How To Repair? Unable to Reach Infinity Focus – Rolleicord III

I have started this new thread even though there are many questions & answers on focus issues for the Rolleicord. However none that I have found seem to answer my questions directly. All those other questions & answers correctly say to ensure that you have established infinity focus on the taking lens via a ground glass or other means before proceeding further. There are even answers on how to obtain correct infinity focus. But every answers assumes you can establish that infinity focus in the first place. This particular camera will NOT adjust to infinity. No matter what changes I make.

 

Camera: Rolleicord III, Schneider-Kreuznach Xenar 3.5/75 Lens

 

What I have Done:

>Removed front lens board

>Cleaned focusing lens front & rear glass (Did not remove any glass or the lens from the board)

>Removed taking lens front & rear glass & cleaned

>Flood Cleaned shutter (Did not remove from board)

>Reassembled (With shims under the plate as designed)

>Removed the focus wheel & attempted to adjust to achieve infinity focus

>Reassembled Again (Without shims under the plate to achieve taking lens closer to film plane)

>Again removed the focus wheel & attempted to adjust to achieve infinity focus

 

Results To Date:

> After first reassembly I shot a roll of B&W film at measured distances, with the camera focus knob set at those same distances.

3’-Best focus at 3” short of 3’

5’-Best focus at 4 ½’

10’-Best focus at 7’

20’-Best focus at 14’

40’-Best focus at 25’

60’-Best focus at 45’

Infinity-Could not be achieved

>Second reassembly resulted in the camera ground glass focusing improved. Close distances seemed spot on or very close. 60’ focus was still just short of clear focus. Infinity could not be achieved.

 

Additional Info:

Unfortunately I obtained this camera a few years ago and never did anything with it because the slow shutter speeds stuck open. I did not check the focus before disassembly, so I do not know if it was this way before takedown. It was purchase from an old woman who was selling it from here husbands things and she had said he bought it new.

Cleaning the shutter buy-the-was has it now working great! I have what everyone says is the factory service manual but it more a parts manual than a how-to manual.

So I need some help and answers to some questions:

 

1) Are there adjustment for the transport that might be causing the lenses to not come in enough to focus? (It seems to have full travel & does not look like it has been dropped)

 

2) Does someone have complete instructions for such a fix? (I am visual, so a video would be great!)

 

3) Is there possibly other issues I might address as possible cause?

 

 

I have other Rollei’s and have even had a couple CLA’ed by Harry Fleenor, but this is an inexpensive specimen and I want to play with it myself. I have experience repairing other cameras, but never a TLR, so I could very well be making a simple mistake somewhere along the line.

 

Thanks!

Edited October 21, 2018 by bruce_varner|3

Hi Bruce,

There may be a few possibilities. Including that the lenses have been tampered with I suppose. But let's assume for the time being that they're the original factory pairing.

 

From your description it sounds like the lenses can't move far enough back to hit infinity. Your results across the focus distances indicate that it's short across the whole focus range. I can suggest a few things. I haven't worked on a Rolleicord III personally, only the later V, Va and Vb models, but a quick check of Prochnow's Rollei technical report suggests the focus system is basically the same.

 

Don't be discouraged, because you've already tried one or two things I would be thinking of myself, so I think you're going about it the right way. The shims under the lens board are essential to ensure correct parallelism between the board and film rails, so that the plane of focus is correctly aligned across the entire film frame. On initial assembly or after repair the board must be shimmed until the selection of shims under each corner screw achieves parallel mounting of the board to within + or - 0.05mm across the corners.

 

It's not that simple, of course, because the infinity focus of the taking lens is set by changing the rotational position of the focusing knob relative to the position of the lens board. When infinity is achieved the knob is set to the infinity stop and the collet screw that fixes the knob to the focus shaft is locked. But, there is only scope for so much adjustment within the operating range of the actuating cams. If a well-meaning repairer has set the parallelism of the board by using shims of excessive thickness, then, even if the parallelism was good, it might be impossible for the board to physically reach the infinity distance from the film plane.

