Pilot super

[jon_bergman1]

Hi,

 

A common problem with the Pilot super is that the old mirror starts to fade. Is there a trick how to get it

out to replace it or do you have to take the hole camera apart?

[bueh]

You have to take the whole camera apart since the mirror is part of the shutter mechanism. However, I have had old mirrors for other cameras resilvered and did really not note an improvement in <abbr title="waist-level finder">WLF</abbr> brightness. I guess the ground glass plays a much more important role and should also be easier to replace.

[phil_sutcliffe]

You need to remove 1.The focussing hood and ground glass screen (four screws round the edges) and 2.The front panel, and with it the back (four screws at the front).As you dismantle take a good look at or photograph the way the back hinge is incorporated, it will pay dividends on re-assembly. It's a fiddly job but worth the effort. A good cheap source of mirrors is old polaroids

[winfried_buechsenschuetz1]

I think, too, that the ground glass contributes much more to viewfinder brightness than the mirror. Usually the ground glass is more or less OK and only way to improve the ground glass itself is replacing it with a modern high-tech screen.

 

I found that adding a fresnel lens to an old ground glass improves brightness, especially corner brightness, a lot. You can cannibalize fresnel lenses from old Hasselblad screens (if they have minor scratches they are dirt cheap on ebay - check whether it's an older one made from a real ground glass and a plastic fresnel lens), or buy one from Edmund optics. Focal length should be around 70 to 120 mm.

[jon_bergman1]

Thanks for your answers. My repairman didn't want to replace the mirror but he put a fresnel

screen in it and simsalabim now I can see the image clearly so I will leave the mirror as it is.