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Schneider Optivaron 1.8 / 6-66mm does not focus! HELP!!!


Lee Heimberger

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Hey guys,

 

I recently bought a Bealuieu 4008 ZM II . It looks very nice but I havent found a cheap external battery so it´s not powered yet. But U did some modifying on it (longer zoomstick, b+w filter etc.)

I als deatached the automatic diaphragm system to get a more "pure" and manual feeling.

But now when I look into the viewfinder the picture is not very sharp and when I try to focus with the focus ring nothing changes --- still the same unsharp image. Also when I look into the lens an move the focus ring nothing seems to move. Its kinda sad because the Schneider Optivaron 1.8/ 6-66mm is such a good lens and i reall dont want to buy a new one or send it to repair yet. Is this normal? Has anyone of yo had a similar problem with the lens? Help would be very great

 

Lee

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Odds are, when you detached the motor unit for the zoom and iris, you moved or bumped the macro shift slider, thus putting the lens into partial macro mode, in which everything will look blurry unless you are very close to your subject. Slide the black macro knob back down and it should look fine again. Another possibility is that the viewfinder dioptre lens needs to be reset for your eyesight, or that the guillotine shutter has moved slightly throwing things off a bit more as well, or lastly, you don't have the ground glass focusing screen in position, thus are only seeing an aerial image, in which focus changes aren't really noticable, especially while there's something amiss somewhere, in the lens, diopter, shutter, etc. I do hope you have an owner's manual, as it REALLY helps, with any Super 8mm camera (any camera for that matter). Hope you can sort this out! Good luck!

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Hi Martin!

 

Thank you so much for your great advice. I checked out all options and it was the Viewfinder at the end, which wasnt correctly set for my eyesight. Now everything is very sharp, when I look into the viewfinder. when I move the focus ring there IS a focus change now. The only problem, which i have now is that i see small some small black dots when i look in the viewfinder. Is this maybe some dort? But still i am happy to have a clear image now looking through the viewfinder. Thank you very much for your help.

I really love this camera ! <3

 

Cheers!

 

Lee

Edited by Lee Heimberger
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Hey guys,

 

I recently bought a Bealuieu 4008 ZM II . It looks very nice but I havent found a cheap external battery so it´s not powered yet. But U did some modifying on it

Lee

Who is U who did the modifying? Curious when setting out on Super-8 with a price per minute easily at Euro 15 to be looking for a cheap battery solution where a proper solution would cost around the price of 6 minutes of filming :)

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Hi Martin!

 

<snip> The only problem, which i have now is that i see small some small black dots when i look in the viewfinder. Is this maybe some dort?<snip>

 

 

Given that the focus issue you had was a pretty basic first-steps set-up issue, namely to adjust the diopter lens of the viewfinder, it may well be that the black dots you now see through the viewfinder may be an equally simple issue. As you know, the camera has a fine-grain ground glass instead of the usual split-image rangefinder solutions. That ground glass can be retracted when not needed. To some, the grain texture of the ground glass can look like black spots covering the entire viewfinder image. Try retracting the ground glass and see if the dirt persists.

 

If so, then it's not the ground glass. So the question now is where the dirt is actually located. How sharp does it appear? Does it change when focusing or using the macro control? That will help you determine where in the optical system the dirt is located, so that you can remove it.

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