 

Credit to you: you've already eliminated this, by checking the focus with the parallelism adjusting shims removed and it hasn't helped. So I think we can eliminate this issue. But I suggest replacing the adjusting shims in their original locations. Considering the problems you have had, I recommend checking parallelism, but hopefully those shims will have set it, if not perfectly, then at least good enough to troubleshoot elsewhere before doing a final check later.

 

So where is elsewhere? Behind the side covers, probably. The focusing cams employ two different types of followers that contact their profiles on both sides of the body. At the rear the follower is a synthetic (plastic; nylon, not sure) pin that is spring loaded and fitted into adjusting slots in its mount on the left and right side focus struts. It's adjustable because the followers have to remain in contact with the cam profiles at all times. I am sure you'll appreciate that if there was any free play between the focus cams and the struts, focusing precision would suffer. Hence, the spring loading and adjustment. The springs behind the rear follower pins maintain a little tension to keep the followers snug against the cams at all times.

 

They're also a means of adjusting small deviations in parallelism. Not for initial setting, this has to be done shimming the board. But if, for instance, a correctly set up camera needs a minor adjustment to eliminate small amounts of wear, it is possible to do this by loosening the retaining screws for the follower pins, and adjusting their position in their mounting slots relative to the struts.

 

Whilst it should not ordinarily be an issue if a Rolleicord has been correctly assembled, I suppose that if someone has dismantled the camera at some point and re-assembled it carelessly, the pin adjusters might be set so far forward that they have consumed the ordinary scope for infinity adjustment available via the focus knob. In other words, even with the cams bottomed out, the board just can't get close enough to the film rails. I can't be definitive about this, but, given your investigations to date it's a point I think you should check and fits the symptoms. But there is another related component that should also be inspected.

 

I mentioned two different types of follower: we've already discussed the spring loaded pins that bear on the retracting pair of cams (the ones which pull the board back to infinity). The other type are fitted to notches in the lugs at the front of the focus struts and bear on the opening or extending pair of cams which push the board out towards minimum focus distance. They're completely different in material and design to the rear followers, and are two very small pads of (I think, a kind of phenolic fibre), approximately two to three millimetres in thickness front to back. They are shaped to clip into the notches on the focus struts and (ideally) glued in place, and are very long wearing. When the appropriate Losimol grease is used, and the rear spring followers are correctly tensioned, they're partly responsible for that sublimely smooth and progressive silky action that a well put together Rollei should have at its focus knob. They're also the fuse in the system, as whilst they do last many years eventually they will wear down, and are designed to in preference to wearing the focus cams themselves.

 

Rollei referred to these pads as "Gleittplattchen" in Deutsch (my spelling might be off, it's been a few years). "Gliding pads" is a good enough English translation. The factory and their authorised repairers had access to this gliding pad material in strips of about 100mm length. I have some myself. Eventually, when a particular camera had worn the pads down to the mounting lugs or notches on the struts, they'd be replaced before wear was bad enough for metal to metal contact to occur between the strut lugs and cams. In a lightly used Rolleicord or Flex encountered today in original condition it's very likely the pads will be the factory originals. On the other hand, a professionally used Rolleiflex that was thrashed hard in studio use might have needed them routinely changed every few years or so. But as I wasn't working on them in their heyday, I can't be definitive about that.

 

If new pads were needed, the repairer would cut off a replacement pair a few mm long from a fibre strip, pair them to size as close as practically possible for ease of alignment and install them in the strut lugs. After which, having replaced some of the basic components that impact lens board parallelism, a check and adjustment of the parallelism had to be done, followed, finally, by infinity adjustment of the taking lens and viewing lens (in that order).

 

You can perhaps see where I'm going with this. If your camera has been worked on at some point (and because it's not behaving like a factory adjusted Rollei ought to, I think this is a given) then: if the repairer hasn't correctly installed the glide pads, or has installed pads that are too thick, then, this might also consume the usual range of focus adjustment available. And it is a range of adjustment, there's scope for variation in the precise thickness of board shims, glide pads, position of rear pin followers. But, if: excessively thick glide pads have been cut and installed; the rear pins have been set at the extreme ends of their adjustment slots; or, in the process of setting the parallelism, the repairer didn't start with the lowest corner and lift the others up to match, but Eg shimmed the three lower corners of the board up to the highest one, (or, even; all of the above), then, it may not be physically possible to for the board to move back to infinity focus.

