[goatsNdonkey]

It's the camera body. When at the infinity hard stop on either of the lenses I have (35mm and 50mm) the view in the viewfinder never quite reaches infinity and that's visible in the split prism. From memory, it happens with both of the viewfinders I have (eye level and waist level) so the problem is somewhere in the body, not lenses or viewfinders. My best guess would be the mirror.

Could some gasket or spacer between the focusing screen and its mountings have deteriorated, meaning that the focusing screen is sitting at the wrong distance from (probably too close to) the back of the lens?

That, or a mirror rest angle problem, would be throwing the focus off at other distances, too, no? What about at the closest focusing distance? I would think that would cause more problems, especially if one was wanting to nail focus and get good bokeh when shooting something small and near with the aperture wide open. A slight problem at infinity would disappear if stopped down much, would it not?

[TwoUptons]

It's the camera body. When at the infinity hard stop on either of the lenses I have (35mm and 50mm) the view in the viewfinder never quite reaches infinity and that's visible in the split prism. From memory, it happens with both of the viewfinders I have (eye level and waist level) so the problem is somewhere in the body, not lenses or viewfinders. My best guess would be the mirror.

I have a Nikon F3 that did that. It was the mirror. It’s pretty cool to be able to discount the viewfinder and focusing screen because they are so easily replaced... I guess the Miranda is similar...

-Eric

[Jonathan Mac]

Could some gasket or spacer between the focusing screen and its mountings have deteriorated, meaning that the focusing screen is sitting at the wrong distance from (probably too close to) the back of the lens?

That, or a mirror rest angle problem, would be throwing the focus off at other distances, too, no? What about at the closest focusing distance? I would think that would cause more problems, especially if one was wanting to nail focus and get good bokeh when shooting something small and near with the aperture wide open. A slight problem at infinity would disappear if stopped down much, would it not?

As I haven't shot with the camera, all I know is that infinity focus is off. Other distances will also surely be off but without testing (which I won't do when I know the focusing is bad) it's impossible to say by how much.

[wkraus]

As I haven't shot with the camera, all I know is that infinity focus is off. Other distances will also surely be off but without testing (which I won't do when I know the focusing is bad) it's impossible to say by how much.

I never touched a Miranda but all the Pentax bodies of that vintage have an adjusting screw for the mirror angle in the side of the mirror box. It was faily common for the mirrors to go out of adjustment. When I had that issue with my LX I added a tiny piece of adhesive tape to the mirror rest which incidentally also took care of the "sticky mirror". You might try if such a makeshift measure improves the situation or the inverse.

[TwoUptons]

I never touched a Miranda but all the Pentax bodies of that vintage have an adjusting screw for the mirror angle in the side of the mirror box. It was faily common for the mirrors to go out of adjustment. When I had that issue with my LX I added a tiny piece of adhesive tape to the mirror rest which incidentally also took care of the "sticky mirror". You might try if such a makeshift measure improves the situation or the inverse.

When I originally looked into fixing the Nikon, I discovered that Nikon makes a rig, with a specially calibrated lens, just for aligning the mirror.
So I sent it to someone who had one...

That said, if you have time to kill, and the camera has adjustment screws, you could probably get pretty close by focusing a fast lens at infinity and adjusting until the viewfinder was clear at infinity...
I suppose that would work at any distance, but infinity is a little easier to find, ironically...

-Eric

[nickthetasmaniac]

Jökulsárlón through my 500cm/80mm Planar.

Unfortunately I'm back at work, so it'll be another week before I get to see the negs from this trip

[deus ursus]

Well, at least you have the memories.

[g026r]

Wasn't planning on buying a new camera, but the opportunity came up for this one at a good price & I didn't own a square-format 35mm. I've loaded a short strip of Tri-X into a bulk load container, and now fingers crossed that everything with turn out.

