 Posted: Wed Apr 02, 2014 12:58 am Post subject: Cleaning Voigtlander Vito: yellow RF patch is back. But... |
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alex ph wrote:
The rangefinder in my Voigtlander Vito CLR did not work. It did not give a superposed image at all, so was only usable as a viewfinder. Still Vito is a fully capable, nice and handy camera. In forums I read that cleaning the prism may restore the patch. So I dismanteled the top plate which was really easy to do and no problem at all. You need to unscrew two tiny screws on the both sides of the top plate and one bigger one behind the winding lever.
I supposed to find a kind of non-understandible mechanical mess under the plate. But surprisingly everything was in clear and simple order:
The bricky solid Vito now looked more Leica-like this way. I never thought that the viewfinder is made of a kind of ceramic, with glass inside. Quite a futurist looking part, I schould say.
The cristal element I needed to access, the one which gives the rangefinder patch, was indeed very hazy. You can see it here half-hidden behind the metal bar and the springs:
All I needed to do was to wipe its front with a screen cleaning liquid put on a small cotton wad. When I looked back in the viewfinder window, the patch was back. That easy way to restore the RF was very pleasing.
But quickly I found out that the RF is misaligned horizontally. That was neither very difficult to change. If you look at the prism, on its left, deeper behind the metal parts, you may see a screw which adjusts the prism horisontally. It is not on my photos, as it is difficult to make a clear shot of it inside the mechanism. But it won't be a big deal to locate it. Put the lens focus on the minimum distance (1 meter), so that the RF block shifts to its far left position, and access this adjusting screw with a screwdriver from under the selenium cell. After several adjustments you will reach correspondence at a chosen distance.
What I found out adjusting the RF surprised me. When I successfully reached infinity, at 1 meter the RF was wrong again giving me about 10 cm less than the real distance. When I readjusted the prism for precisely 1 meter (with a measure ruler), infinity was lost again. How could that be? Logically speaking, if you reached infinity, the rest of the scale should also work well. Not in that case. So I readjusted the RF for correct measuring at close distances (1-2m) because here measurement error costs more than one between 20 m and infinity. But I still wonder if there is a way to make it work correctly through the entire distance scale.
Another unexpected thing that I discovered is that the lightmeter works only when its contact wire touches rusty front screw of the plastic construction (outlined with green). Otherwise the meter needle results dead:
And in that copy of Vito CLR the needle goes only up to the half of the light scale, even in the bright light. First I thought selenium was just exhausted. But the needle position does not change when moving the camera from a moderate light to a sharp light. It always remains in the middle of the light scale. And when the light falls considerably, it goes down. So that could be another problem. But which one? And is it easily repairable?
Still, with half-working lightmeter and almost well-working rangefinder it is a nice and handy camera, capable to deliver great shots.
So I put back the top plate, re-inserted the screws and put a film roll in the camera. And here I found the third problem. The taking spool fixed inside the camera, the one which must wind film after each shot, was loose around its metal axle. So when I pull the winding lever, the film does not advance because the plastic part of the spool moves easily around its metal bar. No chance for today!
Do you have an experience in fixing the taking spool in your film cameras, so that it gets tighter attached to its metal pivot? This Vito still is an appealing handy camera. And I'd love to use it with film.
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