 

There are one or two other things which could create some of the problems you've described. Eg the height of the shutter relative to the lens board. The taking lens mounts thread into the shutter front and back. If the shutter installation was stuffed up, all the other tolerances I've discussed in some detail might be OK, and the shutter would need to come out to correct its installed height. But, (and I think it's a significant "but") this would only impact the ability of the taking lens to reach infinity. Because you have mentioned that neither lens appears capable of reaching infinity, it seems less likely, I think, than some of the other possible causes I've discussed.

 

You may be aware of it, but for clarity I'll labour the point. Assuming basic lens board adjustments are satisfactory, the correct procedure for calibrating the lens pair of a Rollei (or almost any other type of TLR, for that matter) is to first get the taking lens set to a good infinity focus. It's impossible to adjust the viewing lens first, because it moves with the taking lens on the same board, so, by definition, whenever you calibrate the taking lens, you've also adjusted the viewing lens (which may not be tracking the taking lens perfectly as set).

 

Hence, the taking lens focus is the primary adjustment. When, (and only when) you have the taking lens calibrated to infinity, can the viewing lens be adjusted to suit. On a Rolleicord, this is done by backing off the locking screw that fixes the viewing lens in its threads, and then rotating the viewing lens in or out on its threads, until it agrees with the taking lens.

 

I suppose there are other ways you could get there. Eg you could file a little material away from the lens board seats to give you that missing clearance needed to hit infinity. But, (apart from offending my sensibilities about the standard of workmanship a Rollei should get), this shouldn't be necessary in the first place. Given the problems the camera has, unless it has suffered from some sort of impact damage (which would almost always push the board back towards the film and create the opposite problem to what you've got, anyway) then, I've got to conclude that at some stage it has been incorrectly assembled. Naturally, the correct fix is to remedy the faulty adjustment.

Cheers,

Brett

Hi Brett,

 

Thank you very much. I appreciate the detailed response. I was afraid that as is the case in some many responses, the person gives a nugget of information, without details, assuming that the requester “knows” all the associated details, which without those details, the nugget in information is pretty much useless…… I would love to have Prochnow's Rollei manual, but cannot justify its current cost for the little amount of camera repair that I dabble in.

 

The two long shims for this camera (1 each side) are both the same 15 thousandths in thickness & look similar to others I have seen online. So I do not think that too many shims were used. One odd thing. When I first disassembled, there were 4 washers under the screws that hold the lens board to the transport. But, when I completed the disassembly I found a fifth washer in the camera body. I do not know where it fell out of?

 

When I get to the point of parallelism, I thought about cutting a very thin piece of good plastic, slightly larger than the board size. Drilling 4 holes in that plastic & screwing it onto the rails with the shims in between. Then use a micrometer to measure the four corners to see if they are all the same distance from the camera frame. I guess that assumes that the camera body and the film rails are square & at the same tolerances….

 

I have a digital copy of the Rollei Service manual. Of course it is in German, and seems to be more of a parts list then an instruction manual. Also, it does NOT list the Rolleicord III. The closest model seems to be the Rolleicord “VB Teilm” or “Teilm”. I will remove both side covers and see what it looks like. Would like to have feedback that I am in fact looking at the same parts you describe…….

 

It may be a day or so. The two exterior metal strips (1 on each side) that serve the purpose of holding the rear door on & a place for the strap to attach, I cannot get the larger front screw loose on either side!. They are very tight. It also is a strange, thin, wide size, so I will probably have to hand file a screwdriver to fit……

 

What I Will Do Next:

> Reassemble the lens board to the transport with the shims reinstalled correctly under the board

> Cut a screwdriver to size to remove the strap holder pieces

> Remove both side covers (Leather & plates)

> See what I can see. I am sure I will have a question or two when I get to the point where I can actually see the transport assembly (I hope I am calling this by its correct name?)

Hi Bruce

I think I can assist with the points you have raised above. But as it’s getting in for 3am in Australia I’ll respond tomorrow. Stay tuned. ;)

Cheers

Brett

I have removed both side plates. Here are images of each. Have not had time to study the camera and find the specific parts you mentioned yet. Will do so tomorrow.

