Topic: Photografica 2012: Sunday 20th May, London

[sapata]

Humm... mine there's no cable connecting the rangefinder with the camera, and he said something about missing tiny metal balls

[Ed Wenn]

I miss my tiny metal balls too!!

 

[Francois]

Made me laugh

The rangefinder doesn't use a cable to transfer the information from the drop-bed plunger to the viewfinder. Instead it relies on a series of small ball bearings that are contained in the vertical tube on the viewfinder side of the camera. This allows very tight bends in the tube. Strangely, unless someone has already taken it apart, I don't see how the bearings could get out! Unless you can find ball bearings of the same size to replace the missing ones, it might be somewhat harder to fix...

[sapata]

 Ha!!

Yes,  he tried fixing but the bearings fell off ... I guess I can live without it but it would be a nice experience to shoot using a hand-held LF camera!

[jojonas~]

Ha!!

Yes,  he tried fixing but the bearings fell off ... I guess I can live without it but it would be a nice experience to shoot using a hand-held LF camera!

you can always set it at the hyperfocal distance. treat it like a fixed focus point and shoot

[Heather]

f/8 and be there! Zone focus it

[Francois]

Ha!!

Yes,  he tried fixing but the bearings fell off ... I guess I can live without it but it would be a nice experience to shoot using a hand-held LF camera!

Also check the back of the rangefinder housing. There's a rectangular panel that you can push in and slide. It's a battery housing for the rangefinder illuminator. Unless the guy went for a complete overhaul, there's bound to be leaky batteries there. On mine, I just replaced them with a couple of taped-up dowels just to hold the cover as the system is pretty much useless...

[Jack Johnson]

Very jealous of everyone, but overjoyed to see others having such a good time, with a glut of cameras no less!

f/8 and be there! Zone focus it

w00t!

[Francois]

Humm... mine there's no cable connecting the rangefinder with the camera, and he said something about missing tiny metal balls

I just got an idea!
Maybe you could get similar sized bearings at a hunting supply shop!
Get one of the metal balls out of the rangefinder tube and measure it (calipers)
You probably can get some bird shot of a close enough diameter...

[sapata]

They've gone Francois... when I opened there wasn't a single one. I will need some sort of instructions on how to fix it... it sounds very compicated to me

Ha!!

Yes,  he tried fixing but the bearings fell off ... I guess I can live without it but it would be a nice experience to shoot using a hand-held LF camera!

you can always set it at the hyperfocal distance. treat it like a fixed focus point and shoot

Ha! the biggest point and shot camera ever!

[Francois]

it sounds very compicated to me

You mean filling the straw with bird shot?

I must admit, this camera doesn't allow for a whole lot of space to work around.