Industar Lens question

[nagroth]

Does anyone know if the Industar series collapsible lenses are marked in Feet or Meters for focusing ? It seems the numbers on my lens don't correspond to the actual in-focus image through the rangefinder.

[Nickfed]

I'm pretty sure they were neve made in feet. If the closest focus is marked 3, or something like it, I'm wrong.

[Xmas]

The later FSU e.g. '70 were marked in feet for uk market, they tried real hard to sell them (cheap), for the foreign exchange. Dont know when they started.

Noel

[Spyderman]

It seems the numbers on my lens don't correspond to the actual in-focus image through the rangefinder
Did you calibrate the rangefinder ? Is the lens collimated ?

[Welsh_Italian]

Mine isn't strictly an Industar (it's a Fed-50) but the scale is marked in metres and not feet. Not sure if it helps because the Industars (as Xmas said) might have been made for different markets.

It might be worthing checking out flickr - people often take photos of their equipment there so you can have a look (eg http://www.flickr.com/photos/tim_d/362571113/, http://www.flickr.com/photos/88359761@N00/204318354/ or http://www.flickr.com/photos/88359761@N00/186776049/)

[varjag]

Unless you specifically looking for something unusual such as mentioned by Xmas, the odds are overwhelming that you'd get a metric scale lens. There were millions of them, coming from a hardcore metric country, most of them made for domestic consumption.

[nagroth]

no i haven't had the camera checked for calibration....is there an easy way I can check it? This is my first rangefinder camera so I'm still learning about how they work.

[wlewisiii]

Given the... er... concept of qualty control in the FSU, I would advise you to simply burn a roll based on the RF patch at as wide open a aperture you can manage. If those shots are in focus then I'd say don't worry about it. In the end, the practical result is what really counts.

William

[wolves3012]

I have one I-61 marked in feet, ALL the other 20 or so FSU lenses I have are metres. What body are you using? Most of them are quite easy (if tedious) to adjust the rangefinder calibration. Adjusting lens-to-film distance in the body and lens is much more involved.

I agree with wlewisiii - put a roll through it and see what gives, but calibrate the rangefinder first. Take shots that are close-ups with the lens wide open and see if they come out in focus. An object sat beside a ruler or some sort is ideal to see how far out you are.

I have about a dozen working FSU RFs, I've never messed with lens-to-film distances and I've yet to have a blurred picture that wasn't my own fault. I could be lucky or maybe my pictures are not over-demanding, but I don't think it's often a major issue for normal use.

Let us know the outcome...and have fun with your RF...

[Spyderman]

check RF calibration at infinty and at 1m.

Simply set the lens at inf. mark and check ifsome very distant target (at least a mile away) seems to be in focus according to the RF. In fact the target should just before infinity (about 1mm before infinity on lens scale). You can adjust by a small screw next to the RF window on the front of most cameras (FED - 4 and 5 are an exception).

You should also check at 1m in a similar way - use tape measure and focus on a trget exactly 1m from film plane (!). Then check whether the distance scale on lens reads the same distance as tape measure.

If this is OK - it is quite probable you'll get in focus pictures... although there are more complicated problems like register distance and collimation of lens... but I'll skip that for now...

[ZorkiKat]

Go METRIC!. :D It's more scientific. Logical too. Mr Spock couldn't agree more.

When testing for 1 metre focus, start counting from the back wall of your camera.

For more on Zorki/FED calibration, in case that you find your RF off, and is indeed causing the discrepancies between the focus and the scale marks, see

http://jay.fedka.com/index_files/Page422.htm

Jay

[nzeeman]

you dont have to worry much about i22 calibration - because aperture 3.5 with its DOF correct errors pretty good. :D try and youll see that everything will be ok even when shooting wide open.

[350D_user]

Does anyone know if the Industar series collapsible lenses are marked in Feet or Meters for focusing ? It seems the numbers on my lens don't correspond to the actual in-focus image through the rangefinder.
Make sure you're locking the lens in place, when you use the collapsible. It's quite unlikely you're doing the same mistake I did, when I first used my collapsible I22 lens, but that's the only other bit of advice that no-one else has offered in this thread yet.