 

Ride Side

http://brucevarner.com/picts/RolleicordIIIk4b_RightSide.jpg

 

Left Side

http://brucevarner.com/picts/RolleicordIIIk4b_LeftSide.jpg

 

Thanks!

Bruce,

concerning the lens board shims, it is fairly normal to find a long shim that slips under the board at both top and bottom securing screws, these can be varying thickness. But individual circular shims might or might not also be used at a corner or corners to fine tune individual corner alignment. If the loose washer you've mentioned is thinner than average it might actually be a shim washer belonging under one of the board mounting screws (between board and strut of course).

 

I wouldn't be too discouraged by the absence of Prochnow's books. True they are very comprehensive and cover the Rollei projectors, the SL66, many different Rollei products. But they're not a holy grail as far as repairing the TLRs goes. Yes they have some extra exploded diagrams of older models such as your Rolleicord III but they're quite small and some of the detail isn't so easy to establish. There's a little procedural information about adjusting the cameras but not as much as you might hope for. If you have the pdf file of 400-odd pages covering the Va-Vb Rolleicords and the T, E and F series Rolleiflexes, you've got as much as information most repairers will have access to.

 

As far as checking parallelism is concerned, the factory had some small steel stands with a flat base which, at the top of a short shaft, were threaded to enable them to be screwed into the lens threads of the camera shutter. The base of the tool would be rested on a surface plate, and with camera attached via its shutter threads, the parallelism would be measured directly off the film rails with a depth or dial gauge. It was a nice set up and about as convenient as you can get because the weight of the threaded adaptor tool imparted stability, and its alignment ensured that the shutter itself (into which the lens fits) would be adequately parallel to the surface plate. Any deviations measured at the film rails would be a result of misalignment of the lens board, which could then be shimmed true.

 

Without the factory adaptor, other means have to be contrived to accurately measure the parallelism. It's worth noting, though, that if Eg you're trying to do a similar alignment process on say, a conventional SLR (which must also have its lens mount parallel to its film rails) then, not only do you need to ensure the lens mounting flange is parallel to the rails, but it's vital that the distance between the two is a defined distance. Otherwise as you'll appreciate there will be many problems with focusing accuracy of different lenses fitted to that body, which will only generally work acceptably at their specified lens register (sometimes referred to as "back focus" distance).

 

Now, in the case of aligning a Rollei, (although, granted, you are grappling with one which does not seem to permit the lens to reach its required distance from the film to hit infinity), you don't generally need to worry too much about quantifying the actual distance between lens board and film rails. Providing you can establish that the relevant planes are parallel (and it's always good policy to measure this at infinity and near minimum focus to assure the correct operation of the cams and struts etc, which obviously ought to maintain this parallelism as they focus the lenses) then, the actual distance between those two planes is not generally consequential, because it will be fixed as required when the focus knob is locked to the shaft at the correct infinity.

 

What you're proposing, Ie measuring the actual clearance at the corners with a micrometer is feasible, because a micrometer is obviously easily accurate enough for this purpose. And given the apparent inability of the lens board to achieve infinity focus I suppose your initial readings might be helpful in assessing the results of any attempts to adjust the board closer, because, looking at my 2,8 Rolleiflex focus scale it sounds like you need something like half a millimetre to a millimetre extra travel. But your proposal does introduce some other issues. My main concern would be the flatness of the plastic you mention and its rigidity. If this is suspect, measurements made off it will be doomed. And whilst a suitable micrometer is easily accurate enough to measure the tolerances involved, getting good, repeatable measurements with one off the fairly narrow faces of the film rails without introducing alignment errors in the process is easier said than done. I speak from experience! So your suggestion could work but you'll have to see how you go with it in practice because it won't be without its issues.

