Gl690 No sharp images.

[Antaras]

Well, now that I've scratched almost all the hair off my head I'm just going to give up on this one. The OP says it's the lens and I guess that since I can't examine the lens in question I'll just take his word for it. Still puzzled by the, "sharp at close-up and infinity, but not in the middle range" statement??????

OK big update on this one:

It wasnt the lens.

Dont lauch.. i tryed to ajust the rangefinder screw and it didnt go so ended up removing the whole screw.
Then i came to the conclusion that i almost destroyed my camera.

I removed some obstacles that stoped the mirror from moving.
Then when the mirror moved from 0-100% i removed the side prism mirror.
I glued the mirror on a different angle so the rangefinder patch was almost near as good as possible.
I found out the framelines now also changed.. they first didnt.
I guess the previous setup also stoped the lens from focusing (Because of the screw).

I made some test shots on tri-x400 see result from flatbad scan canon mark ii 9000f.
f3.5 125 shutter on tripod now sharp .. dont watch the mess in my livingroom.

Thanks for feedback all!

 

[Sirius Glass]

OK big update on this one:

It wasnt the lens.

Dont lauch.. i tryed to ajust the rangefinder screw and it didnt go so ended up removing the whole screw.
Then i came to the conclusion that i almost destroyed my camera.

I removed some obstacles that stoped the mirror from moving.
Then when the mirror moved from 0-100% i removed the side prism mirror.
I glued the mirror on a different angle so the rangefinder patch was almost near as good as possible.
I found out the framelines now also changed.. they first didnt.
I guess the previous setup also stoped the lens from focusing (Because of the screw).

I made some test shots on tri-x400 see result from flatbad scan canon mark ii 9000f.
f3.5 125 shutter on tripod now sharp .. dont watch the mess in my livingroom.

Thanks for feedback all!

In the end you have made wonderful progress.

 

[GregY]

OK big update on this one:

It wasnt the lens.

Dont lauch.. i tryed to ajust the rangefinder screw and it didnt go so ended up removing the whole screw.
Then i came to the conclusion that i almost destroyed my camera.

I removed some obstacles that stoped the mirror from moving.
Then when the mirror moved from 0-100% i removed the side prism mirror.
I glued the mirror on a different angle so the rangefinder patch was almost near as good as possible.
I found out the framelines now also changed.. they first didnt.
I guess the previous setup also stoped the lens from focusing (Because of the screw).

I made some test shots on tri-x400 see result from flatbad scan canon mark ii 9000f.
f3.5 125 shutter on tripod now sharp .. dont watch the mess in my livingroom.

Thanks for feedback all!

That's more like it!

 

[John Wiegerink]

Good job! Your like me, I never quit until I either fix what is wrong or fix it real good and beyond repair. It looks like you can run some film through it now and if it the photos are not sharp it's probably not the fault of the camera. Have fun!

 

[koraks]

I glued the mirror on a different angle

Alarm bells are ringing at this stage.
Reminds me how I once 'fixed' a Mamiya 645 by shimming the ground glass at an angle. This only served (as I realized much later) to compensate for the mirror stop that had gone awry.

There should be no need in the lifetime of your type of camera to re-glue a rangefinder mirror at a different angle! This suggests something else is/was wrong to begin with.
Anyway, I'm glad it seems OK for now. Fingers crossed!