Adjusting Kalart Rangefinder to a 125mm Fujinon-W

[bsimison]

Howdy,

I've mounted a 125mm Fujinon-W to my Crown Graphic and have been trying to get the Kalart side-mounted rangefinder calibrated, so far unsuccessfully. I've been following the directions in the Kalart manual and can get infinity and 10-25' ranges to work, but not the 4-8' close focus. Even with the front adjustment slider all the way to the top of the scale, the movable image in the rangefinder is still too high. Am I missing something obvious? Will a Kalart not close-focus correctly with something as short as a 125mm lens?

Thanks!
-Brett

[BradS]

Howdy,

I've mounted a 125mm Fujinon-W to my Crown Graphic and have been trying to get the Kalart side-mounted rangefinder calibrated, so far unsuccessfully. I've been following the directions in the Kalart manual and can get infinity and 10-25' ranges to work, but not the 4-8' close focus. Even with the front adjustment slider all the way to the top of the scale, the movable image in the rangefinder is still too high. Am I missing something obvious? Will a Kalart not close-focus correctly with something as short as a 125mm lens?

Thanks!
-Brett

Assuming that you adjusted the infinity stops correctly...

I've not tried it with a 125mm Fujinon but, had one that worked well with the 127mm Ektar. They should be close....in theory anyway.

Generally speaking, I've found adjusting the Kalart side mounted rangefinder not nearly as easy as folk make it sound. I've done it once or twice successfully but I don't think I'll ever attempt it again.

[Kevin Crisp]

I've been able to get it to be very accurate for 127mm and 135mm lenses, so I don't think it is a problem with the lens being too short. There must be a manual available from the Graflexorg website that would tell you the range of the rangefinder. I thought it worked from 160 to 120 or something like that.

Have the infinity stops set so that infinity is in focus on the ground glass with the front standard racked all the way in. In other words, you should be able to open the camera, pull the front out to the stops, and be good to go at infinity. Then you have to adjust that silver screw cam thing on the right side of the camera where it interferes with the arm that comes down. That cam adjustment is always trouble for me when I do this.

Even though you think you can mentally short cut it, follow the old instructions exactly with the target the right distance above the line of sight for the lens when doing the closest in setting.

Many times I have found that after doing it right, it still takes a second time running through the whole procedure to really nail it since one thing throws off another.

[Ivan J. Eberle]

There's an adjustment screw under the prism that's sometimes needed. I'll try to look for the link tomorrow but I think it's Jo Lomman's (sp?) page that has the best directions for setting RF focus. Will mention also that a laser pointer shone through the RF when adjusting for convergence really speeds things up.

[bsimison]

Thanks for the suggestions, everyone. I think part of the problem might be that the rangefinder does not line up at infinity when the focus rack is "zeroed". Upon opening the camera I have to rack out the focus a bit to get the RF images to align. Adjusting the eccentric cam screw on the focus rail does not help. However, that eccentric screw is mounted to a sliding rail -- I wonder if I should move it forward slightly to make the RF sync at infinity?

[BradS]

yes. it sounds like that may be your problem.

it is tricky business. and as others have said, you have to the whole process very carefully several times to get it right.

[bsimison]

I solved the problem. Turned out I had to adjust the bottom prism screw to rock the prism back slightly so that infinity was aligned with the focus racked all the way in. After that, adjustment was a breeze. Thanks everyone for your suggestions.