After coming back from Cameraworks and looking beautiful after its total rebuild, repaint and re-cover, the RF on my Model III has its vertical RF alignment off just a tiny fraction. In that, even when at their best, with a new mirror, the RF second image on these pre-war cameras is a bit weak and, if the vertical alignment is even a fraction off, you don't get a good 'pop' or contrast increase, when the images align. I know how to adjust the vertical alignment on post-war LTM's and M's but not on these pre-war cameras (1934 in my case). Can anyone help me on this?I had a look on the Internet and found nothing. If the camera does not have to be taken apart to do this I will do it, otherwise it can go back to Alan Starkie, when I send him the Graflex Combat Graphic KE-4 giant rangefinder 70mm film camera (Gulliver's Contax) for repair.I have bought this KE-4 recently and its 'schpringenwerk' clockwork film advance is jammed, probably due too much 'gefingerpoking' by the previous ownerHello guest!Please or to view the hidden content.

1. How To Calibrate Leica Horizontal Alignment System

I have actually bought the whole KS-6 Graphic kit with all three lenses, flash and various other bits and pieces in their original Halliburton aluminium Case. For those who don't know what the KE-4 looks like, a pic below.WilsonHello guest!Please or to view the hidden content. Wilson,If you know how to adjust horizontal then the vertical adjustment is just one step more. Choose an object at infinity, with horizontal lines (roof, chimney or so) and turning the window as indicated above bring the horizontal lines together.

Horizontal adjustment will go off, but this is what you know how to do. Just take care not to use too much force on the screw for horizontal adjustment.

This screw is secured with another screw accessible after taking top cover off and on some cameras it is so tight that you cannot turn the screw for horizontal adjustment. I usually wait until the summer at my french house and use either the planet Venus or Jupiter. OK not quite at infinity but maybe good enoughHello guest!Please or to view the hidden content. In that I live about 1/2km outside a tiny village that has very little in the way of street lighting, I get virtually no light pollution. The mayor started to get the wiring laid for street lights in the small road that goes past the entrance to my house up to where he hoped that an executive holiday homes estate was going to be built. Not a single one of the 20 plots has been sold, so I am delighted that the street lighting has not been put in.I am not going to mess around with the RF.

How To Calibrate Leica Horizontal Alignment System

The amount the vertical adjustment is out is absolutely tiny and looking at it again this afternoon, I am not sure it is out. Unlike on an M, where the RF image moves horizontally in relation to the fixed image, the RF image on a III seems to move very slightly diagonally. As you focus it goes from above right, through the point of convergence to below left. As I said above, it would be very embarrassing to have to give it back to Alan and explain through my cack-handedness, I have undone some of his good work over the last few weeks.I think I will stick to adjusting RF's on post war Leica LTM's and M's, where I know what I am doing.Wilson. Wilson, that's interesting about the rangefinder on a III moving diagonally, I had wondered. I just finished running a film through a recently acquired 1935 III. The rangefinder is out both horizontally and vertically and the image does indeed seem to move diagonally.

I'm thinking I may just adjust it horizontally first and see if that cures both.Sent from my iPhone using TapatalkI suspect you may need one of those tools that looks a bit like an old fashioned clothes peg, to remove the RF window. I keep meaning to buy a set of these from Hong Kong. Not having any of these was another reason for not even starting on re-adjusting my RF.Hello guest!Please or to view the hidden content. This may help; it's for the iiif, however.Jon,Thanks but the IIIF is quite easy, as one adjustment does not seem to alter the other very much, if at all, as long as you adjust the vertical with the infinity adjusted to be correct and set to infinity. On the earlier cameras you seem to have to go backwards and forwards between the two adjustments, to get them closer and closer until they are perfect, as adjusting one seems to alter the other. I now think I was misled by the diagonal movement on the pre-war Leicas, of the ghost image, against the real image in the RF and the vertical alignment on my III is actually near enough. It just takes a bit of getting used to, when I have been using M's in the recent past, with the far clearer and total horizontal ghost image movement On the model III the ghost image appears to go from above right to below left as you go through the focus point.

This seems to have been changed, maybe at the IIIB stage, when the RF and VF windows were changed to be side by side, as neither my 1953 IIF nor my 1956 Reid and Sigrist (a IIIB copy) have diagonal ghost image movement. Theirs is horizontal.Wilson. Mike,If you would prefer to re-cover in embossed black leather rather than vulcanite, Alan Starkie has a source in the USA for cut covers for the Model III - see photo on previous page for my III covered in this material. Aki-Asahi doesn't appear to do these and I assume Morgan at Cameraleather is out of business, as he no longer answers emails and his website has lots of 404 holes in it now.

Annoying as I have a credit with him, which I suppose I will have to write off.WilsonThank you, I'll try cleaning mine first, it that doesn't work I'll see what Alan has.You wouldn't happen to know of any European suppliers that may have viewfinder windows and odd screws? Nobody that I can find in the US has any for the III / IIIa, just for the IIIc and up.I'd be happy to find an ORAKO if all else fails, but they don't come up for sale very often either.