Aligning Mamiya RB focus screen?

[j._law]

I seem to have a bizarre problem with my RB Pro-S which I bought used about a month ago.

 

 

 

It seems that just about anything I shoot with it comes out a little out of focus -- it seems to me that even though it's perfectly focussed on the fresnel/ground glass/rangefinder/microprism screen, pictures seem to come out focussed slightly in front of the plane I wanted to focus at. (This was obvious when I focus on eyes and the tip of the nose is in focus in the image.)

 

 

 

Is there a way to manually align the focus screen or check back-to-screen alignment, without having any special tools or having to take it to a shop to CLA? (I took it to Le Camera and they looked at it and said it should be fine -- since I looked at the screen, it looks like there are little screw-in-risers that change the height of the screen. Could this part have become misaligned?

 

 

 

Thanks!

 

 

 

-jon

[mark_hubbard]

It's been a few years since I did this, but I recall using a piece of tracing paper as a ground glass to work out a couple of details with the RB. If you could be sure (through visual inspection) that you were putting the tracing paper precisely at the film plane, then you could compare focus directly with what you see in the viewfinder to confirm the problem (and correct it if you are right about the screws you see). Easier I would think would be to have any competent repairman fix it for you.