Adjusting focus on Rolleiflex 3.5e at home

Grim Tuesday · Nov 23, 2019

I currently have a Rolleiflex 3.5e and the kinda rare ground glass back for it from the sheet/plate film kit. I was planning to sell the sheet film kit on eBay because I have never used it and don't really see the point but I figured that now might be a good time to calibrate the focus between taking and viewing lenses on my camera while I have the ground glass back. What's the best way to go about doing this?

campy51 · Nov 23, 2019

Here is how I did it, but I don't think it's the proper way. I place a ground glass on the film plane but since you have that attachment it should be easier, I then set the focus dial at 3.5 ft. and checked the focus on a box of cereal which was set up at 3.5 ft. After verifying it was focused I checked the view finder to see if that was focused. I had removed my viewing lens to clean some fungus so after reinstalling I had to adjust it by screwing it in a little at a time until the viewfinder was focused. Since you haven't removed the viewing lens it should be rather easy, but it supposed to checked at infinity but I don't have a unobstructed path to infinity. My way is probably the quickest way for you just to verify your cameras focus. If I am way off I'm sure someone with much more knowledge will reply.

M-88 · Nov 23, 2019

I second campy51's post, that's how I dealt with focus adjustment on Yashica 124 too, only I had a nice and large split-screen instead of a mere ground glass, to put it on film plane.

shutterfinger · Nov 23, 2019

Place the ground side of the ground glass at the image plane. The factory ground glass back attachment should do that. Using a good loupe focus on an infinity target at least 5000 feet away. I have found that the further away the target is the better. Celestial objects make excellent infinity targets. Once the infinity target is sharp on the ground glass check the view screen for the same degree of sharpness. Adjust the position of the view lens only after verifying the view screen is in its proper position. Once the view screen position has been verified adjust the position of the view lens to obtain the same degree of sharpness on the view screen.
If the focus knob is moved when checking the view screen reset infinity on the back ground glass then recheck the view screen.

John Koehrer · Nov 23, 2019

WE ^^^seem to disagree on a photographic infinity focus. fl X 500 is used by many repair folk.
If you believe you can see a difference at either a mile or the local stars I have doubts.

shutterfinger · Nov 23, 2019

John Koehrer said:
WE ^^^seem to disagree on a photographic infinity focus. fl X 500 is used by many repair folk.
If you believe you can see a difference at either a mile or the local stars I have doubts

Get your eyes checked as it makes a difference especially with rangefinders. A lot of corner cutters use closer distances for convince as they assume the photographer/picture taker will stop down to f8 or smaller where it won't matter in their opinion and they will never admit it if asked.

ic-racer · Nov 24, 2019

Grim Tuesday said:
. I was planning to sell the sheet film kit on eBay because I have never used it and don't really see the point?

One contemporary use for the sheet film back is to use it for exposing Instax film.

John Koehrer · Nov 24, 2019

shutterfinger said:
Get your eyes checked as it makes a difference especially with rangefinders. A lot of corner cutters use closer distances for convince as they assume the photographer/picture taker will stop down to f8 or smaller where it won't matter in their opinion and they will never admit it if asked.

Face it, There's theoretical and practical Not happy with fX500? use a powerline or microwave tower from a 1/2 mile. There are some cameras
that you won't find a difference using the focus knob on the camera at either distance.

shutterfinger · Nov 24, 2019

John Koehrer said:
Face it, There's theoretical and practical Not happy with fX500? use a powerline or microwave tower from a 1/2 mile

There is the correct way and te good enough to get by with way.

shutterfinger · Nov 25, 2019

This online DoF calculator http://www.outsight.com/hyperfocal.php shows that for a 75mm lens at f3.5 on 6x6 format focus at 87.9 feet to get a dof from 43.95 feet to infinity.
Some will say that the 87.9 feet distance is good enough for the infinity setting but not me.

For an f2.8 lens you have to focus at 109 feet to get a dof of 54.95 feet to infinity.

For an f1 lens its 307.6 feet for a dof of 153.8 to infinity.

I also wonder how accurate the distance scale will be if infinity was set using the hyperfocal distance.

Adjusting focus on Rolleiflex 3.5e at home

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