 

In the past I've cobbled up various ways of measuring parallelism myself, which have worked but in use have been time consuming and tedious involving sheets of float glass, dial gauges and spacers. One key obstacle if you're inclined to use a dial gauge to check the alignment is that your measurement has to be made off the film rails. But with a Rollei resting on its back, the sides of the body casting are proud of the rails, and you can't measure parallelism from the body edges, you've got to use the film rails. Hence, a parallel block or other spacer of accurate flatness with acceptable parallelism itself, has to be interposed between the film rails and surface plate to get a measurement off the required reference surface. In itself this introduces additional difficulties because of movement between your spacer, camera, and surface plate, as you're trying to get a decent reading with your gauge. Yes, it is all doable (I've done it, a number of times) but it takes a bit of time. the development of a certain "feel" when maintaining the items in place on the plate (and ideally, an extra couple of hands because two never seem to be enough). ;)

 

Initially I used a small piece of float glass firmly resting across the circumference of the front taking lens mount. This is the ultimate reference surface because the purpose of the whole exercise is to align the lens to the film rails: the board/shutter may mount the lens to the camera, but it's the lens which forms the image, right? The glass was rather longer than the lens board, and whilst keeping the glass satisfactorily fixed to the lens mount during measurements was easier said than done, by taking measurements near the ends of the glass it did have the effect of "exaggerating" any errors in parallelism which would have been less obvious nearer the centre of the board.

 

The last couple of times I've adjusted a Rolleicord I've chosen to eliminate as many variables as possible. I've had a decent surface plate for a few years, a compact one, by machine shop standards, but perfectly adequate for measuring smaller objects like cameras. It's granite, which will chip, not burr like steel, but of course won't fix a magnetic dial clamp. I get around this by having an overhang of an inch or so of the plate over the edge of my desk, and firmly clamp the base of my dial gauge stand to the plate with a suitable G clamp and by maintaining positive connection between the plate and dial gauge I at least don't have to worry about errors being introduced there. I've then inverted the camera with lens attached, placed the lens mount gently but firmly onto the plate resting across its entire circumference, and taken my dial gauge measurements directly from the film rails. In effect, replicating the factory approach, but without that nifty threaded adaptor they used, which made the measuring process that much quicker and easier. Not surprisingly, great care is required to ensure that the fairly small circumference of the lens mount is maintained perfectly flat to the plate as measurements are taken. It's not hard to have the camera leaning slightly because its quite top heavy as you're doing it. But with a bit of practice, and a feel for the process, it's possible to get accurate readings this way, confirmed multiple times for consistency, and, because you're measuring the planes of the lens mount and film rails directly off the surface plate, the issues surrounding Eg. flatness and rigidity of whatever object you otherwise try to interpose, is quite simply eliminated.To date it's been the least worst approach for me.

 

I should add that what I've described above is viable with a Rolleicord and Xenar lens and some other lenses. On the other hand it's just not possible with, say, a 2.8 Xenotar (and probably a Planar) because the front glass is so large its centre protrudes beyond the edge of its mount, and damage to the lens would result if it was attempted.

 

I'll address your subsequent post containing the images of the exposed sides of the camera shortly.

I have removed both side plates. Here are images of each. Have not had time to study the camera and find the specific parts you mentioned yet. Will do so tomorrow.

 

Ride Side

http://brucevarner.com/picts/RolleicordIIIk4b_RightSide.jpg

 

Left Side

http://brucevarner.com/picts/RolleicordIIIk4b_LeftSide.jpg

 

Thanks!

Well done in getting the covers off. The strap lugs aren't usually too problematic but I've never tackled an older III. Perhaps a bit of corrosion made the retaining screws less cooperative than they typically are on the later models.

 

You've discovered for yourself that access to components of the focus system is a lot better on the left side than is the case on the right hand side with the film advance mechanism partly obscuring things. Before you feel discouraged by that you might congratulate yourself that you're not trying to fix the same sort of issue in an Automat Rolleiflex, the wind system of which has a whole new scale of complexity.

 

On the left side you can see the bits that make the lens board slide in and out, mirrored on the right side. The struts don't look identical to those fitted to the later Rolleicords but they are very much of a kind and bear close resemblance to their progeny. I have take another look at the reproductions of the factory exploded diagrams and photos in the relevant Prochnow book. I can't be certain the III definitely employs the glide pieces (correct spelling "Gleitplättchen") used in later models, or if its front focusing cams bear directly onto the strut lugs. Rotating the focus knob to the close range will move the cams so you can get a proper look at this location.

