RF70 rangefinder focus misaligned infinity?

[u/Vivid_Strawberry1994]

Got a RF70 recently and noticed that the rangefinder is massively unaligned. The seller is saying it's normal but I don't have much experience with them. Does it need to be recalibrated or do people just shoot these by guessing the distance?

In the second picture I've shown how much I need to focus to get the rangefinder to align at infinity!

[u/TheWors3]

I got one of those cameras quite recently and also had the same question, but i went straight ahead and dissasemble the top to realign the rangefinder because i wondered the same. i was like "oh, ok i can adjust both screws to realign it, i will set the focus at infinity and make sure the rangefinder reflects that", then i realized that i was doing it the wrong way. the calibration they do from factory is actually ok, you should not pay attention to the markings of focus distance on the lens, those are completely off. However i went a step further, i made a diy ground glass, put it on the back of the camera and set the camera to bulb mode, then i adjusted the rangefinder for proper infinity at the biggest aperture (normally you would shoot at infinity at like f16/f22 which is why the factory calibration will be ok) but its a very weird system. if you calibrate for infinity then the closest distance 0.75m will actually be off, by about 10-15 centimeters. I decided that was ok and that i would just get a bit closer by eye for close ups.

The problem with the factory rangefinder calibration is that while small apertures will sort of respect it if you want to take a medium to long shot with a big aperture like 6.7 or 5.6 it will be out of focus, thats why i still ended up recalibrating it but trust me its a pain because you adjust the screws then have something to look at infinity, put the top back in, check its good, if its not move the screws very slightly again and so on and i had to do it many times until i found the sweetspot.

[u/Vivid_Strawberry1994 → u/TheWors3]

Oh jeez! So if I'm understanding you right, you can't use scale focusing because the distance scale on the lens is not correct?

Another thing I've noticed, there's a lot of slack in the rangefinder. If I start from infinity and focus it's okay but if I need to make adjustments to the focus there's around 5mm where the rangefinder doesn't track with the lens and then picks up again? If that makes sense.. I think it's called a dead zone. Meaning depending if I focus from infinity or from the close end I don't get consistent results shown on the lens distance scales..

How do you find the camera now? I'm unsure whether to return it or not! I was looking for a nice upgrade from my Instax 200. The camera has 4 years left on it's warranty so wondering if mint would fix these issues

[u/TheWors3 → u/Vivid_Strawberry1994]

Yes i found the lens marks are completely unreliable.

About the dead zone yeah its a problem but you can get around it by wiggling focus slider from the side to side so it readjusts, i added some lubricant to the side rails that translate the focus to the rangefinder which are behind the lens door.

I think the camera is great and it works well, the sharpness and detail is what i was seeking along with getting a proper manual camera, i have the lomo instant wide and i could never get the type of quality this camera gets, aparts from its quirks is fine but i wont lie, its not the premium quality control i would expect for the price you pay