why your 35mm rangefinder doesn't work | Olympus 35sp iso 1.6 film
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 6 พ.ค. 2021
- One of the most common issues with 35mm rangefinders (other than stuck shutters) is focus being out of alignment due to mirrors or set screws gradually moving out of place. This is the issue I discovered shooting the Film Photography Projects color negative iso 1.6 film with my Olympus 35sp.
P.S. I will be announcing film camera giveaways in the next video.
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Nice video! It’s good to see the 35SP getting some (much deserved) recognition, what an amazing camera it is…
I have *many* Olympus cameras and use a 35SP and a 35LC (similar enough) on a regular basis; a cool thing about them is that you don’t actually need to take the top cover off to adjust the rangefinder! There’s a little screw in the center of the camera (aligned under the hot shoe) that you can access when opening the back. If you remove that screw there’s an even smaller one underneath, and turning this one (slightly!) will adjust the rangefinder to a further or closer focus setting. Of course this won’t solve lens related issues, but if it’s just the rangefinder that’s gone a little rogue, this is the easiest way to fix it!
Also very cool film stock, I had never heard of such a low ISO color negative film!
😧🤔 interesting. That is a fantastic design feature I didn’t know about appreciate that…. Now that I’ve already removed the hood haha. Are there 2 to adjust both horizontal and vertical or does it just adjust the focus horizontally? Ya It’s definitely an interesting film to experiment with, have to have perfect lighting though for sure
@@graham_white it’s just for the horizontal adjustment :) the vertical one apparently is more complicated and it’s done somewhere near the mirrors, under the top cover. But that one is easier to mess up too, from what I’ve read, so if the vertical alignment isn’t suuper off I would just adjust the horizontal one; even with a little vertical offset you should be fine, specially when focusing on vertical lines!
This video helped a lot with my pictures mostly being out of focus. I plan to test the Olympus 35 SP again this week on speed 1\60, 1\125, 1\250 and 1\500 to see if the camera focus is mechanically out of align. Most of my past shots were not quite sharp but some photos(landscape, people, stationary object) were sharp and no vignetting. Not sure it it's the camera but after another test, maybe take it to a camera repair shop, though this camera only has a $150 street price and it cost a $1 per shot with development.
The SP is one of the best cameras in my arsenal. One little thing that could be better is the sensitivity of the shutter release button... a little bit too long for my taste, but it is used to lock exposure so understandable. Thanks for sharing! 😊
It is great. That is true, I forgot about the long press.
Awesome video again!
The viewfinder horizontal alignment adjuster screw is in the middle of the camera under the back cover. Remove that black screw then you will see it the actual screw itself.
Love the videos. I'm looking to get one of these cameras.
Thanks! Awesome, let me know if you have any questions about them.
I have shot Kodak 2254 which is probably the same film at ISO 1.6 (I was gifted about 400 feet). I have a Canon EOS 10s that goes down to ISO 6 and used exposure compensation to over expose by 2 stops. That got me down to ISO 1.5 which seem to be the correct exposure for the film. The film has a strange color balance and gives interesting results.
Oh that works out perfect then. Ya I’ve had friends shoot really low ones and it can have a really cool look to them. Definitely not typical or easy though.
I have a SP. The focus was very soft so I had it serviced and got it back last week. I shot a test film, much better but i was still expecting more our of it. I also have a Rollei 35S that should have an amazing lens, but it's even less sharp than the 35SP. Not sure if I'm unlucky of just to difficult 🤔 Most of my tests shots were at 250 or 500 at f16 to f8, but mostly f11, on Ilford hp5. So motion blur is ruled out. I scanned them on a flatbed at 2400dpi, but also had some scanned on a commercial scanner with the same results.
I also shot mid-format (fuji 690) and the sharpness is breathtaking! I understand that i do have five times the negative at 6x9 and the comparison is unfair, but still, i was expecting more sharpness out of the 35SP.
I do love the SP, it is such a pleasure to use that i don't mind investing to get it serviced. I'll run some more tests, with a measuring tape and all. I'll send it back to service of the focus is still soft.