 

One point that's just occurred, is that you did mention trying to adjust the infinity after removing the knob, both with and without the parallelism adjusting shims inserted. Normally, to do this you would temporarily fix the focus knob to the shaft at a position that enables the taking lens to focus beyond infinity and then carefully fine tune the focus with a ground glass and loupe until it is spot on, before loosening the knob and refastening it at the infinity stop (without, obviously, rotating the focus shaft during this process). I suspect you've done just that but wanted to check.

 

What I can see in the left hand side image is that the rear pin follower is very close to the end of the cam. There's hardly any scope for the cam to take the board much further rearwards, as you can see, the pin is almost on the extreme tip of the cam. At this point I suggest re-fitting the focus knob and then taking a little time to work the struts in and out slowly, to get an appreciation of how it all works. I'd be interested to see an image of the cams and strut with the focus set to the minimum distance, actually.

 

Not directly connected to the problem you're trying to fix, with the covers off you can take the opportunity to carefully inspect the struts as you're rotating the focus knob. It's pretty common for a small amount of wear to develop over many years, between the struts and the guides they slide in. At the top the strut actually slides on the body casting, perhaps not ideal but in practice it's not usually too much of a problem. The lower guide is adjustable and can be typically be re-positioned to take up any wear. Underneath the lower guide you'll note the small wedge adjuster and its fixing screw. After backing off the fixing screws for the guide and wedge, deft use of suitable screwdrivers will tighten the guide against the strut enough to eliminate any up/down or rocking motion the struts might manifest, if they need adjustment.

 

With the camera resting on its back any wear between the struts and guides may be evidenced by a slight "see-saw" or rocking motion of the lens board from top to bottom. There has to be a very slight running clearance between the struts and guides. It's very easy to over adjust the lower guides, which will result in a tight, jerky and unpleasant feel to the focus knob, and will do the parts no good at all, as this would accelerate wear greatly. But if there's wear-induced freeplay, instead of the cams sliding the struts in and out cleanly, initially, the struts will tend to rotate a little with the cams, if they can slop around between their guides, before they begin to slide. Hence the rocking movement which is not at all uncommon in a Rolleicord that's seen regular use over the decades.

 

It's an interesting and unusual problem you're trying to sort out. Not having personally tackled a Rolleicord III, it is a learning curve for me also. Interested to hear your thoughts about what you see when you get a chance to examine it.

Cheers

Brett

Edited October 23, 2018 by brett_rogers

FYI, someone has a video on YouTube of a Rolleicord III, showing the left side of the camera, while the user is operating the focus knob. It show the full movement (from the left side in action). I will find some time to sit down and study the action on my camera and let you know.

 

Thanks for the info on the parallelism topic. Of course that part is unimportant if I do not get an infinity focus to function.......

Hi Brett,

Had to go out of town for a funeral. Back now & have studied the transport mechanism. I have used the Rolleicord VB Teilm exploded view as a reference, since it is the closest to the III, to name the parts involved. I uploaded here a third image that shows the involved parts by name. Please let me know if I am in correct on any of these parts, or on my below description.

 

From what I can tell, the guide rail is under tension from the wedge & keeps the focusing strut parallel when moving in & out. The guide bolt rides under tension against the outside focusing cam (The inside cam is used to provide a positive stop for infinity focus & the outside cam provided the same stop for close focus). Turning the focus knob causes the cams to turn, which causes the focusing strut to move in or out depending upon the direction of travel. The guide bolt is pushed into the cam compensator during assembly, with a spring in between to continually force the guide bolt against the outside focusing cam. This describes one side of the assembly, but this setup is mirrored on the opposite side.

 

So, I assume that the spring tension is designed to smoothly keep the focusing strut (and hence the lens) the correct distance from the film plane. From the exploded view & with these pieces assembled I am unable to tell exactly how the face of the guide bolt is shaped. Some cleanup of this piece shows that the face on this example seems to be “grooved”. What I do not know is whether this groove is as designed, or has the piece worn into a groove. If so, this might be the reason for the camera to not achieve infinity focus.

 

I was hoping for some additional feedback before I continued, to be sure I am not going down the wrong path:

 

1) Do you believe that any of my above statements are not correct?

 

2) Do you know if the guide bolt face is supposed to be flat, or have a groove?

