trex1 Posted February 2, 2006 Share Posted February 2, 2006 I have been playing with various Bessas, the R3A, RF, ESPON digital M body. And about everyone had a badly aligned RF. Even a brand new R3A. I have picked up ancient Leica M bodies, and to this day have not seen a bad rangefinder. Is this normal with Bessas? Do they come unaligned even after being adjusted? I like the R3A, but it would be hard to pony up the cash if the RFs are no good. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ronald_moravec1 Posted February 2, 2006 Share Posted February 2, 2006 There have been lots of complaints about this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
emanuel_lowi1 Posted February 2, 2006 Share Posted February 2, 2006 Anybody looked through one of these yet? How's the new 21mm brightline viewfinder? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dave_osborne Posted February 2, 2006 Share Posted February 2, 2006 I had 2 bessa R bodies and both came with alignment problems. Although the RFs can be adjusted I found it difficult to get spot on and so did my repair man. I got fed up not being able to trust the focus and eventually replaced them with SLRs. Just my experience. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jtk Posted February 2, 2006 Share Posted February 2, 2006 Canon P. Zero defects. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
michael_ginex1 Posted February 2, 2006 Share Posted February 2, 2006 Had the same problem with my R2. Took me a while to find instructions on how to adjust it. Seems like the major Cosina distributor/retailers keep the info in their pocket...."send it in"! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bill_marshall1 Posted February 2, 2006 Share Posted February 2, 2006 Emanuel, go to www.cameraquest.com & look for Tom Abrahsson's comments on the 21 mm brightline finder toward the end of his review of the Zeiss Ikon equipment. This review is at the bottom of the Zeiss ZM lens page. bill Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
frederick_muller Posted February 2, 2006 Share Posted February 2, 2006 I've never had problems with Bessa alignment. I've had mount problems though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ben_johnson3 Posted February 2, 2006 Share Posted February 2, 2006 I've never had a problem with my R3A in a year of pretty good use. The RF on my Bessa R got knocked out in the mail though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Allen Herbert Posted February 2, 2006 Share Posted February 2, 2006 Bessa RFs chronically out of alignment!? I've got a R3A no problems with alignment so far and i've bashed it a few times. I had a Hexar RF ( WONDERFUL CAMERA)you only had to look at it in a hard way and,yes, chronic alignement. and i sent it off for repair..........along with my arm and leg and only had to wait 3 months...how cool is that. So, i sold it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alan_wilder1 Posted February 2, 2006 Share Posted February 2, 2006 I bought an R3A once from Photo Village and even asked them to check the RF alignment before shipping. When I got it, the RF's vertical alignment was off at far but OK at close focus. Rather than send me another unit, they just issued a refund figuring that if I requested it to be checked and wasn't happy with it on delivery, it wasn't worth the hassle to send another unit. Later I read that they periodically (10% ?) get them with the RF out of alignment right out of the box and they try to be more diligent in checking them out prior to shipment. Must not be an uncommon problem among some of us persnickety Leica users. I wound up getting a used CLE without the quality control issues for $200 less and never looked back. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
emanuel_lowi1 Posted February 2, 2006 Share Posted February 2, 2006 Bill: I have read Tom A.'s review. I am seeking comments from a consumer who is not linked to the CV empire. HELP! MY MESSAGES ARE BEING HELD PRISONER BY SOMEONE ELSE'S THREAD! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
terence_mahoney Posted February 2, 2006 Share Posted February 2, 2006 "I have picked up ancient Leica M bodies, and to this day have not seen a bad rangefinder." Luck. That said, for what they cost the Bessas shouldn't suffer that kind of chronic problem. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peter_evans4 Posted February 2, 2006 Share Posted February 2, 2006 <p>No such problem with either of my two Bessas that have rangefinders (the third is an L). And no other problem with any of them, either.</p><p>If there were something amiss with one, I'd just take it to Asakusa to be fixed: the service is knowledgable, cheap (or free), fast. Yes, if you're keen on using Cosina equipment you may wish to move to Tokyo.</p> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