Don't forget the lens is going to be the sharpest at f 4-f7 usually. once you get further than that it starts getting softer. my problem is more so the location of focus/sharpness and not a complete lack of it (so far from what I can tell) it sounds like you may have bad copies or that the lens elements aren't quite at the right distance from each other. in which case it would be very bad luck if both were that far off.
@@graham_white Thanks for the feedback. I'll run some tests from f4 to f11 on a measured target (1m, 3m and 6 m). That should clear things out.
@@graham_white I did a test with targets at measured distances (2m, 3m and 6m) from f4 to f11. It is sharper at f4 and f5.6 but not all that much. I did compare these shots against old negatives I shot with a Minolta maxxum 9xi in the '90 and is not to far off. So I conclude that I'm just difficult 🤔 Maybe I was expecting to much from a 35mm film.
Still, I really enjoy shooting with the Olympus-35SP, I shot a full 36 poses Kodak Ektar 100 today 😁
Thanks Graham, your videos are a real treat and quite informative. Keep on shooting film!
@@JoseLavoie Thanks for sharing those results, I was curious. haha, Hey Im in the same boat with 35mm and medium. It just doesn't look anywhere near as sharp once you compare it to that bigger negative. appreciate the support!
Great video Graham, do any of you 35sp owners have a loose aperture/shutter speed ring? I bought one and I noticed the ring has a slight wobble(focusing ring is rigid though)
Thanks! Personally no. Does it have a loose or missing set screws? I don’t have it in front of me right now but that would be my first thought.
@@graham_white it’s not missing any screws at the base of the lens, the wobble is more from the front by the filter thread and the shutter speed ring
Fine video Graham thanks for the upload. I have the canonet ql25 it had sticky aperture blades but managed to clean them ok seems to be working like a newbie now. I've not put a roll through yet but will do soon and upload the experience, can't wait it's a lovely lil camera. I've owned the 35sp a couple of years had a few rolls through I love the camera to bits made some of my fave episodes featuring this camera it's a pleasure to use. It has however developed an annoying issue, part way through a roll it will advance but not fire then it starts working again towards the end of the roll, after the experience with the sticky aperture blades on the canonet I'm wondering if the Oly has a similar issue, does this sound about right? I'll dig it out tonight and check it out. Anyway great video made liked and subbed. Regards Paul
Thanks Paul! I haven’t shot a ql yet but I have 3 on my workbench lol. Hmm does the shutter button click and the blades just open up? Or does the shutter button not even release? If it releases yes it could be something sticking in the blades or gears in that shutter. If the button doesn’t depress it’s more so in the body around the release mechanism I would think
@@graham_white hey mate thanks for reply I’ve run a dummy film through it 4 times this morning absolutely no issues I’m wondering if the film I had problems with was damaged or maybe I didn’t load it correctly altho I’m sure I did anyway no matter as it seems to be flawless now so happy days 📷📷📷 thanks for the reply mate appreciate it 👌📷
Great, now I need another camera.
Haha
Nice video! Some cameras (like Konica IIIa) have two screws for calibration that are accessible without taking the whole top off. So check the manual for your rangefinder to see what you can do. Is using infinity safe for all cameras? At least some lenses for SLRs can be focused beyond infinity. At any rate after calibrating I would have measured accurately (laser meter or measuring tape) a distance of 2 or 3 meters to an object that is easy to focus correctly on and checked that you got 2 or 3 meters on your lens. To verify that the calibration was ok.
