Rangefinder adjustment (Olympus 35 SP)?

[Dr.Pain-MD]

I posted the same thing on flickr, but I figure that I might get more responses here and was hoping that someone could help me out.

My 35 SP's rangefinder has been a little off [horizontally] at infinity ever since I got it (although I haven't had any trouble with shots being out of focus). I was hoping that I could adjust it myself because it annoys me to have infinity focus at just before the infinity end of the lens' focus. I know that there is a screw above the film rails that I can use to adjust the rangefinder, but I was wondering if I had to also adjust the close focus and how I would go about doing that if I did indeed have to. Do I even have to adjust the rangefinder for close focus or is it only infinity that matters? Any other tips will also be appreciated. Thanks!

 

[John Koehrer]

To infinity and beyond! Or just set for infinity. There's no adjustment for close focus.

 

[Dr.Pain-MD]

Awesome, that's what I figured. Thanks! I spent over an hour this morning adjusting the rangefinder while sitting on my balcony with the Oly on a tripod and focused on some distant telephone poles and buildings. It took me a while, but it seems to be pretty much perfect now. Calibrating the rangefinder for infinity should theoretically give me perfect focus across the lens' entire range, right? I ask because I'm using this camera for a 12 hour photo marathon next weekend and I don't want my focus to suck.

 

[John Koehrer]

See how easy that was? Having a balcony and chair is positively luxurious

It can be time consuming and tedious but it's not rocket science

 

[Dr.Pain-MD]

It wasn't hard, but it was a bit of a pain. I thought that it was fine at one point and then I had to go and redo it because it wasn't. I checked the focusing today (but very quickly because I had to leave), I checked the film plane with a piece of packaging plastic and some tape over it. I used the light-table loupe, but it was too big to fit in normally, so I had to use it backwards. The close focus and near-infinity focus seemed good, but the middle was fishy. However, my test was really quick and not very proper (backwards loupe, thick-ish plastic piece), so I hope that it turns out OK.