Q (1): I removed the front plate for lubrication. Below the five relevant srews there are loose washers/spacers, which are needed to set the film/flange distance.
Unfortunately I can´t say which washer belongs to which screw and I have seven washers for five screws. To my knowledge the washers were used to "calibrate" each camera.
As it will be impossible to know the exact position for my camera: Should I use five washers for the five screws and keep two washers aside? How critical is this in daily usage?
Q (2): Lightmeter seems to work with new V394 battery but sharply drops at 1/2 and 1/1 second. Normal or something wrong here?
Thank you very much in advance!
Hi Tom,
What's happened to you is something that has happened to many the first time they remove the front panel of a Spotmatic. It can be difficult to keep those shims under control even when you're expecting them to jump around! You describe the shims as "washers", so I'm guessing that they are circular rather than C-shaped. I have a feeling that the fifth shim that goes under the small screw of the five is correspondingly slightly smaller in diameter so that one may be evident. To perform the measurements as in the S3 diagram requires a dial gauge, which isn't perhaps something most people would have. A micrometer is something you're perhaps more likely to be able to get hold of. If so my approach for what it's worth (possibly not much!) would be to measure the thickness of the six shims (assuming you can rule out the smaller one if there is one).
You may find that four of the shims are of a similar thickness. If that's the case, I'd like to think that Pentax's manufacturing standards would be good enough to have machined the front face to be reasonably parallel to the film plane. On that assumption, if you have four shims of similar thickness I'd put one under each of the four "main" screws and then omit the remaining two shims on the basis that if you put them in the wrong positions, instead of correcting any mis-alignment, you could end up doubling it!
As for how critical the adjustment is in daily use, that depends on the style of your photography and your preferred subject matter. For 125th sec at f8 with a 50mm lens it may make no difference at all. You could, of course, try it out with some of your typical photography (or a test chart if you want to get technical) before replacing the leatherette, D/A mechanism, etc..
If in future similar shims are still in place when you take the front off, you can either label them with a superfine marker or tack them in place with a dot of nail polish.
Lots of "ifs", "buts" and "maybes" in my reply (which you might choose to ignore) but good luck whatever route you take!
Steve
