Cleaning View Camera lens: Tutorial Required

Does anyone have a link to a step-by-step tutorial on dismantling and cleaning a view camera lens? Horseman type board, with protruding flash contact would be ideal.

I have a spot of dust that appears to be in the rear element of a Topcor lens with a Seiko shutter. I wanted to be sure that I could risk taking it apart as I'm a view camera lens cleaning virgin.

Removing mold from inside the front element of a Canon zoom lens, no problem. But this looks slightly more complex.

UPDATE: I decided to use my brain, and a modicum of brute force, and managed to unscrew the front element. I then opened the aperture to max (f3.5) and blew out the dust on the rear element. Who knew it was so easy? Not me. I've now cancelled my order to Amazon for a spanner wrench, which I thought was needed to remove the rear element.

The rear group should unscrew from the shutter in the same way that the front group did. Watch for spacers.

BradS said:

The rear group should unscrew from the shutter in the same way that the front group did. Watch for spacers.

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Thanks for your reply - it's much appreciated. There does seems to be a retaining ring around it, but I'm not sure what it's retaining (see photo). It's certainly not wanting to move with hand pressure (not mine, anyway).

Stephen Power said:

Thanks for your reply - it's much appreciated. There does seems to be a retaining ring around it, but I'm not sure what it's retaining (see photo). It's certainly not wanting to move with hand pressure (not mine, anyway).

View attachment 256297

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Hmmm...odd. I've never owned that specific camera and was extrapolating a bit....
Those inner retaining rings hold the individual pieces of glass in the metal tube (I'm grasping for the right words here, sorry) and those pieces of glass in that tube are what I'm calling the rear group. It should be fairly easy to unscrew the whole rear group as an assembly. There is another retaining ring that fastens the shutter to the lens board...but, It's not clear to me where that is in this photo. Finally, the whole rear group should unscrew by unscrewing that tube from the back of the shutter. It looks like the rear group is short and not protruding very far from the back of the lens board and perhaps, one would need a jar opener (a thin, sheet of rubber-like material) to get a good grip on the rear group.

BradS said:

It looks like the rear group is short and not protruding very far from the back of the lens board and perhaps, one would need a jar opener (a thin, sheet of rubber-like material) to get a good grip on the rear group.

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thanks again. Yes, I was already thinking about ordering a jar opener or a filter remover. I'll get one and give it a go.

The Horseman/Topcor lens, from the back, will be like most other large format lenses. There are 3 things that unscrew. Outer item is the retaining ring for the Seiko shutter. Next is the entire rear cell that unscrews like the front. Inner is the locking ring for the rear cell lens elements.

However, unlike most other large format lenses, swapping shutters, lensboards and lenses is not recommended.
Each lensboard provides the lens with a certain flange-focal distance for the rangeifinder (color coded on the SHUTTER cock lever).
Also, the early (inner letters) and later (outer letter) lens cells are not interchangeable. They changed the threads.

The parts on these two Horseman 75mm lenses are easily not interchangeable and the lensboards provide different flange-focal distances. The shutters may look similar but, in addition to different threads, one uses a push-pull lever to open the blades and the other uses a up-down lever.

@ic-racer very informative and helpful, thanks.

Stephen Power said:

Removing mold from inside the front element of a Canon zoom lens, no problem. But this looks slightly more complex.

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You made what is difficult yet...

For the mold, a recommendation is to make a formaldehyde (formalin) treatment consisting in keeping (for several days) the disassembled lens parts in a sealed (zip) bag with some cotton that has been dipped in formaldehyde, the cotton would be placed in some tray inside the bag, so the vapours would allow a good sterilization. Of course, be aware that formaldehyde should be handled acordingly, if possible handlind it outdoors.

In this way it is difficult the mold can appear again when it has the least opportunity.

Formalin is used for preserving animal/human tissues/corpses, and for embalming. It is quite effective with mold.

138S said:

You made what is difficult yet...

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Not quite following that, but I did manage to clean the front element of the Canon 70-200mm zoom quite well. It had been unused for a long time, sitting in a camera bag, up against an outside wall of my home office in Ireland (where it rains and gets damp a lot). When I moved house, about 4 years ago (to a part of Ireland with an even wetter climate) I decided to clean it. I took out the front element and cleaned it with water and polished it gently with a cloth and put it back. I've just checked it again now and it's still fungus free and sparkling. I've also used it a lot more since then, too.

Stephen Power said:

When I moved house, about 4 years ago (to a part of Ireland with an even wetter climate) I decided to clean it. I took out the front element and cleaned it with water and polished it gently with a cloth and put it back.

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Yes... It is an absolute priority to prevent cleaning marks while hard particles can be still there. Most of dust found indoors is soft, but not always. Main hazard are the hard dust particles like those blowed by wind, it can be sand !!

Always we can leave some finger print by accident, this requires soap... also first wash should be wet for the case a hard particle is still there. Personally I use a single drop of concentrated dish washing detergent in 100ml bidistilled water my be enough for the "first bath", wipping gently the wet surface . Depending on the soap brand one has to add a bit more or less, just add enough to perceive the tensioactive effect, when the "drops"on glas disapear to form a liquid layer then the soap amount is good.

For the "second bath" I use simple bidistilled water to remove any detergent, I wipe the remaining bidistilled water drops with a microfiber mini towell, those for eye glasses, just removing the drops with near no friction. No drying mark should remain. If we use some alcohol we usually have some residue that has to be removed with a dry cloth, this may be risky if the cloth has some particle.

I use my HEPA air purifier (Honeywell HAP-16200E) to clean the room air, like I do when scanning, drying or handling negatives.

To me, bidistilled water is a key factor, I tried several kinds of alcohols and specialized products but at the end the simple thing is what liked me: a drop of soap, and high purity water.

UPDATE: Just coming back to this thread, after receiving a filter remover from Amazon. I actually bought the wrong one, as this is a smaller size intended for drone lens and filters. The good news is...1) I own a drone and 2) it's a perfect fit the but element groups of the Horseman lens. Got the rear element group unscrewed in seconds. The bad news is...I may never use it again. But it's a nice thing to have on the studio table.

Many of the Horseman lenses share the same rear lens cap, and thus the same diameter, so 'never say never...'

When I got my Horseman equipment, not only did not one want a film technical camera for which a digital back was not available, certainly no one wanted those Horseman lenses seemingly permanently attached to the little lensboards that would not fit any other camera. So I got many of my lenses around $100 each.

Since you have many horseman lenses, I'd like to interrupt with a quick question... Where can I find coverage information for them? I know there's a difference between the Topcon and Super Topcon, but are any of them suitable for 4x5 with movements (ie, at least 180-200mm of coverage).