[Leica] Vertical alignment: short and nasty; not for the feint of heart

[John Collier <jbcollier@shaw.ca>]

For the last few years I have taken to wearing a vertical alignment 
tool around my neck as a talisman against evil. It has been remarkable 
successful with no misalignment during that time. You might say that I 
got cocky. You might say that I forget from whence I came. The 
resulting struggle in my somewhat dim evening of the soul has freed me 
forever from the tyranny of rangefinder coddling. I sit before you, 
clacking away. a changed man, a humbler man; but more sure of myself 
and my abilities.

It all started innocently enough: a nice surfing holiday in Tofino with 
a good friend of mine. I packed light so as to do the all carry-on 
thing. A small pack and a hip bag for the camera. I only brought the 
0.58x with a 24 and a 35. My new to driving daughter agreed to getting 
up early -- hard to believe but true: a seventeen year old can get up 
early -- to give me a ride to the airport. So far so good except that I 
decided to leave my alignment tool behind as another sacrifice to the 
weight gods. We jumped in the car, down the drive way and, 
unfortunately, a curb leapt out and smacked the back wheel destroying 
the tire. I frowned at my daughter and quickly ordered a cab.

In this somewhat agitated state, I threw my bags into the taxi. The 
sickening clunk that concluded the arrival of my camera bag at the 
boot's floor, had me inwardly cursing. I knew that clunk. That was the 
clunk of a camera with a misaligned rangefinder; and me without my 
alignment tool! Sure enough when I got to the airport, the superimposed 
image was almost fully halfway to completely missing its target. OH 
POOP! My only comfort  being that my wides could be moderately easily 
scale focused. Sigh.

While waiting for the ferry, I came to a decision. If a knock can put 
it out of alignment, why the h*** couldn't another put it back in. So 
there I sat by the ocean, beating the stuffing out of my 0.58x. I am 
sure it was only the ferry's arrival that allowed me to narrowly miss 
being arrested and locked up for this heinous crime. Parents herded 
their small children back into their cars and cranked up the 
Teletubbies soundtrack to drown the screams and, in vain, pleadings of 
my poor camera. However, no word of a lie, it worked! I hit the camera 
on the RW and the superimposed image dropped a little low. A few more 
biffs to the top plate and it was perfectly aligned.

So the next time you are out and about and your finder is bent out of 
shape, just whack it back in place. Remember that this only applies to 
late M4-2 cameras and up. The earlier cameras have a simple vertical 
alignment adjustment located behind the cover screw just above the lens 
mount.

NEVER NEVER hit a M2 or M3 camera. The finder is held together with 
Canadian Balsam and this deteriorates with time. A good knock could 
cause the finder to separate and black out.

Cheers,

John Collier

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