Realist problems (was: Back in business)

[fj834@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (Dr. George A. Themelis)]

In case you are wondering, it's true... Mike K. does it on purpose to 
"mis"direct personal messages to the list.  He thinks that all the 
good things that he says about me will bring some more business... ;)
 
>I hope that your new microscope has been fun!
 
Santa brough me a brand new stereo microscope.  It is made in Russia, 
kind like a FED stereo camera.  Good optics and mechanics and low 
price.  I will be taking photos soon and will let you know how it 
goes.
 
Something of more general interest:
 
>I went to use my nice "new" Realist f2.8 last week for "important" 
>Christmas photos, and the focus knob is stuck at the 2.5 foot end of 
>he scale.  Stuck solid.  The lower image in the rangefinder is 
>ssymetrical shifted to he left of center.  Maybe a mirror is jammed? 
 
Why is the focus knob stuck?  My guess is that the screw in the 
fousing knob is stack in the depth of field scale.  I had this happen 
once and ended up filing the scale a bit so that the knob can rorate 
easily.  In some cases this happened when people installed a DOF scale 
by themselves.
 
The rangefinder is an unrelated issue.  Perhaps John Arrowsmith's 
technician knows how to fix this by now ;).  If it's not a serious 
problem I would not mess with it.  There are a few screws at the 
bottom of the Realist (you have to remove the bottom skin and 5 screws 
to remove the top plate and access all the rangefinder mechanics) and 
I am sure that playing with those would take care of the problem (or 
making worse, that's why I don't recommend trying it).  
 
Since this is an expensive camera, perhaps it's worth having Ron 
Zakowski work it out.
 
>Had to use a Kodak camera instead.  :-(
 
Hmmm, things were that bad... At least you did not have to use your 
beamsplitter... ;)
 
George Themelis, fj834@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx


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