Minolta XD7 focus misaligned

Dear all,

I bought a used Minolta XD7 (identical to the XD11 sold in the US), which works perfectly despite a misalignment of the focus through the eyepiece and the result on the film. With the aperture open, my focus is always behind the plane I'm trying to focus on. However, the misalignment is small enough for narrow apertures to compensate. I use M42 lenses through an adapter, but recently decided to use native MD/MC lenses from Minolta and also noticed that I can't go to infinity through the eyepiece. I assumed that I had messed up the focus somehow. But with that in mind, I'm looking for a solution.

About myself: I'm somewhere between amateur and intermediate when it comes to do-it-yourself repairs. With a manual or a good hint I can work ok. So I have already tried to find some repair manuals or videos. However, I cannot seem to find anything. I have already taken a look at the ground glass and if it is not aligned properly. A photo of the current state is attached. From my point of view, the ground glass is properly mounted inside the body. It seems that the camera was also dropped before I bought it. A picture of the dent on top of the prism is also included. If it is not the prism, I assume that the screw holding the mirror in the non-triggered state is slightly misplaced. I cannot find any reference to ways to "recalibrate" the focus properly. Does anyone have a good source/manual/etc. that might be helpful? I've seen DIY collimator manuals before. So this tool should not be a problem.

Looking forward to your responses. Also apologies if I did not use the correct terminology in my post.

Best,
z0r

I have one of those where I've oddly needed to shim the lens mount (focus on film as well as screen was out) and another (or maybe both issues were on the same one) where the mirror appeared to rest too low. The mirror stop is adjustable, the stop itself is a cam, you just need to turn it. In my case the range was insufficient so I put heat-shrink tubing around it, I assume it has lost some rubber padding.
You will need some ground glass on the film rails to assess.

Hey, thanks for your reply. I have a ground glass in order to assess it on the film plane.

If I need to shim the lens mount, then my focus should be in front of my plane of interest, am I right? Because in my case it is behind the plane of interest.

Readjusting the mirror stop screw seems quite tedious. Do you have an idea to do that properly? Using heat-shrink tube is a clever idea on the other side. This might solve it "quick and dirty". Did you shrink it with a solder tip? Because using a lighter seems like a bad idea

EDIT: Also: I guess the "professional" way is perform readjusting in the prism and induce a length modification there? Does anybody know something about this?

Best

z0r said:

If I need to shim the lens mount, then my focus should be in front of my plane of interest, am I right? Because in my case it is behind the plane of interest.

Click to expand...

In my case the focus was too far out/overshot infinity both on film and on the focusing screen, with all my lenses. Only mess with the lens mount if all three factors apply.

z0r said:

Readjusting the mirror stop screw seems quite tedious. Do you have an idea to do that properly?

Click to expand...

I don't know about properly, to me the only way doable at home seems to be to adjust focus to film plane, then adjust the mirror until it matches. It's a flathead screw but you can't manoeuvre a screwdriver into it due to its location, so I used a small cheap kitchen knife. Not ideal, but worked.

z0r said:

Using heat-shrink tube is a clever idea on the other side. This might solve it "quick and dirty". Did you shrink it with a solder tip? Because using a lighter seems like a bad idea

Click to expand...

Indeed, I used a soldering iron.

z0r said:

EDIT: Also: I guess the "professional" way is perform readjusting in the prism and induce a length modification there? Does anybody know something about this?

Click to expand...

For sure, if the prism is the culprit, and the ding on the prism housing doesn't restrict its motion. I don't remember for sure whether it's adjustable but I think so. The service manual is online somewhere, check butkus and the "learn camera repair" websites.

By visually confirming best sharpness on the ground glass, the best I can achieve is done by three layers of heat-shrink. Shrunk them prior to insertion to a fitting size with a lighter. Using a solder iron inside the body was a bit tricky and I dismissed it. The result is attached.

I do not have a collimator in order to do it with more precision, but I found a good DIY solution here (http://feuerbacher.net/photo/repair/InfinityFocus/InfinityFocus.html). I have to see if it's worth it.

Thank you for the clever solution, although I would be still interested in a screw calibration or similar, if something knows something for the XD7/XD11.

Good that this seems to work!
My memory about adjusting the prism has come back, there are three screws accessible from above (under the top plate). I do not recall why adjusting that didn't do the job for my camera, I suppose I either ran out of adjustment range or thought the mirror stop should have more dampening.
As I wrote above, you can adjust the mirror stop itself, that just wasn't enough in my case. The stop itself turns, use the slot. It's a cam (ein Exzenter), don't worry, it doesn't simply unscrew. See how the rim around the screw head is thicker toward the front or bottom in your pic? Turn that part toward the mirror!

