Budget Device to measure flange distance

[BobUK]

I have used paper shims in the past. The paper instructions from some of the old filter data sheets from 1960's Japan and Bible pages were the thinnest I found. I don't recommend destroying sacred books just for camera repair.

I have only skimmed through this thread so sorry if this has already been mentioned.

I once used those massive cigarette papers used for Marie Juner smoking to make shims for a microscope objective lens, so as to get it par-focal with the other lenses.

 

[SMD]

Thanks again for your replies. And how do you actually to the adjustment on such a small scale on an old camera? you can get shims down to maybe 0.1mm or for that small screw size only 0.25mm. what are other options?

In the soviet rangefinders you will find* shims made of cigarette paper.


Ushanka Show (a channel I highly recommend but OT here) has a compilation of filmings from assembly lines of soviet cameras:
At 3:25 you can see how a woman checks the flange distance of a FED 5 using an adapted extender measuring watch**. (Aka a distance amplifying instrument.)
You can watch the video also on FB, search for "Soviet FED Film Camera Assembly Line Through the Years" (3:25); I have no idea how to copy the link from there. (But the YT link is better as the resolution is 1080p and on FB only 720p.)
I do thing that method is very exact. My guess is they zeroed the clock at 28,8 mm (for the Zorki/FED) and it measures positive and negative deviation.

--
* unfortunately no repair instruction I found on the interweb mentions those shims at all. It would be good to know they are there and you should take care before you take the flange ring away and all the shims fly away so you will never reasamble that camera to spec.
** I translated from German, maybe someone can tell me the correct English name of this tool.

 

[stan_1]

Thanks for sharing that link. OT, but: Had to lough out loud at one point. So they did actually have a big Lenin bust towering over them while assembling those feds!
Makes me see those cameras in a whole new light. If people knew I guess those second hand prices would go all the way up

In the soviet rangefinders you will find* shims made of cigarette paper.


Ushanka Show (a channel I highly recommend but OT here) has a compilation of filmings from assembly lines of soviet cameras:
At 3:25 you can see how a woman checks the flange distance of a FED 5 using an adapted extender measuring watch**. (Aka a distance amplifying instrument.)
You can watch the video also on FB, search for "Soviet FED Film Camera Assembly Line Through the Years" (3:25); I have no idea how to copy the link from there. (But the YT link is better as the resolution is 1080p and on FB only 720p.)
I do thing that method is very exact. My guess is they zeroed the clock at 28,8 mm (for the Zorki/FED) and it measures positive and negative deviation.

--
* unfortunately no repair instruction I found on the interweb mentions those shims at all. It would be good to know they are there and you should take care before you take the flange ring away and all the shims fly away so you will never reasamble that camera to spec.
** I translated from German, maybe someone can tell me the correct English name of this tool.

 

[vandergus]

Just a little more context for film plane error...

The Contax RTS III is famous for its vacuum aided pressure plate, which is supposed to improve film flatness and consequently image sharpness across the field. Some of the marketing material at the time actually put numbers on how much better this system was than a traditional SLR (with the caveat that these are marketing numbers and not necessarily independent lab numbers). Contax stated that film curvature in a normal camera would allow for the deviations in the range of 20-30 microns, while their system kept it under 10. Mike Ekman's review of the RTS III clips the Popular Photography review of the RTS III, which also has some helpful diagrams to better understand how the film is positioned in a camera. I remember seeing actual graphical plots comparing film flatness in another publication, but I can't find it right now.

Contax RTS III (1990)

This is a Contax RTS III, a semi-professional 35mm SLR camera produced by Kyocera of Japan starting in 1990. The Contax name was licensed to Yashica in 1973,

mikeeckman.com