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Cleaning old lenses
  • 32 Replies sorted by
  • @CFreak

    Can you make video how to properly clean lenses?

  • Hmm. I also recommend to use a lens opener. Scissors are way to unsave. I also have one now - but within the following videos it was also possible for me to open up the lenses with a screwdriver. Also not the safest way - but way easier to control than a scissor. Btw.: The first video is more general cleaning - The 2nd one is more detailed about the Helios 44-2. Maybe helpful for someone out there.

  • @Vitaliy_Kiselev I wish I could, but, I have only watched for hours with a friends who is a lens tech in Zurich. He cleaned and fixed some of my older lenses: 16-100 Switar Zoom C mount Fixed a copal shutter trigger on a large format lens De-click the iris ring on Nikkor AIS MF prime lenses. Leica Elmar 50mm 2.8 which neeed a new fron element. In Switzerland the Leica dealer told me parts are not available for those old lenses. Ha, I bought the front element from Leica in the USA for $100 and he told me he gets the optics directly from Germany! Swiss businesses try to create their own economic bubble since they are not in the EU.

    I just watched over his shoulder. He overhauled my old Ecair CM3 camera and an old Panon Panoramic camera. I was an AC who brought a lot of knowledge to the film community there and trained a few assistants, so that made his job easier repairing the rental equipment! He had worked in Canada as a camera and lens tech for William White, the Panavision rental in Canada. I'd worked with Panavision in the USA. There was hardly any Panavision used in Europe, but we had a common language with camera experience. We were good friends. He also custom designed shift and tilt lenses and modified gear all the time. This was the fringe benefit of being a camera assistant.

    @Tscheckoff Thanks for these videos.

  • @Mikelinn & @Tscheckoff, thanks so much for posting these videos as it gave me the confidence I needed to open up a minolta 50mm 1.7 that I bought for $30 at a pawn shop recently, and had a few black specs on the inside of the lens that showed up in the right light. I used circlip plyers and not scissors, and a few drops of zippo lighter fluid. The lens opened up really easy and I'm so pleased cause I like this lens a lot. Cheers.

  • I've done a few cheap lenses for practice - using advice thatt Matthew Duclos has said I have a couple bottles of pancro + kim wipes and I basically take the lens apart, spray pancro on the wipe, wipe and toss the kimwipe aside, then grab a new kim wipe. Then I put it back together minus a couple grub screws that are lost forever in the wooden floor seams below

  • Does anybody know a source for micro grub screws? The best I can find is del-screw.com, but it seems to be japanese and does not offer retail distribution

  • Removing fungus