 

3) Since the inside focusing cam provides a positive stop for infinity focus, is it adjustable?

 

3) From what I can see, the simplest solution it seems would be to loosen the 2 screws holding the cam compensator to the focusing strut. Then slightly re-adjust (On both sides) the cam compensator position, to force more travel & therefore bring in infinity focus. Do you agree?

 

4) To achieve #3 requires removal of the gears associated with the film counter, as the cam compensator lies beneath these gears. Is there anything I should be careful of, or any instructions for disassembly of this system that you can pass along?

 

Thanks!

Bruce

 

http://brucevarner.com/picts/RolleicordIIIk4b_LeftSide_Parts.jpg

PS. While looking at a cleaned up guide bolt under a loop, it is obvious that it is made of some material other than metal. While there is some wear, it does not seem to be enough to account for the inability to achieve infinity focus...........

Ok,

 

I am looking for others to provide feedback as to whether I am going down the correct path, with this issue.

 

 

The more I study the camera, the less I believe the issue of not being able to achieve infinity focus is caused by problems within the transport mechanism. Transport seems to be snug. No play, and functioning as I believe it should.

 

 

So I decided to remove the taking lens from the lens board. In doing so I believe I might have found the problem. There are images attached so that others might give their opinions. When I removed the taking lens/shutter from the lens board, I believe I found a washer on the wrong side of the board? Hoping that others who have removed the lens on a Rolleicord III might know if this washer is or is not in the correct place.

 

Image 1 (Taking & focusing lenses on the lens board)

http://brucevarner.com/picts/Image1.jpg

 

Image 2 (Rear view)

http://brucevarner.com/picts/Image2.jpg

 

Image 3 (Taking lens/shutter removed from the board)

http://brucevarner.com/picts/Image3.jpg

 

Image 4 (Rear view of same removed lens/shutter)

http://brucevarner.com/picts/Image4.jpg

 

So looking at image #4, I removed from the lens board by unscrewing the shade/nut from the back of the lens board. This alone held the taking lens/shutter onto the lens board.

 

When the shutter was pulled from the front of the board, the items on the back of the shutter were removed as they appear in the image. These are my names for these parts, not necessarily Rollei’s name for these same pieces:

> Washer, notched (Copper)

> Shutter cocking lever ring

> Shim

> Shutter

 

I have also test re-assembled the taking lens/shutter without installing the copper washer, and all appears to move fine. Nothing binds. It to me looks like not having this washer on the shutter side of the board is more in line with how it was designed. There is a notch in the board that lines up with a pin on the back of the shutter. With no washer this pin goes through the board as one would expect. With the copper washer in the place, this pin no longer is able to protrude through to the notch in the board.

 

Any ideas to help confirm or refute my thinking would be appreciated. Thanks!

Back to the drawing board.

 

With the copper washer removed, testing focus with ground glass on the film rails resulted in no ability to achieve clear focus at any distance! Infinity focus was even worse than before. Near subjects were obviously less blurry when focused to close distances & subjects at infinity were less out of focus when the focus knob was set to infinity, but nowhere along the spectrum was anything near clear focus.

 

The copper washer that I had removed, was 9 thousandths in thickness. So the taking lens was 9 thousandths closer to the frame rail. I then tried again removing the shims from under the lens board. That would make the taking lens closer still to the film rails. Testing again resulted in no ability to focus at any distance. The overall focus was less out of focus than with the shims installed, but still, no clear focus.

 

I can only assume that the distances involved here between the original inability to focus at infinity, and the inability to focus at any distance must be much less than 9 thousandths of an inch?????

 

I sure wish someone know if the focusing cams on the transport mechanism were adjustable. Not talking about the cam compensator, but the focusing cams. Thinking maybe they could be more precisely tuned????? Maybe?

 

From here I know not how next to proceed. I will reinstall the copper washer as it was found upon disassembly, but I fully expect the focus issues to be the same as before I removed the washer. So, unless I hear of some options, or I resolve the issue on my own, I will not be posting further.

 

Please do not suggest that I send the camera in for a CLA. I know I can do that. My 2.8f I send in for a CLA. A Rolleicord III (To me) is worth less than the cost of a professional CLA. Plus I would like to do the work on this issue myself if at all possible.

