repair/clean your own lens ???

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Tricky69

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I see from time to time 'bargain' lenses come up on ebay etc for next to nothing.

sometimes fungus or dust inside, sometimes AF not working - manual only etc etc

so, lets say there is a £400 lens going for £30-40 ish, is it worth a punt and a go with the screwdriver ???

I know electronics, and am quite dexterous :-) but never tried to open a lens up yet

waddaya think ??
 
well its not worth opening a lens for dust.

Fungus it is... but often UV light or sunlight will kill it. you'll have etching whether cleaned or not.

If its a real bargain, then Fixation are quite reasonable if you don't fancy DIY.
 
Rather you than me :)
It must be possible, but without the necessary kit I'd guess it would be pretty easy to mis-align an element and so on. Plus there's a fair bit of electronics in modern lenses. So I wouldn't rule a home repair out totally, in fact I'm pretty sure I've heard of instances of it being quite successful, but it's iffy.
 
think you might need more than a screwdriver
and a can of lens cement
 
There is a repair group on Yahoo for Nikon lenses.
 
I've got a really old Canon 50mm f1.8 lens that has fungus growing in it. I'm a Nikon man so the lens is totally useless to me so I may have a play with that and see if I can get it apart, clean it then put it back together. I doubt there is much in the way of electronics in it so it'll be nothing like tackling a modern lens but I reckon it'll still be tough.
 
-Rob- said:
I've got a really old Canon 50mm f1.8 lens that has fungus growing in it. I'm a Nikon man so the lens is totally useless to me so I may have a play with that and see if I can get it apart, clean it then put it back together. I doubt there is much in the way of electronics in it so it'll be nothing like tackling a modern lens but I reckon it'll still be tough.
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it'd be interesting to know how you get on :thumbs:
 
I can recommend Black on White in Bristol:

http://www.bonwcameras.co.uk/

They did a great job with one of my lenses that had a sticky aperture, and were pretty reasonable (about £65 if I remember).

They also do repairs by post. I guess it depends on what the issue is with the lens, to whether it's worth it or not.
 
Tricky69 said:
I see from time to time 'bargain' lenses come up on ebay etc for next to nothing.

sometimes fungus or dust inside, sometimes AF not working - manual only etc etc

so, lets say there is a £400 lens going for £30-40 ish, is it worth a punt and a go with the screwdriver ???

I know electronics, and am quite dexterous :-) but never tried to open a lens up yet

waddaya think ??
Click to expand...


For £30 or so it's worth a go, you can always stick it back up on the bay of fleas if it doesn't work out and let someone else tinker about with it, like I should do with thatold Minolta 50mm f/1.4 that I have lying in bits somewhere :bonk: :lol:
 
I striped an old Minolta metal bodied lens using instructions from Pbase. The lens only cost me about £15 so I was not worried if it got damaged.

It work fine afterwards.

You could do this lens with two screw drivers, a Philips 0 and a fine flat head.
 
I once took apart a broken Pentax 28-80 autofocus lens that had been dropped on to concrete and wouldn't zoom or focus. I'm well practiced in taking things apart - and putting them back together again, but it didn't matter one way or another to me if I fixed it or not. I tried just for the fun of it. Initially it was easy getting the first few bits off. I wasn't taking any notes where bits went as I'd more or less decided it wasn't going back together. But then I took a plate off and a multitude of things within dropped out and fell everywhere. So that was that. I used one of the internal barrels and lens as a nice loupe for looking at film negs and slides.
 
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