1. Do you know what a U shaped spade terminal that the wire crimps in from side looks like, made of copper? The lock is very similar.

It locks the plastic cover retainer in place. Worst that can happen if it breaks is the plastic cover retainer releases the plastic cover when you remove the batteries and the Cover Assembly-Focusing Scale, Guide-Exposure, and Spring-Exposure Guide fall off.

The Cover Assembly-Focusing Scale Retainer is a piece of spring metal, riveted in the center to the camera body with opposing U slots at each end that slip onto the covers post that go through the camera top.



2. Absolutely. The distance scale will not come off or swing to one side and allow access to the mirror adjustment with the indicator on the pinion shaft.

The shaft end of the distance indicator has a cupped end that a drop of glue is placed into then the indicator placed on the pinion shaft. With a factory cam installed in the rangefinder tube and the yoke racked back and locked with the cam follower ridding on the sloped edge of the cam and is at the infinity point (cam seated against the stop pin) sit the indicator onto the pinion shaft and level the indicator in all directions with the point at the center of the infinity mark.

The yoke can be run out and in while verifying that the indicator pinion shaft is turning prior to locking in the infinity position if you wish.

Removing the indicator without damaging it is far more difficult than reinstallation.

1). Yes, I have seen / used the sort of crimp connector you mention and it's an excellent way of describing the piece in the camera. Looking into the camera and reading your posts, I see the clip, although it's more under the center of the dial and not near the battery compartment. I see the three posts that the large clip grabs to hold the RF housing in place. The clip would have to be pushed forward into the camera to release. There is a mirror at a 45 that looks like could get easily bumped if one wasn't careful. This looks pretty scary. I'd hate to break a non-replaceable part.

2). More scary info. I believe the adjustment screw is in front of the mirror, about 1/8" tall under the 7 of the dial. The slot of the screw is exactly perpendicular to the battery opening. A small screwdriver could be bent to allow adjustment w/o taking things apart.

I tried the laser trick (per BartBob) and that looks like a neat way to adjust.

Interesting note - Focusing on a bright light at about 3/4 mile resulted in a slight difference in focusing on a star.

Thanks!!!!

Tim

1. if you disassembled a front standard and reassembled it without instructions then you are making a mountain out of a grain of sand with regard to the rf adjustment.
2.

Quote:

The clip would have to be pushed forward into the camera to release.

that's the left side of the clip, the right side where the retainer lock is is about center of the battery compartment.
3.

Quote:

There is a mirror at a 45 that looks like could get easily bumped if one wasn't careful.

that's the one that needs to be adjusted.
there is a greater risk of damaging things by pocking in sideways from the battery compartment.
4.

Quote:

I believe the adjustment screw is in front of the mirror, about 1/8" tall under the 7 of the dial. The slot of the screw is exactly perpendicular to the battery opening. A small screwdriver could be bent to allow adjustment w/o taking things apart.

you're lucky! the screw slot is usually turned 90 degrees leaving the screw shank facing the battery compartment.
5.

Quote:

Interesting note - Focusing on a bright light at about 3/4 mile resulted in a slight difference in focusing on a star.

Graflex service instructions say to focus on a target at least 5000 feet away. corner cutters say a 100 feet away is good enough. a star several light years away is fairly dim but will give a more accurate adjustment than an object a few million miles away which provides a better adjustment than an object a few thousand feet away which is a whole lot better than an object 100 feet away.
6. if the retainer lock does break the retainer can be secured in the lock position with a piece of folded card stock or a piece of .020 to .040 copper or brass sheet cut and wedged between the retainer and body which is all the factory lock does.

45PSS wrote:

Graflex service instructions say to focus on a target at least 5000 feet away. corner cutters say a 100 feet away is good enough. a star several light years away is fairly dim but will give a more accurate adjustment than an object a few million miles away which provides a better adjustment than an object a few thousand feet away which is a whole lot better than an object 100 feet away.

All's good information. But I think it helps getting the rangefinder adjusted if one can see errors in image coincidence more easily. Most unaided eyes, even eyes corrected with perfect prescription glasses, don't resolve enough detail to get repeatable ranging with non-magnified concidence rangefinders with a 3 inch base length within a 5% spread of the distance to the subject.

With my Super Speed on a tripod then using an 8X monocular on the rangefinder eyepiece, it's a lot easier to see exact image coincidence. My eye doctor's have told me I've got 20/15 vision with my glasses. Using the Graflex's rangefinder on well-lit, high-contrast lines at the subject, I was surprised at the actual errors in rangefinder coincidence when using an 8X monocular on the rangefinder. With a dial indicator mounted to contact the yoke to measure its positioin, I get yoke position spreads no more than .001" using a monocular on the rangefinder. Yoke position varies more than .001" without the monocular.

A 135mm lens has to move about .001" to change focus from 100 feet to 95 feet. To refocus from infinity to 250 feet, it also has to move about .001". To focus this lens from infinity to 5000 feet requires the yoke to move forward about .0005" and that's hard to resolve in the rangefinder without magnification of its image. Which means to me it helps to get the rangefinder well calibrated for accuracy using a monocular to see better coincidence.

I wish there was ground glass that could easily resolve at least 60 lines per millimeter. Such would make exact focussing with a 20 to 40 power loupe easy. This would help in getting the front standard set and locked to match the rangefinder's accuracy as seen though a monocular. I think it would take 3000 grit or thereabouts to grind the glass to do this. Or use fine grain B&W film (developed, solid grey all over) sandwiched between two sheets of glass to hold it perfectly flat.

1) 2) 3). Taking apart the front standard on the Super Graphic was a bit more challenging then I expected. Now that I've done that w/o problems next time won't be so scary. Having your (and other Banjo etc.) and manuals to read really helps. The big concern with working the RF is getting access in this closed space and putting it back together.

4) I have two of the Supers and both need the vertical adjustment. Both have the screw head positioned perfectly so a custom tool could access it from the battery cover. By custom tool I mean a screwdriver blade mounted at 90 degree to the handle.

5) It's hard to believe the RF can tell the difference between a target beyond 100 meters, but it can.

Thanks for you helpful advice. I'll report back results.

Best Regards,

Tim