[Leica] how to tell if your rangefinder is aligned...

["Bryan Willman" <bryanwi@seanet.com>]

Having had one go off, and been forced to buy a new body
because I couldn't stand to be without one for weeks...
(I don't claim to be an expert)

a. If you focus on an object like a telephone pole or the
    edge of a building that is very far away, the coincident image
    (the inside of the square) should line up perfectly with the
    lens set for infinity.

b. The line the pole makes should be straight and unbroken
     through the top edge of the finder square, through the image,
     and out the bottom edge.

It's possible to have the RF appear to work, but not think infinity
is infinity.  You can also have a disagreement between the edges
and the center of the finder image.  Both of these things are bad.

It seemed that when the misaligned camera was sent
off the RF spot was sort of more yellow, and when it came back,
it was more white/neutral in color.

A correctly working RF spot is *bright*, unless the camera windows
are obscured by something.

And of course, all of this assumes that the focus cam on the lens
hasn't been pranged.

bmw