Fed 2 infinity focus

[kamil_k]

Hi, i received my fed from oleg and noticed that when i try focusing at infinity by looking at a distant light point, i can't bring the rangefinder patch to match, im at infinity and the light is in two points, i see that the points are really close but still separate with the focus at the infinity end of the ring.
Could i have misaligned the rangefinder by mistake? I read that its common for the rangefinder to be inprecise so if its just how it is it doesnt bother me at all, just want to make sure its okay or else i want to calibrate it since it seems very simple.

Fed2 has a wide effective rangefinder base length which makes the rangefinder very precise. It may happen, that infinity focus was set up for an object which is too close (ie. 300m). Maybe it got out of alignment during the shipping. Not sure how close are those two points if you try to focus. If it bothers you, it can be fine tuned.

What can also happen is that it was calibrated for a different lens. I have many m39 FSU lenses, and some of them just don't align perfectly at the infinity. I have a set of 3 lenses (Induatar 50, Jupiter 8 and Jupiter 12) which work fine for me and I'm setting the infinity focus as a compromise which works for with them. It may however still happen that when I take another Induatar 50, it won't show perfect infinity focus on that camera. That's how Soviet standards we're, nothing unusual.

 

[bonino]

Okay thanks, infinity is very close to being okay, but 1m seems a bit off, and i think its more critical to have it correct since i want to shoot at 2.8 without problems, do you know how far the screwdriver needs to reach to get to the infinity screw ?

 

[kamil_k]

Okay thanks, infinity is very close to being okay, but 1m seems a bit off, and i think its more critical to have it correct since i want to shoot at 2.8 without problems, do you know how far the screwdriver needs to reach to get to the infinity screw ?

The procedure is described here on page 215:

maizenberg-cameras : Isaak S. Maizenberg : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

All You Need to Know about the Design and Repair of Russian Cameras

archive.org

Once you unscrew the screw 5 you should be able to access the rangefinder adjustment screw. You may use a flashlight to see the exact position of the adjustment screw. You could adjust the rangefinder by small turns.

EDIT: there is a sticky post on this forum with the Fed 2 adjustment procedure.

 

[bonino]

Thanks eveeybody, oleg said he did calibrate but i redid it anyway since i want to learn how to maintain fsu gear, you got me useful help