Kinor 35 Viewfinder Problems

[John Travis]

I've had my Kinor for about a week and everything's working fine on it. The only problem is the viewfinder, which seems to be clipping off part of the frame.

 

 

Since this was taken through the viewfinder and it's hard to get the camera close enough it looks a little more clipped than it actually is but it gives you an idea.

 

 

Here (above) I've tried moving the glass the shutter reflects onto, but it ultimately doesn't help that much.

 

 

Here I started to take apart the elbow that connects the viewfinder to the body and found a chip in the prism, but I don't think it's the reason part of the frame is being clipped.

 

Has anyone had this problem before?

[Ian Dudley]

Hello,

 

I've had the same problem with my Kinor and the issue lies with the centering of the viewfinder optics, not the groundglass. You don't want

to mess with the grounddglass as it can lead to bigger issues. You will need to open up your viewfinder and spin the prism that reflects the image from the groundglass. I don't have the time to walk you through the procedure, but follow this link to the Konvas.org forum:

 

http://konvas.org/mailman/listinfo/cinema_konvas.org

 

Do a search on Kinor 35H viewfinder problems and you'll find some advice. It might not need surgery though. Try this first: Loosen the star shaped knob on the top of the viewfinder and pull out the eyepeice as far as it will go. Rotate it one full turn in any direction and look through it, noting the view of the groundglass. If it's the same or clipping more now, rotate the other direction. Doing this should rotate the prism optics inside and center the view. If it doesn't you may need to go inside the viewfinder (which actually isn't all that hard). If you're in luck and the prisms center when you rotate the viewfinder, push it back in and lock the knob. Now you should be able to turn the eyepeice and keep the groundglass centered and level.

 

Good luck- let us know how this turns out.

 

Cheers,

 

Ian Dudley

 

[John Travis]

I already slid the ground glass out (which I think did more harm than good), but I put it back in place, hopefully.

 

Is the eye piece meant to rotate 360 degrees with no problem? I've been rotating it to see if it helps (unfortunately it doesn't) and sometimes it sticks and I'm worried I'm rotating it too far or too much.

 

I did a search for threads on the viewfinder, but didn't find too much. Do know of any specific tutorials dealing with it?

 

I guess at this point I don't want to take it apart anymore without instructions or a guide, I think that I've already caused the frame to look slightly kanted through the viewfinder and can't seem to get it to straighten out.

[James Steven Beverly]

How did you get the prism out? I think the silver on the back of my prism has turned black and I'd like to have it redone can you post some pics of the removal proceedure? (sorry if this is off topic but I've REALLY been needing to do this for a while now) Thanks-Steve B)