[timw4mail]

Wasn't planning on buying a new camera, but the opportunity came up for this one at a good price & I didn't own a square-format 35mm. I've loaded a short strip of Tri-X into a bulk load container, and now fingers crossed that everything with turn out.

So is the frame size like 24x24mm?

[g026r]

So is the frame size like 24x24mm?

Yep. 24x24. Results in 48 frames per 36 exposure roll.

[pentaxpete]

I have been given another Spotmatic F + SMC Takumar 50mm f1.4 and a Super Takumar 105mm f2.8 a Mamiya Sekor SX 35mm f2.8 and a weird ' Universar Ultra Multicoated 135mm f2.8 Same kind Gent also gave me a second OM-10 + Zuiko Lenses The SP F light seals are just about OK BUT on preliminary Tests the 1/1000th is running 'fast' as negs were very under-exposed and also un-even across the frame -- what a Bummer ! Slow speeds seem OK and delayed Acton works. I took off base-plate and carefully lubricated the cogs and levers with a minute amount of sewing machine oil -- now it winds on 'Sweetly' and mirror no longer sticks up. FIRST SP F Serial Number : 4847355 and LENS 5572937. SECOND SP F : 4878965 and LENS 7287947 and THIS sample does not have the Radio-Active 'Yellowing' that my first one did until I left it out in Sunlight couple of years ago.

[OldChE]

Trying out my recently repaired ZX-5n autofocus, autoexposure 35mm film SLR. I got the camera for US$36 on ebay in 2015, including an FA 28-80 lens, a Tamron AF 80-210 lens, red 25A and yellow filters, and Vivitar 102 flash, with everything working and in great cosmetic condition. The camera worked for a couple rolls, then the mirror stopped half way up. I thought it was the dreaded mirror gear problem, so put it away in a box for a future consideration, and contented myself with several other Pentax film SLRs. I've been studying posts here and elsewhere on how to repair, but it seemed more challenging than I was prepared to tackle. Then I decided to take a chance - I emailed Garry's Camera here in Illinois - do you think you can fix it? He said he'd take a look. I mailed it off over the Christmas holidays. He took it apart, said it was a broken mirror lever, ordered a part and fixed it as part of his CLA cost. Turn around time including shipping was about 3 weeks, over the holidays. Everything seems to work so far.

Shown with the battery grip FG attached, along with a Pentax FA 28-90 AF lens, Tamron 80-210 AF lens, Pentax-A 50mm F1.4 MF lens, Pentax AF200T TTL auto flash, and my new Peak Designs quick-release strap mounts. It's loaded up with TMAX 400 for a trial run.

[Blasst]

My daughter made me another Pentax ME in the form of a BDay card...does that count?

[TwoUptons]

My daughter made me another Pentax ME in the form of a BDay card...does that count?

Of course it counts!

Now just find a roll of old-school cash register tape and ask her to draw some of the pictures you’ve been talking...

Bonus points for ‘negs’ instead of ‘chromes’

-Eric

[TomB_tx]

This is now my oldest 35mm camera:

This started out as a Leica model I - the first commercial 35mm camera, made in 1929. Probably in 1932 it was returned to the Leitz factory and upgraded to the new model II, by removing the fixed-mount 50mm Elmar and adding the L39 threaded mounting flange, modifying the lens to a threaded mount body, removing the original viewfinder, accessory shoe, etc. - and installing the new combined Rangefinder / Viewfinder unit with linkage to the lens to make it the "automatic focus" Leica. It was called that because you turned the lens focusing until the rangefinder showed a single image, and the lens was then "automatically" in focus. (Previously you had to measure the distance with a separate rangefinder accessory, then transfer that distance to the lens.)
Leitz used to offer conversion of older models to the latest up until body changes for the IIIc model made that impossible. The model III, with added slow speeds to one second came out in 1933, so if this were converted after that it would likely have been made into a III. Many model I (also called model A) were converted for more convenient use. By now they would be worth much more if they had never been converted.
I didn't have either a model I or model II in my collection, so I got both in one with this one!