Hi Graham, very helpful video! I just picked up a 35 sp myself shot a roll with it and found that my shots were all out of focus, actually its on me coz I should have checked if the infinity was aligning correctly in the vf before shooting, but yeah its way out of alignment! So i tried looking up videos to see if I can fix it myself and found one where the guy did 3 adjustments by turning 3 screws- first a horizontal adjustment and then vertical and then he did an infinity adjustment by turning a third screw which I didn't really understand like after you have aligned the rf patch horizontally and vertically whats this third adjustment!? Any thoughts? Also is it okay to change shutter speeds after you have cocked the shutter?
glad it was helpful! someone commented below with a easy way to adjust these screws on this specific model. there are cameras where you aren't supposed to select shutter speed until after you cock it (old canon rangefinders, exacta etc) but basically anything after like 1960 roughly is perfectly ok to change shutter speed at anytime. as far as the 3 screws are concerned. think of it like 3 axis x,y,z. you just horizontal and vertical aka X & Y, but what about the distance between the two mirrors? that would be the Z. so you may have a perfectly aligned focus patch but the image doesn't match up at infinity because the distance between the mirror isn't correct. make sense?
@@graham_white Hey thanks so much for the reply! And yeah I think I understand it now! Basically you're saying like I could align the rf patch horizontally and vertically say at min focus distance and think the rf is perfectly aligned but then if i focus to infinity it will be misaligned again so now I gotta align the infinity by adjusting the z axis, did i get that right?
@@siddhantmogaveera If I'm thinking correctly yes. you could have aligned patches throughout the focus but that doesn't mean it matches the lens. so the patch is in focus at 1 ft but the lens is actually at 1.2 ft cause the distance between mirrors is off. so correct you need to set the focus to infinity and adjust until it lines up just right in the viewfinder.
@@graham_white Cool cool cool thanks so much dude! This was great help! I should also thank you for introducing me to this camera, I had originally set out for a canonet but didn't have much luck finding one then I came across this camera at a local camera shop and I remembered this video of yours I had seen about budget rangefinders and in that you actually said you preferred the 35 sp over the canonet and then I read the ken rockwell review too and decided to pull the trigger on the 35 sp plus for the price ($60 ikr) and the condition it was in I would be a fool not to, its my first film camera and I couldn't be more happy about it! Thanks again bro!
I hear the SP have an amazing lens. The only thing that's keeping me from pulling the trigger on it is the size. I know it's not huge, but I got used to shooting with with my X-E3, Hi-matic E, QL17, and XA. I'm leaning more towards the 35RD.
Haha well anything is big compared to those little guys. The Konica auto s3 is also rather good.
@@graham_white that was on the list until I saw the price. 😂
I shot with both 35SP and 35RD. With the 35RD, I kept changing the opperture every time I focused. I found it to small for my taste, but it did have a great lense. To me, the 35SP is the perfect size. I you want small, real small, and can zone focus, I would suggest Rollei 35S. Amazing lense, for a 35mm, it fits in the palm of my hand and so perfectly designed that is easier to work with than the small Olympus 35RD.
I've been wrestling with a 35sp for about six months. First I had to replace the light seals. Then I had to adjust the rangefinder. I ran a roll through it today and things are generally in focus and there are no light leaks but every single photo looks underexposed (as do some of yours). The difference is I used a 400 speed film and underexposed = heavy, ugly grain. The only thing that occurs to me is that the shutter speeds are dragging. Eg, it's trying to shoot at 1/60 but it's firing at 1/15 or slower. It's extremely frustrating. I left it with a repair guy and he's going to look at it this week. Crossing my fingers that he can fix it.
It is a leaf shutter, I believe a copal, which from my experience and understanding are relatively bulletproof and will last a long time, but inevitably need servicing after so long from grease and gunk buildup. So having the shutter speeds off by a half stop or so makes total sense to me. Especially if it hasn’t been serviced before. If it’s consistent with all shutters obviously adjusting the exposure by a half stop to a stop is an easy solution but if it’s inconsistent for all speeds then yeah the only reliable solution is to get it serviced to adjust that accordingly
Hi John, sorry I'm only watching this review now. I hope you got your SP sorted. I would be interested to know if it was the shutter speeds that needed to be adjusted. Or if it was perhaps battery voltage?
35rc is the one in my opinion
Solid for sure
Real title subject start at 9:20...
Thanks!
キャノネツトとオリンパスSP…キヤノネツトは、人気はあるけど優等生で面白く無いと、言う人が多いよ、私はオリンパスSPが好き。
Agree in sp