you get a nice, clear view of the tape on the wall, with all the holes and small details as sharp as you can get them.

- Screw the lock-nut in place, make sure you don't turn on your viewing lens when you do it.

You are done, what is sharp in the ground glass, should now also be sharp on the film-plane.

I tried adjusting the focus using a focusing screen from my Hasselblad on the film-plane, however, the Hasselblad focusing screen has some thickness, which caused my Rolleiflex to front-focus about 3-4 inches.
With the tape-trick and shining the light trough from behind the camera, you should be able to get the focus exactly right - on the film plane and on the ground-glass -

Sometimes it can help to be two people doing this procedure, because you may need to scrutinize the focus up-close. The Rolleiflex close-focusing distance isn't close enough, for you to be able to view the details on the wall, if you sit behind the camera while you do this.

My Rolleiflex Automat is spot on after this procedure. I've not found any tips like this on the net.

(I'll attach some photos later)


Now, all I need is to order some new leatherette (my old automat-dog need a whole new set anyway, it's ugly as sin, but the taking-lens is clear and sharp as a razor )

Click to expand...

First time post here at APUG, have been a lurker for a while. Rollei owner and user, have a 500C/M; quite a few Contaflice, a few Voigtlaenders, M42 stuff and more. Anyway I have managed to get a few Rolleis working a bit better than they were when I bought them. But enough about me.

You were lucky with the adjustments you made. I have not tackled an earlier Automat yet, however every other later Rolleiflex or Rolleicord I've looked at, such as the 2.8C and Ds, the Cord V, Va, Vb, and the Tele, does have an adjustment for the focus of the taking lens. I cannot envisage the Automats being any different. The adjustment is located inside the centre of the focus knob, and consists of a locking screw and collar. Loosening this permits the position of the infinity stop of the focus knob to be adjusted, relative to the position of the lens board. Depending on the model you may need to remove the film speed/type reminder dial first and the machined ring that retains this from the edge or the inside diameter of the focus knob. A lens spanner or rubber tools may be needed (depending on Rollei model).

Whenever a Rollei has focussing problems, the first place that you should always start is with a check of the taking lens focus. Everything else hinges on that. It is absolutely pointless setting the viewing lens of a Rollei to good viewfinder focus, unless it also tracks with the taking lens. The taking lens captures the image. This must be set correctly in the first instance. Having done this, the viewing lens may then be dialled in to agree with the taking. If you set the viewing lens well and are able to get a good focus at infinity, for instance—that's great—however, if the taking lens diverges from this, the pin sharp focus you can see through the finder will not be recorded on film.

Broadly there are four states the two lenses of a Rollei may have in relation to each other.

1. Viewing lens shows good infinity focus; taking lens is off
2. Taking lens shows good infinity focus; viewing lens is off
3. Taking lens infinity focus is off; viewing lens is also off
4. Taking lens shows good infinity focus; viewing lens is also good.

Obviously, only the last condition is desirable. The point is that unless both lenses are checked you cannot know if the other agrees. The viewing lens must be dialled in to the taking lens, and not vice-versa. Hence, you really must start with the taking lens adjustment, and if this is not correct, the viewing lens is by default almost certain to subsequently need re-setting, anyway.

I generally use a ground glass I made myself over the film rails with a magnifying loupe on a distant tree. I live in an rural area so this is a plus for me here. In general there is some tolerance for small errors in adjustment at infinity, or near infinity. If you have access to an auto-collimator, so much the better, alternatively many will be aware of the procedure used to check focus by employing an SLR and telephoto lens to check infinity. I'll assume you're using a ground glass or similar on the film rails, though.

The procedure is to set the focus image on the ground glass with the lens open on bulb. A locking cable release makes this a little easier. If this is in fact achieved with the the focus knob set on its infinity stop, congratulations; the taking lens is probably good (more below). If the lens will focus past true infinity, you need to loosen the locking screw previously mentioned, and set the knob to the infinity stop (without moving the lens board, of course). Having set the actual focus of the lens to the infinity setting of the knob, shorter distances should then fall into place.

If, with the focus knob at the infinity stop, the lens is still short of true infinity, things are a little more involved. You will need to loosen the lock screw, turn the knob slightly towards a shorter focus setting on the scale; lock the screw again temporarily, and then adjust the lens back in towards the film rails until infinity falls into place. You can then loosen the locking screw, reset the knob to the infinity stop and re-fasten the locking screw. If you are really unlucky, the trim plate around the edge of the focus plate won't have enough clearance to the front of the camera body to get the lens board in far enough to reach infinity. This potentially, opens up a whole new can of worms to deal with, as it might, for instance, mean the lens board parallelism to the film plane is also off and must be re-set (much disassembly for an Automat model, and generally done with dial or depth gauge, blocks, and surface plate, to 0.05mm across the diagonal corners of the board). Let's be optimistic, and assume that, if you strike this issue, the parallelism is good, and that the trim simply needs some shims under its four securing screws to lift it up a fraction. I've re-set the parallelism successfully, but it's fiddly, and time consuming, without custom tools to speed things up...