SOLVED !!!

Sorry it has taken so long for me to post the solution to this problem. I wanted to be absolutely sure that everything was back in perfect working order. I was able to engage Rick Oleson, and with his input I resolved my issues.

 

ISSUES THAT SURFACED:

1) Unable to achieve infinity focus on Rolleicord III

2) While attempting to resolve #1, lens suddenly was unable to focus at any distance

 

RESULTS:

1) Removal of an unneeded or misplaced copper washer between the shutter and the lens board allowed the taking lens/shutter to be closer to the film plane and achieve infinity focus.

2) During one of my disassembles of the taking lens/shutter, I apparently did not correctly re-seat the front &/or rear lens element. Once corrected, focus was again able to be achieved.

 

DETAILS:

The two issues above interacted together to muddy the waters for how to resolve these problems. With the guidance of Rick Oleson, I was able to isolate and step through each issue individually to correct.

 

1) After studying the lens transport mechanism, it seemed unlikely that the problem was caused by the transport. While I had earlier cleaned the lenses and flushed the shutter, I had done so with the shutter still attached to the lens board. I decided to remove the shutter from the lens board to determine if there was anything causing the taking lens/shutter to be further away from the film plane than desired.

I found that someone who had previously disassembled the camera had apparently placed a 9 thousandths thick copper washer between the shutter & the lens board. Diagrams of other similar shutters did not show a washer in that location. Removing this copper washer from the shutter side of the lens board, to the inside shade/nut side of the lens board (See above images of the disassembled taking lens) allowed the taking lens/shutter to be that 9 thousandths closer to the film plane & solved the infinity focus problem.

It took some time and several suggestions to reach this conclusion because during the disassembly/reassembly I also introduced issue #2.

 

2) After originally cleaning the taking lens/shutter, I apparently reattached the lens elements successfully. However, during removal of the shutter from the lens board I again removed & replaced the lens elements. Apparently during that process, I somehow did not seat one or both elements fully. This resulted in the focal length of the lens being changed (Front & rear elements were not the correct distance from each other), which then prevented the lens from focusing at any distance.

I do not know for sure how I resolved this, other than to say that I removed & replaced each element several times until it resulted in the ability again to achieve focus. Possibly a piece of grit obstructed one of the elements, thereby preventing it from being fully screwed in.

 

Thanks to all for their help, and especially to Rick Oleson! I have now run another roll of film through the camera and focus is sharp at all distances. PS: Rick Oleson’s “BrightScreen” replacement focus screen works wonderfully.

 

Note: I found that to me a very hard part of re-assembly was the brake roller pins & springs in the film winding knob. This assembly prevents the film winding knob from turning backwards & causing slackness in the roll of film. The brake bearing assembly screws had become loosened, which allowed the break roller pins & springs to become dislodged within the assembly. The result was a grinding noise when winding the film, plus no ability as designed, to prevent turning the film winding knob backwards.

 

I was unable to find anywhere a detailed image of how this model of brake pins & springs were supposed to be installed. Attempts at re-installation resulted in one of the extremely small tension springs flying away, never to be seen again. I obtained small coil springs instead of flat tension springs to use as replacement. Apparently, sometime after the Rolleicord III, the designed was changed to use coil springs for this purpose anyway. After trial and error to ensure that the spring applied pressure exactly in the center of said pin, I was able to fit these new coil springs as needed so that the braking system functioned as designed. Below are two images showing the disassembled film winding breaking system. First image shows the original bent springs. The second image shows the replacement coil springs.

http://brucevarner.com/picts/Rolleicord%20III%20Film%20Winding%20Knob_2.jpg

http://brucevarner.com/picts/Rolliecord%20III%20Inter%20FIlm%20Winding%20Knob.jpg

 

Here are two images. The completed camera + one of the images from the test roll.

http://brucevarner.com/picts/Rolleicord%20III%20K3B.jpg

http://brucevarner.com/picts/RolleicordTestImage_Nelson.jpg

Sculpture, Nelson-Atkins Art Gallery, KCMO. Measured 20' Distance. f5.6, 1/40 sec, 3-Stop ND filter

 

Bruce

nice write up.