Distagon Reborn

[F994]

I want to share with you this experience.
Few months ago I received as a gift a 50mm Distagon T* but it was really in tremendous conditions, it had fungus in the rear lenses group, times under 1/4 second were stuck, the truncated cone shaped front shell was loose and had two dents, time-aperture selection ring was screeching and the focusing ring was completely lacking of lubrication. In short it was destined to be thrown in the garbage.

A dear friend of mine, Sandro, decided to put his hands on it and he documented the whole process.



Here you can see dents and fungus



Pay attention to the solid construction of the C lenses, all metal and glass.

I received it back just in time to make an unassuming test of the lens before my trip in the Netherlands and these are three samples.



Never give up on these lenses, they can come back strong as their first day out of the factory.

If you want to read more about the repairs you can visit Sandro's blog, the article is written in Italian but you can partially understand it watching the pictures.

 

[Helios 1984]

Well done

 

[anfenglin]

Very nice! I've worked on all kinds of Zeiss Jena and Meyer Görlitz lenses before, but never on one with a leaf shutter. Don't know if i'd try one. Well done!

 

[F994]

Don't know if i'd try one. Well done!

Looks like a nightmare repairing Zeiss C lenses, as far as I know it's really difficoult to remove the shutter

 

[philipus]

This is very interesting, thank you for posting. I have just bought the same lens but without T* and am excited to try it.

What was used to remove the fungus?

 

[F994]

What was used to remove the fungus?

It was used ammonia and hydrogen peroxide to remove the fungus and formaldehyde vapors to avoid future comebacks.

 

[Michael Guzzi]

I have a very nice 50/1.4 Nikkor-S that has pinpoint fungus on the front element, got the lens for a song because of that. This thread motivated me to clean it! I only need a way to get the beauty ring off...

(Nikon really should have put those notches on it, lens wrenches are a thing for God knows how long)

 

[Sirius Glass]

Nice work.

 

[mynewcolour]

Ace.

Mend nice things!

 

[Chris Livsey]

Your unassuming test are very nice pictures, please congratulate Sandro on the work and for sharing.

 

[F994]

Your unassuming test are very nice pictures, please congratulate Sandro on the work and for sharing.

Thanks you, Chris, I hope you'll appreciate my work that I'll publish soon.