Re: Lubitel focussing trouble

["Paul A. Lehman" <palehman@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I've never played with a Lubitel, but here are some thoughts from
my experiences with other cameras:

Tom Deering wrote:

> I put a small piece of ground glass
> across the rollers and viewed the target through a 30x loupe.

The ground glass should not be on the rollers, but truely on the
actual film plane. Also, be sure that the ground surface of the
glass is toward the lens. These may be two very obvious comments,
but I've screwed up focusing settings be not paying attention to
these points. 

You must always adjust the focus with the camera set to infinity.

Here is a second method for adjusting focus. Its an idea
presented by Ed Romney from his camera repair books. Place a
ground glass (I like to use film without backing) that has a
cross marked with pencil (I scratch the emulsion on the film)
placed on the film plane of the camera. Have the back door open
and back light the camera. Then, get a modern single lens reflex
with a lens of normal to slight tele (eg 90 or 135mm) and set its
focus at infinity. Face the two camera's lenses. Look through the
SLR into the second camera's lens to see the pencil marks. Now,
adjust the second lens until you see the pencil mark (or scratch)
in sharp focus, tighten the set screws. It is important the the
SLR lens is set at infinity for this to work.

Good Luck.

Paul A. Lehman