Yashica rangefinder - dark?

[dreamspy1]

I just received a yashica lynx 14e in the mail. I noticed that the finder is

rather dark, even a little bit hazy. When I look at the front of the finder, I

see that it seems to have something on the inside, some smudge of some sort. And

I even see some tiny white spots, could this be fungus?

 

My question is, is this something I might be able to fix, or is the finder of

these cameras just so dim?

 

regards

frí­¡nn

[bueh]

This is the case with my Yashica Lynx 14/14E's, too. Their viewfinders are rather dim and pretty useless in low light. I don't know if this is a aging problem or just they way it is, pretty much all of my older rangefinders are not very easy to focus accurately at minimum focus in available light. Modern rangefinders (Leica M6, Mamiya M7) have MUCH brighter and clearer viewfinders.

<p>

Unfortunately, this makes the Yashinon 45mm 1.4 equipped camera not the handy tool for low light street photography I had hoped for. Back to guesstimating...

 

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<img src="http://www.photo.net/bboard-uploads/00KG9V-35375484.jpg" hspace="5" vspace="10">

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Yashica Lynx 14, Yashinon-DX 45mm f/1.4, Neopan 400

</i></center>

[greyhoundman]

I have rebuilt the RF units in the Lynx series with all new mirrors and beamsplitters, not much change.

They are of the naturally dim type.

[dreamspy1]

It seems like I wont be using this camera for low-light photography like I intended :)

 

The lens looks good though, excellent for some background blur pictures.

[winfried_buechsenschuetz1]

The white spots, especially when they are visible behind the ground glass window, probably come from leaking batteries. I have hardly seen any Lynx without corroded battery chamber (in one case, trying to remove the battery cover with plumbers pliers it was so 'frozen' that the base part of the cover came off the top cover!), and the corrosion products (white powder) may crawl from the battery chamber to the adjacent viewfinder window.

 

However, all rangefinders are a bit dim by nature since the half-silvered mirror takes away approx. 50 p.c. of the light. Cleaning all surfaces (except the eyepiece side of said mirror) may help a bit.

[patrick j dempsey]

Maybe try Rick Oleson's method..

 

http://rick_oleson.tripod.com/index-165.html

[dreamspy1]

That's a clever idea! I tried it and it's actually easier to focus this way.

 

Although in my case, then the superimposed image is about 2-3x brighter than the actual finder image.

 

So in dim situations, where I can't see anything in the viewfinder at all, except the superimposed image in the center, this isn't helping much.

[bueh]

I tried Rick's method and it didn't work that well with the Lynxes. The rangefinder spot is pretty fuzzy and small to begin with, and the parallax correction moves the spot, too, so exactly matching the size of the rangefinder image is impossible. And for my photography it is not that helpful after all, because for portraiture I usually have no straight lines which I could use for focusing in this makeshift split-image rangefinder.

 

The dim viewfinder is pretty much a dealbreaking flaw in my humble opinion. I consider it not the smartest move by Yashica's designers in this otherwise excellent camera, which else would be THE perfect low-light camera with the fast lens and the heavy and very hand-holdable body (I can get great images at 1/15 and even 1/8 second thanks to the leaf shutter).

[guzzi01]

On my Lynx14 I about give up on the rangefinder, I have a good eye for zone focusing {I test myself once in a while and my guess is mostly right on}.

My viewfinder is fairly bright, but the rangefinder prizm leaves a lot to be desired., I put a spot of tape in the center of the veiwfinder window, it helped some, but I never did find the exact center, so, it is still there, but hardly ever use the RF anymore.

But this camera is one of my favorites,the lens gives me the 'feel' that I really like.

The photo I will put up was taken on a really dark, dreary day. The camera done well I believe.<div></div>

[guzzi01]

Darn, I am sorry, I did not realize it was this large till I hit the button.