brighter rangefinders?

[Bjørk]

Hello, fellow shutterbugs. I recently acquired some aging rangefinder cameras, and one thing they have in common is that while the rangefinders may or may not work, and may require some adjustment, is there any way to brighten up the image(s)? Can I do it, or should I send the whole job to a repairman? I'm talking about two horsemen 6 X9s, a Graflex Century Graphic, and a Kodak Medalist. The Medalist's rangefinder actually works, and requires some adjustment, but when I first looked through it, I barely noticed the split image section. Can the brightness be improved?

 

[Marcelo Paniagua]

Send it to a repairman. Have a Horseman 6x9 myself. Beautiful machine. If you have any of the model with the rangefinder adapter,it really helps. Dont risk breaking that up. Information is lacking so not plenty DIY videos around.


Regards

Marcelo

 

[Sirius Glass]

Welcome to APUG Photrio

Talk to shutterfinger about the Horsemen 6X9s and Graflex Century Graphic, for sage advice and possibly he may do some work for you. The work he did for my on my 1928 4"x5" Graflex Model D is stunning.

 

[AgX]

Welcome at Apug!

The mirror of the rangefinder may be fogged or deteriorated, or there may be some fogging at other parts.
If all is well, colour filtering the patch image may make enhance the contrast to the surrounding image.

 

[shutterfinger]

Rangefinders have a fixed beamsplitter mirror and a moveable mirror. The beamsplitter is a 50/50 transmission/reflect. All the glass surfaces get dirty with age. Start by cleaning the exterior surfaces with glass cleaner. The rangefinder on the Century Graphic is likely a Kalart. The windows unscrew from the body. The silver coating on the beamsplitter fails and may come off if touched with a dry cotton swab or glass cleaner. Beamsplitters are getting hard to obtain. The new beamsplitters are thinner than the factory original and must be shimmed on the mount so that the silvered side is at the same position as the original otherwise one will not be able to calibrate the rangefinder.
Information for the Kalart rangefinder is available at http://www.graflex.org/technical-information.html
Send the Horseman's to a shop, unknown about the Medalist.

 

[dxqcanada]

You can get a custom sized plate beam splitter from seller nobbysparrow on eBay.

 

[Arbitrarium]

http://rick_oleson.tripod.com/index-165.html

 

[Bjørk]

Thank you all for the details. I hope to be able to resurrect at least one rangefinder myself, and these will help. I actually found someone on eBay selling a disassembled Kalart RF, willing to part with it for $10.00 (free shipping). So I have a place to start. Every comment here was worthwhile. Tell ya what: if I can succeed in this task, I will post an annotated list of the links that were helpful in accomplishing it. Thanks again.

 

[shutterfinger]

I have posted repair information in the past on https://graflex.org/helpboard/
Other tips on your Century there also.