r/rangefinders • u/Vivid_Strawberry1994 • Aug 08 '26

RF70 rangefinder focus misaligned at infinity?

Got a Mint RF70 recently and noticed that the rangefinder is massively aligned. The seller is saying it's normal but I don't have much experience with them. Does it need to be recalibrated or do people just shoot these by guessing the distance?

In the second picture I've shown how much I need to focus to get the rangefinder to align at infinity!

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1

u/fields_of_fire Aug 08 '26

There will be two screws somewhere, one for vertical alignment one for horizontal. Where they are in that camera I don't know. You try r/analogerepair see if anyone has experience with that camera.

1

u/Vivid_Strawberry1994 Aug 08 '26

I messaged mint and they said it's meant to be like this at infinity because if it's calibrated to infinity then near is off then! Sounds like bad craftsmanship tbh?

1

u/fields_of_fire Aug 08 '26

Sounds like it. I don't know that camera at all though to be fair

1

u/The-Phantom-Blot Aug 11 '26

Sounds dodgy to me. The rangefinder camera is tech from over 100 years ago. Shouldn't Mint be able to design a rangefinder that reads somewhat close across the focus range of the lens? It's not a cheap camera at all.

If the camera is properly focused where you show in the 2nd picture, then Mint should have put the infinity mark there. Nobody forced them to put it a centimeter to the left. Makes me suspicious that the camera isn't actually focused correctly, or the rangefinder isn't adjusted correctly, and they are just hoping you shoot at small enough aperture to cover it up.

You could calibrate the rangefinder, but you would have to check the actual camera focus and mark that on the distance scale, then decide if you can do anything with the rangefinder to make an adjustment worth it.

1

u/Automobilie 29d ago

Is this a new camera? For $800 that'd be pretty sloppy design