The shutter is fully mechanical, it will work at all speeds without a battery, the battery is just there for the light meter.
A common problem with these is that the shutter blades stick. if you know a bit of camera repair it’s not to hard to get them going again.

they are generally very robust!

Hope you have fun with it.

Cheers
Neal.

Most of the time I use the excellent 35mm V-Lander lens but when I have the chance, enjoy using the 15mm lens. Wonderful for narrow streets in Venice or using it hand held at 1/8th of a second (something a steady hand an RF camera allow) for fun indoor shots.

Alas, six years ago, I surrendered to giving up 35mm for a tiny digital appliance (I think I have three Canon Elphs in my desk drawer). But, lately, have renewed my interest via having film developed on a digital disc.

My favorite RFs are: the Konica Hexar RF, the Bessa R, any of my Leica Ms (M4, M4P, and 6), Canon P, Konica IIIc (a genuine jewel), Leica IIIg and Canon IVSB2 (both of which I love to use, hate to load), and a vareity of LTM Russian cameras (easy to load with camera backs that open! And the Jupiter 3 lens is a sensational copy of the Zeiss lens).

Reminds me of Cunard in their 1930s prints ads, showing a Waspy couple leaning on the railing of some fine steamer heading to Europe….’Getting there is half the fun.” And while I am thrilled at the ease of having a tiny Canon Elph with 9,999 photos available on one SM card, built in flash, and zoom lens, ‘getting there (with a fine RF camera) is sometimes half the fun.

Marc

In the mean time, the floating element is there to ensure critical sharpness out to the corners. it can be used within tolerances. If you are shooting up to a couple metres, set the floating element to the closest setting, if you are out near infinity, then set floating element to infinity.

If you want to achieve critical sharpness and have the time to set the focus properly try the following.

Compose and focus as normal > read the distance number from the bellows on the right side of the camera for whichever lens mounted > Adjust floating element to match the distance number from the scale.
voila.

I always just guesstimate, if I am around 3-4m away from subject I just set that on the floating element. works well so far.

I’ll think about how I can write up a bit of an article for you though with pics and example images.

Cheers
Neal.

The SLR achieves focus through the lens, by utilising either a split image or micro-prism on a ground glass. What you see is what you get through an SLR.
The Rangefinder uses a semi-transparent mirror and beam splitter to overlay 2 images in the centre part of the viewfinder. once the two images are aligned you have achieved critical focus. Rangefinding mechanisms use triangulation as a way to determine distance, therefore the wider the rangefinder base the more accurate the focussing will be.

There should be no guessing at all, once the two images are overlayed you have focus. if you are finding it’s not working its possible that your rangefinder is out of alignment and will require a service. Test this by setting an object at a known distance from your camera and then setting focus, if the number on the distance scale is correct for the subject distance you are on the money! if not then there is an alignment issue.

Hope that helps.
Neal.

I can confirm that preventing a RB67 from hitting the ground after a 5ft free fall while laying on the ground and with the use of a sole eyebrow hurts quite a bit.

Apparently skin is not sufficient, you need bare bone to stop the camera falling.
Three stitches and a day later, I was at work hoping that nobody would ask how i got hurt…

Cheers!