Repair of Eye-Level Focus Finder for Non-REX

[Don H Marks]

I have been working on one of my Non-Reflex H8 cameras. 

This one came to me with a broken eye-level finder. Apparently the camera was dropped at some time and it hit the eyepiece. This broke it off and a lens element fell out. 

A few years ago I cludged togetether a temporary fix by attaching a free lens element to the out side of the finder. Still it was a blurry image and difficult to use. 

I had seen the eye-level finder was offered as an accessory, so I searched for a few years to find a new one or at least a new eyepiece.

 

[Don H Marks]

Eventually I found a complete finder, however, it was for the H16 and the lens elements were opaque.

My original H8 finder is in the foreground.

[Don H Marks]

The uncoated optics in the 'new' finder looked pretty bad...

[Don H Marks]

To my surprise, all the glass surfaces cleaned up just fine. No fungus etching or permanent haze. 

[Don H Marks]

With everything clean, it was then a matter of figuring out which parts were different between the two finders and assembling one good H8 finder from the best components. One of the main differences was an extra bracket and spring in the H8 finder. 

The focusing block between the two was different also. Though this is not shown in this version of the service manual. 

 

[Don H Marks]

After assembling all the components, the eyepiece was adjusted to center the image. 

[Don H Marks]

Wow, what an improvement. Now that I can see to focus, it makes using this camera so much easier to use.