upe_vantonni1 Posted February 2, 2006 Share Posted February 2, 2006 hey guys, sorry to ask a simple question but 1. how would i know if my bessa was out of alignment (seems fine) and where did you find the instructions for fixing it?? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fred_sun3 Posted February 3, 2006 Share Posted February 3, 2006 Upe, you'll know the rangefinder is out of alignment when you see the center patch as a double image no matter what you focus on from 1meter to infinity. If your pictures shot at full aperture are in focus then you're ok. <p> Try these links for how-to's. I just fixed my R3A's vertical aligment and it's a fairly easy job. I mostly used Stanley tools' #0 philips and 2.0 mm flat blade screwdrivers. The third link here shows pictures of my camera. <p> <a href="http://www.photo.net/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=001NhD">http://www.photo.net/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=001NhD</a> <br> <a href="http://huws.org.uk/">http://huws.org.uk/</a> <br> <a href="http://www.photo.net/bboard/uploaded-file?bboard_upload_id=27906884">http://www.photo.net/bboard/uploaded-file?bboard_upload_id=27906884</a> <br> <a href="http://www.pgallery.net/cvp/99.html">http://www.pgallery.net/cvp/99.html</a> <p> FWIW, the frequent reports of misaligned Bessa rangefinders one reads in the forums could be from the same small sample of (possibly early production) cameras being sold and resold around the net as disillusioned owners dump them. My Bessa that I bought used has a low serial number. I'm even happier with the camera now that the rf has been fixed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
philip_huntoon Posted February 3, 2006 Share Posted February 3, 2006 <img src="http://d6d2h4gfvy8t8.cloudfront.net/1415197-lg.jpg"><BR><BR> <img src="http://d6d2h4gfvy8t8.cloudfront.net/1415204-lg.jpg"><BR><BR> <img src="http://d6d2h4gfvy8t8.cloudfront.net/1415204-lg.jpg"><BR><BR> <img src="http://d6d2h4gfvy8t8.cloudfront.net/1415220-lg.jpg"><BR><BR> <img src="http://d6d2h4gfvy8t8.cloudfront.net/1415229-lg.jpg"><BR><BR> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bill_marshall1 Posted February 3, 2006 Share Posted February 3, 2006 Emanuel, regarding the 21 mm brightline finder, you can find a user's thoughts in the last post of the thread <a href=http://www.rangefinderforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=14711>here.</a> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
work-page Posted February 3, 2006 Share Posted February 3, 2006 No alignment problems on my Bessa-T whatsoever. And it's been banged around a lot. Of course it's one of the simpler designs what with the RF not being a VF too. But with the 1.5x mag any issues would be immediately obvious.. Quite different from the HexarRF, whose vertical alignment was off from day one.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dave_osborne Posted February 3, 2006 Share Posted February 3, 2006 Upe - the misalignment problem where the images never match up is vertical misalignment.. what I had in my Bessas was a horizontal misalignent which is harder to spot which just meant it was impossible to focus accurately in some situations. One way to know for certain is the scotch tape over the film plane trick with the shutter locked open in B mode - using a Loupe you can see exactly what's being focused on through the lens and compare that with what the rangefinder is focusing on. If you get different answers it's misaligned. Of course there's not reason to go through all that if you're happy with you results - but I certainly wasn't at the time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
upe_vantonni1 Posted February 3, 2006 Share Posted February 3, 2006 wow, thanks fred. that was really detailed and helpful explanation. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gib Posted February 3, 2006 Share Posted February 3, 2006 R and T101 - no rf problems Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pablito pistola Posted February 3, 2006 Share Posted February 3, 2006 I've experienced the same probem as Peter w/ Hexar RF rangefinder. Vertical alignment was off from day 1. Sent it to Konica while still under warranty and it came back the same. After a few phone calls to Konica, they said they could fix it but could not guarantee it would stay fixed because "that adjustment is very delicate" or something like that. In the end, I sold the camera. No such probblem ever with my Leicas. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pablito pistola Posted February 3, 2006 Share Posted February 3, 2006 ....because of experience above I've never been particularly tempted by the Bessas. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aizan_sasayama Posted February 4, 2006 Share Posted February 4, 2006 pablo, i'm collecting serials to find just when the hexar rf alignment problem was fixed. do you have yours on record? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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