Pentax 6x7 - changing focusing screen?

[Antje]

Hi all,

On my eternal mission to improve my dad's photographic life, I came across a Pentax 6x7 (with mirror lockup) to replace the one he has - that old one suffered from Irreparable Transport Dysfunction. So, the new one is just fine and works like a charm, but it only has the standard focusing screen. His old, broken Pentax has a split screen, and now Dad is eager to exchange the two, but doesn't know how. So, do you think those can be easily exchanged? Or is this something he should better let Pentax do?

Thanks for any suggestion!

Antje

 

[dpurdy]

It is not too hard. I changed my screen and all it took was a small screw driver. Take off the prism. Take all the small screws out of the frame holding the screen in and replace it putting back in any washers you find along the way. I found when I put in a beattie screen that my screen did not quite agree with the focus of the film plane. You can check that by locking the shutter open in bulb and opening the back door and putting a piece of ground glass (or the old pentax screen) over the film gate. Put the screen on the back with a bit of tape. Then focus the camera to infinite and with a loupe check that both the new focus screen and the film plane focus screen agree that it is in focus. There is a little spring tension under the focusing screen under the prism so you can adjust the height of it.(I am not sure whether that is intended or not but I did it and it works fine)