Since I've had the camera back, I keep thinking about the viewfinder. I guess I'm obsessing a bit.

The other day I picked up the camera and was looking at a distant object. The rangefinder appeared to be out – not by a significant amount but enough. I was getting a bit steamed, because I just refuse to give up the camera for another five-week round-trip to Japan.

The next day, I was out shooting a bit during my afternoon break, and I checked again. The rangefinder was spot on. How can this be explained? I believe that when I was checking at home, the "distant" object wasn't far enough from the camera. At work, the buildings I were using were roughly 1/2 mile away, I would guess. And I was several miles from the very distant hilltop structures.

I still haven't bought a 25mm accessory viewfinder, and it looks like it will be quite some time before I will, because I have some huge bills to take care of first. I'm still using the full frame of the viewfinder, which seems to be reasonably accurate. It probably is off a bit when shooting close up, but most of my shots don't require that degree of framing accuracy.

I continue to think that the 25mm Biogon is one of the nicest lenses that I've encountered. It's wonderfully sharp and has a very wide field of view without unpleasantly reshaping objects near the edge. You do have to take care to hold the camera as straight as possible when your shots have buildings in them to avoid convergence. But it otherwise is an excellent optic.

The body has performed excellently. I wish it had a battery status indicator. Again, the shutter release is excellent for me. It's consistent and predictive. I know exactly how much pressure and travel are required to activate the meter and how much additional pressure and travel are required to release the shutter.

I was out shooting again today, and the weather was bitterly cold with a stiff wind that cut right through my outer garments. I wore heavy gloves, and I was surprised that I was able to use the camera easily. I could advance the film, focus and trip the shutter easily. I was expecting to have trouble focusing, but that wasn't the case.

The half case provides extra grip, and in any case, it wouldn't have been fun grabbing a 10-degree camera today.

Revisiting the Rollei f/2.8 40mm Sonnar
I thought about my previous comments, regarding the Rollei 40mm Sonnar, and how I thought the lens was much easier to use on the Zeiss Ikon than the Rollei 35 RF. One of my comments was that the focusing action seemed smoother.

I pondered that for a day: How could that be true? The answer is much easier than you think. The roller for the rangefinder is sprung. On the Rollei 35 RF, the tension is quite high, while the Zeiss Ikon roller is more lightly sprung. That means when the lens is mounted on the Rollei, the roller exerts more pressure on the rangefinder guide that is on the rear of the lens and therefore requires more effort to rotate the lens in its mount. When mounted to the Zeiss Ikon, the roller exerts less pressure on the rangefinder guide and requires less effort to rotate the lens.

It turned out to be much simpler than I thought – to both "problems." Sometimes I'm so smart I scare myself. Not really!