The mirror alignment tool that got me told off by a retired Leica guy

Brought my old Praktica SLR into the community workshop last month and this retiree who spends his days on Leicas watches me use a plastic wedge to set the mirror stop. He goes, 'you're measuring the frame, not the focus plane' and walks me through using a ground glass at the film gate. Re-did the job in like 20 minutes and the split prism finally lined up right. Been doing it the old way for 4 years. Anyone else learn a basic move wrong and had to unlearn it? What was your 'wait, that's not how you do it' moment?

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lily_schmidt5317d ago

Wait, you used a plastic wedge for 4 years and nobody ever said anything until now? That retiree probably saved your camera from a lifetime of misaligned shots, lol. I gotta ask though, did the wedge at least look like it was doing something useful, or was it just kinda sitting there being decorative? My own dumb moment was years ago when I thought you had to oil every moving part on a shutter, turned my poor Yashica into a sticky mess. Took me way too long to realize that less is more with lubrication, and yeah, that lesson came from a grumpy old repair guy too.