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johnnyrod · 08-11-17, 10:12 PM

I still swear by doing it at short range, taping a focus screen from an SLR onto the film plane. I choose 5ft or 1.5m as it's an east distance. I'd be a little wary of using the minimum distance as I worry a little how accurate the scale or RF are at the extremes, but to counter that, I set the Olympus S at 1.5m and took a crisp picture wide open at minimum - 0.9m I think? I set the lens to minimum and moved back and forth until the RF spot coincided - you can't get any closer than that. I tried backsighting with the Ensign because I don't have a large enough focus screen and the split circle wasn't working so well with a slower lens (I think). It was fine but only works at infinity. Set the folding Contessa at 5' and it's a pig to adjust because of the gears, so in fact at 5ft the scale reads about 3" off. I checked it at a few distances up to about 15ft and the RF matched the lens collimation so I didn't worry about the slight scale inaccuracy. Best RF spot ever, it's so clear and the action is lovely, even if the camera itself is slow to use, the frame spacing was all to cokk, and I kept adjusting the shutter speed instead of the focus ring!

08-11-17, 10:12 PM	#4312
johnnyrod Member Mega Poster Join Date: Jul 2003 Location: Doncaster, oop norf Posts: 2,128	Re: Vintage film cameras I still swear by doing it at short range, taping a focus screen from an SLR onto the film plane. I choose 5ft or 1.5m as it's an east distance. I'd be a little wary of using the minimum distance as I worry a little how accurate the scale or RF are at the extremes, but to counter that, I set the Olympus S at 1.5m and took a crisp picture wide open at minimum - 0.9m I think? I set the lens to minimum and moved back and forth until the RF spot coincided - you can't get any closer than that. I tried backsighting with the Ensign because I don't have a large enough focus screen and the split circle wasn't working so well with a slower lens (I think). It was fine but only works at infinity. Set the folding Contessa at 5' and it's a pig to adjust because of the gears, so in fact at 5ft the scale reads about 3" off. I checked it at a few distances up to about 15ft and the RF matched the lens collimation so I didn't worry about the slight scale inaccuracy. Best RF spot ever, it's so clear and the action is lovely, even if the camera itself is slow to use, the frame spacing was all to cokk, and I kept adjusting the shutter speed instead of the focus ring!