Dallas photographer new to Photrio

[MarkWalberg]

I've newly joined Photrio, but have been interested in cameras and photography for decades.
My most fun find was a Nikon Zf. It lets me use all the old lenses I have, Sonnars, Jupiters, old Nikon manual focus and many others.
I'm restarting black and white film developing this month with LegacyPro EcoPro developer. This will allow me to use all my film cameras again. I've got the F2AS out, and the Konica Hexar AF, and the Topcon 35-S (my favorite fixed lens rangefinder) and several Canon and Leica rangefinders.

I love repairing old mechanical cameras. I've modified several Jupiter lenses to focus a lot closer. I recently fixed a Hexar AF with the wonky shutter button problem. It is satisfying to get a nonfunctioning camera working well again.

 

[koraks]

Welcome aboard!

Fixing stuff in general is really rewarding. Cameras too. Film as well!

 

[loccdor]

Welcome to Photrio! I need your skills to fix the focus on my Jupiter-3.

 

[MarkWalberg]

Welcome to Photrio! I need your skills to fix the focus on my Jupiter-3.

What is the J3 doing wrong? If it is just front or back focus, that is usually easy - change the shims to a thickness that makes it better. Brian Sweeney had a tremendous knowledge of these and he used to post a lot of very useful stuff at rangefinderforum.com. However, he is not there since late last year. Some (but not all) of his useful posts can still be found there.

 

[loccdor]

What is the J3 doing wrong? If it is just front or back focus, that is usually easy - change the shims to a thickness that makes it better. Brian Sweeney had a tremendous knowledge of these and he used to post a lot of very useful stuff at rangefinderforum.com. However, he is not there since late last year. Some (but not all) of his useful posts can still be found there.

Front focusing. I'll try opening it up one of these days, too many other pots on the stove.

 

[MarkWalberg]

If it is focusing a bit closer than the rangefinder indicates at close distance, then check to see if the same is true at infinity. The Sonnars have some focus shift. If focus is too close at both close focus and infinity, then you just need a bit thicker shim. If you get focus reasonably correct at close distance, then it is often OK to accept a bit too close focus at infinity because you will almost always be stopping down at infinity anyway, enough to have good focus there.