Having got the taking lens looking good on the ground glass at a distant target, for me, the acid test is to: set the camera up on a tripod or other support; at minimum focus distance, or close to this, set the taking lens, until the image on ground glass is critically sharp; and check that the distance measurement on the focus scale of the camera agrees exactly with an accurate tape measure. If infinity has been well set, they should tie in perfectly. If not, you likely haven't quite nailed the distance check. Go and check it again: you'll probably find it's just a little off. The catch is that a small deviation at infinity, can make for a substantial error at close range. Get both ends of the range sweet, and any distance in between should fall in fine.

OK.
You've now got the taking lens set beautifully at infinity and at close range. So you can be confident that—even without looking through the viewfinder—should you set the camera focus to a distant mountain, for example, the film image will be tack sharp. Having verified this, now you can proceed to dial in the focus of the viewing lens. By rotating the viewing lens in its thread—after first loosening the set screw that fastens it, which has been explained in post 1 of this thread—you can now set the focus through the viewfinder until the finder image is sharp. I use a small loupe that just fits inside the hood of a Rollei to give me greater magnification, for slightly better accuracy. Providing you haven't moved the focus knob of the camera during this process, both the viewing and the taking lenses should now be in agreement. If it's good, nip up the set screw that retains the viewing lens.

Again, to verify your adjustments are good, set the camera up on a close focus target, take your time getting the focus spot on, and compare against the taking lens with the shutter on bulb etc. Both lenses should now show a nice sharp image on their respective ground glasses. If so, you've nailed it. Otherwise, re-check viewing lens on infinity again as described previously. To cross-check your adjustments, set the camera focal plane to a distance marked on the focussing scale (Eg four feet, or the metric equivelant, depending on the camera) using an accurate tape measure, with the film plane parallel to the focus target. (I use a small magnetic calendar on the front of my refrigerator that features crisp white font on a black background). With the distance from the camera to the target carefully adjusted (and remember, of course, that with all these adjustments you are measuring to the film rails, not the front of the lens) set the focus knob to this exactly distance. Both lenses should show tack sharp images of the target on the ground glass, at the actual distance the knob is set to.

Regards,
Brett

Hello Brett and welcome to APUG, don't let my ignorance represent the awesomeness that is APUG, my post was more about sharing my experience than anything else, I am in no way or form an expert

Thank you for the information about the focusing knob, I wasn't aware of that actually, it also looks kind of like a mystery to start messing with.

Though, on my camera, both lenses sit on the same physical lens-board, so any adjustment to the knob, would influence both lenses, not just the viewing one.
I have also actually removed the lens board as well, and there are no special attachments to the taking lens from the focusing system, it sits on that plate along with the viewing lens.
The plate itself is attached by 4 screws to the focus mechanism (with two pairs of shims below it actually), in addition to one more screw. That screw transfers the arm movements from winding the film, to the shutter winding mechanism around the taking lens.

- The distance scale around my focusing knob is long gone and no longer readable.

I do believe you'll need to adjust the stuff behind the focusing knob, if your infinity-focus is off, no doubt.
Mine was never off at inf. though (knew that from testing the camera before), so I adjusted the viewing lens to the taking lens, as you stated above.
From your post, my camera lenses were in state 2.

The reason why I used tape and a flash light, instead of a focusing screen, is that, as I say, my Hasselblad screen is too thick and cause front focus. The "film-plane" I am working with then, is moved back around 3-5 mm because of it.

By using the tape, and the flash-light, you basically just reverse the process, using your camera as a projector for the image of the tape.
The tape is thin as a film an is very easy to place on the film-plane and on the ground-glass.

Also, as my Automat is sh*t dark and fuzzy to look trough, it's almost impossible to focus critically, so by using a strong flashlight, I am able to go around that problem and just use more illumination.

Mine is sharp on all lenghts now (including infinity), but it is indeed as you say; It's a must that you know the state of the taking lens before you do anything.
(adjusting the taking lens to the viewing lens seems very illogical to me, but then again, I suppose you never know what people will do, me being a good example of just that )

For the record; my other Rolleiflex, a 2.8F was promptly sent out for a proper CLA the minute I laid my hands on it, and thats also my recommendation.
But converting a dud into a (ugly but sharp) gem by your own hands is really cool, so the automat-project was fun and educational. ^^

My mantra was (pardon my French): "F*ck it, if it breaks, it breaks, it's broken already" and then I took it apart

Hi,
Thanks for the welcome.

Yes, adjusting the position of the focus knob infinity stop relative to the lens board will indeed affect both lenses. Which is part of the reason why the adjustment procedure consists in the first instance of setting the taking lens correctly via the infinity stop, and then dialling the viewing lens in to match it. If adjustment to the taking lens is needed, even if the viewing lens was well adjusted beforehand, it would subsequently be off and have to be re-adjusted, anyway.

