Brighten your Rangefinder

I just hit on an easy way to breathe new life into a dim rangefinder. They used to make orange filters to dim the primary RF image in screwmount Leicas, and this did improve contrast - but it darkened the primary view in the process. It occurred to me that what you really want to do is just darken that part of the primary image that's competing with the dim secondary ... a little spot in the center. This you can do, easily and quickly, with a bit of black tape or even a fine point marker pen.

The results are excellent: even a totally unusable rangefinder with the silver almost totally gone from its beamsplitter becomes usable even in dim light.

Here's what the "tape" version of it looks like on a Canonet (that really didn't need it):

....and here's what the "sharpie" version of it looks like on a really tired Weltini (that really DID need it):

and finally, here's the view through the Canonet's finder (the Weltini's eyepiece was a bit small for getting a good photo):

You can focus with an image like this under ANY lighting conditions!

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