I recall being told that the mirror stop on these is known to end up out of adjustment.

Attached are pictures of the current state with a 200mm MD Lens. one is through the eyepiece, having a far located antenna in the center (~86m away). The other shows the result on the ground glass.

What I set as plane of interest is now sharp. However, I can focus now beyond infinity as it seems. Can you illuminate me here? My guess is that the mirror is not the problem? I'm not completly sure, nevertheless.

Could be the lens, have you tried other lenses? If it persist and you're certain it's the case at the film plane, it appears that you need to shim your lens mount, too. Weird. But maybe these came with shims from the factory and they got lost during repairs?

I cannot recall losing something like a shim from the mount. However, I do not know what happened before my purchase.

I got two MD/MC lenses with the same behaviour. The M42 lenses do behave weird due to the adapter, so I don't trust them. Is it this odd that I have both malfunctions?

Can you give me a golden hint on how to properly shim the mount with which material, since you already did it for the XD7/XD11?

I thought that I needed to shim the lens mount was a weird fluke. It does surprise me that you have the same issue. Two lenses focusing slightly beyond infinity is still not solid proof that it's the body, but if you want to go ahead and shim, that's perfectly reversible anyway. I used thin copper stock iirc, which happened to have the right thickness. I don't recall whether I made holes in it so it would properly go around the screws or I just squeezed pieces in right next to the screws. You could look for shim stock in your recycling bin, plastic could work too.

I came across this thread while researching the mirror angle adjustment for the XD series. I had been playing with my CLE and the 90mm f4 Rokkor...practicing infinity focus. For comparison, I attached the Tokina AT-X Macro 90mm 1:2.5 to my XD. (this post isn't about comparing the ease(?) of focus of the CLE rangefinder with a 90mm f4 to that of the XD with the Tokina...but hands down... by a mile, the XD TTL focus set up is easier/better. The split image area in a TTL is at least 3 times larger than the patch in the 90mm frame lines. Yes, I have taken some beautiful photos with the CLE and it has a lot of fun aspects. However...if was going to be using a lens longer than the 40mm f2 and I had to choose the between the CLE or an X-700,XD,XE, SRT...No contest... But I digress, Back to the Tokina/XD) I quickly noticed that my XD and XD-7 just could not align at infinity (>200' for instance) Every other distance is sharp...it was just that last little turn. The XD was a little farther off than the XD-7. I have cleaned lenses and I'm familiar with setting the infinity focus when reassembling the helical(s). At first I thought that the lens might be the problem. So I tried the Tokina on the other 5 camera bodies to confirm infinity focus was good. Researching online, I discovered the XD Series set screw/adjustment discussion boards. First, I ordered the XD Series repair manual for Learn Camera Repair, (I want to learn what is really going on with this screw/bushing/adjustment). While I wait on the repair manual download, I examined the strike zone on the "bushing", which is clamped by the set screw. Also examined the back of the mirror. (on both cameras) Obvious flattening of the bushing on both cameras. The XD was maybe a tiny bit more flattened. I estimate that the flattened part of the bushing was higher than the outer edge of the screw by about 1/2 the thickness of the slot in the screw. (significant wear compared to the height of the bushing where the mirror does not hit) On the XD the mirror also had a wear mark. (The XD-7 did not), I carefully cut small rectangles of Scotch 700 vinyl electrical tape (approx 2mm x 4mm). I did not touch the fresh adhesive on the rectangles and positioned them over the bushing strike zone. I gently tamped the tape with angled tweezers, the tape adheres very well to the bushing. It took like 10 minutes. Scotch 700 is .007"/.1778 ml thick. One layer made an obvious improvement. All close distances up to ~300' are sharply in focus. Still, 300' isn't the moon, so I added a 2nd layer. Very happy...@~300' the split circle aligns perfectly. Also, there is a tiny(tiny) bit more focus left. I will focus on the moon asap. I imagine that over time, the mirror slap might flatten the strike zone a little bit. That is OK because this was so easy to adjust. A silver lining to this infinity cloud is that as long as the lens can focus to infinity, your photo will also be in focus at infinity only you just cannot see it at the time.

Larry Lyells has presented the XD11 (XD7, XD) in detail in The Camera Craftsman.

This multi-page article with photos goes beyond the Minolta Service Manual, is clearly written and provides, among other things, information on settings and repairs. I highly recommend it.

Thanks...I messaged Learn Cam... re: the email I received confirming of my order for the XD Service manual... but the download page shows the manual is not available (?) I ordered the Repair Guide.