There are usually one or more longer shims under each side of the lens board to set the parallelism of each side and usually a smaller shim on top of that to fine tune each corner. These should not need to be touched to set the infinity focus correctly if the parallelism is OK. The procedure would consist of adjusting the infinity stop as outlined previously. If the lens board is not parallel to the film rails, the shims may need adjustment, particularly if the Rollei has been tampered with. But only after checking the rails that the "carriage" for the lens board slides in for wear, looseness, and also the focus cam followers. Wear in these areas often leads to misalignment that may be adjusted out. If after correcting this the parallelism is incorrect, it will be necessary to reshim the board to true it. Instead of shims, F models feature a slotted adjuster and lock nut on each corner. Adjustment of these achieves the same effect as shimming previous models.

Unfortunately, these cameras are of the age now that, no matter how superbly they were manufactured, they are often in need of some wear adjustment. A Rolleicord Va arrived a couple of weeks ago with so much slop in the system the whole lens board literally rattles around in the camera body (how anyone would make anything approaching a sharp image with it in that condition, I will never know). We're talking about three or four millimetres of play. It remains to be seen if that will be salvageble or whether it will be destined to be a parts camera. My Tele, on the other hand, seems to be in good overall order, but the weight of those long lenses has clearly put more strain and hence, promoted more wear on the cam followers, and I suspect this is typical following substantial use for that model.

My own general observations based on the 15 or so Rolleis I've handled in the last couple of years or so are that good, clean, low use cameras are a little harder to source (at least, on line). I had quite a good run early on but many of the Rolleis I have acquired in the last year have needed a lot more than a shutter clean and focus adjustment to set them right. Focus misalignments seem to be more common. Perhaps I've simply been unlucky, but I do wonder if many of the really good examples have already found new homes and that this is being reflected in the less than perfect condition of more recent offerings. Of course I'm in Australia, but I do buy from overseas, too.
Regards,
Brett

Incidentally, our friends over at the Classic Camera Repair Forum have kindly made the 470-odd page factory repair manual for the later Rolleicords and Rolleiflexes available for free download via their site. It's the same manual many ebay sellers charge to supply on CD. It is a large file of nearly 60 megabytes but generous of them to host it. You can find it via there manuals page, here. There are many exploded diagrams of the components of the focus system and instructions for adjusting focus and parallelism. An Automat model is not covered but the basic principles are identical and the later ones are similar enough for the manual to be more than useful when tackling an older model.

Regards,
Brett

Brilliant idea. But isn't the tape on the wrong side of the groundglass?

Hello Brett, I got an problematic Rolleiflex 2.8GX recently: the viewing lens is off focus on both 1m and infinity, I tried but it cannot be adjusted until I turn the original focus screen upside down(matt side up) as well as adjust the reflect mirror underneath a little bit, it is quite odd, now the viewing lens focus perfectly.
After the first test roll, I found many images taken at the minimum(1m)/close focal distance are out of focus that the actual focal point is about 5 centimeters further than the target, it is really annoying. So I found this post and tried to adjust the taken lens's focus(Thanks Helinophoto!!!), then the problem is, when both front and back taken lens group element are fixed tightly as they were when I got the camera( I guess nobody disassembled this camera before), the closest focal distance is exact 105CM instead of 100CM which it should be! The only way to make it 100CM is to loose the front element by three rounds, but I am sure it is not the right way. Could you please give me some advice? Thanks in advance!
Regards,
James

The method described by Helinophoto will not give precise focus adjustment. This is because the tape is not a good reference plane as it does not sit exactly at the film plane, it waves and bends - it's simply not a good idea. Remember, the smallest deviation from the perfect film plane such as 0.05mm translates into a significant focus error. Another issue is that the wall the image is projected at would have to be perfectly parallel to the film plane, because otherwise which part of the projected image do you use as a reference? This is especially true in a TLR camera where, unless the wall is perfectly parallel, the images projected be the viewing and taking lens would be at different distances . The third thing, and this was addressed by Brett, is that the method does not take into account infinity focus, which is very important.

I know this is a little off topic but, I can't seem to wrap my head around focus at infinity as opposed to say 10 feet or minimum focus. If you adjust focus for infinity and 10 feet is also focused why wouldn't the reverse be true? If accurate at 10 feet why would infinity be off? I bring this up because I am always using it way before infinity. Is it just easier to set focus for infinity? I adjusted a viewing lens on a 2.8C once to match a gg placed on film plane and the pictures were as sharp as could be in my opinion but none were taken at infinity. I adjusted at home using the 3.5 ft index on focus knob.

Brett Rogers said:

Incidentally, our friends over at the Classic Camera Repair Forum have kindly made the 470-odd page factory repair manual for the later Rolleicords and Rolleiflexes available for free download via their site. It's the same manual many ebay sellers charge to supply on CD. It is a large file of nearly 60 megabytes but generous of them to host it. You can find it via there manuals page, here. There are many exploded diagrams of the components of the focus system and instructions for adjusting focus and parallelism. An Automat model is not covered but the basic principles are identical and the later ones are similar enough for the manual to be more than useful when tackling an older model.

Regards,
Brett

Click to expand...

Sadly, I didn't download this manual seven years ago, and the link is no longer active. Does anyone either have a downloaded copy or knowledge of a new link to it?

Andy