Nikonos lens impossible to remove

[fabulousrice]

I bought my first Nikonos at the flea market this weekend. I believe it's either a model I, II or III but this shouldn't matter in my question.

According to the manual, one needs to pull the lens out and twist it to open the camera.

In the one I have this seems impossible. I doubt it is due to rust or sand getting in there, and I'm starting to wonder if I'm missing something...

I've been pulling really hard and even trying to use a lever - nothing works

 

[Mackinaw]

Curious. What's in the manual is what I was going to tell you. You pull the lens straight out a bit (less than 1/4") and twist. The lens should easily pull out unless the O-ring is in such bad condition it's frozen. Maybe take a hair dryer to the lens mount to loosen things up.

 

[fabulousrice]

Curious. What's in the manual is what I was going to tell you. You pull the lens straight out a bit (less than 1/4") and twist. The lens should easily pull out unless the O-ring is in such bad condition it's frozen. Maybe take a hair dryer to the lens mount to loosen things up.

Frozen? It's been kept at room temperature since I bought it when it was sitting in the sun.

 

[Sirius Glass]

One has to first push the lens towards the camera before turning. I have to look on my other computer for an address of a Nikonos repair man in Los Angeles.

 

[KinoGrafx]

One has to first push the lens towards the camera before turning. I have to look on my other computer for an address of a Nikonos repair man in Los Angeles.

No. You PULL the lens away from the body then twist. To the OP, if you can’t pull on the lens then it could be frozen in place by saltwater corrosion or something…

 

[Bushcat]

This may be a bit obvious, but make sure you are holding the silver bit only: not accidentally gripping the black body behind the lens, too. If you look down at the top of the lens, you can see a little silver pin that engages with the black body. You're pulling on the silver part of the lens only, to get this pin to disengage. As already mentioned, there's a pretty grippy O-ring further in, so a little rocking (not twisting) motion may help.

 

[reddesert]

Frozen as in stuck, not frozen as in ice cubes. You barely have to pull the lens out at all - 1mm or less. On mine you can basically just turn the lens, holding it by the milled ring, and the locating pins at top and bottom will ride out of the notches. You really need to rotate it, not pry it forward. If it doesn't turn, maybe a gooey unlubricated O-ring or salt corrosion is sticking lens to body. I suppose you could try dribbling a little bit of water into the joint between lens and body to lubricate it - as long as you get a few drops of water only into that notch and not inside the camera, it's unlikely to harm it.

The Nikonos II and III have a II or III on the front by the viewfinder window, if it doesn't have that it's likely a I. There are some other differences such as the wind lever.

 

[Mr Bill]

Frozen? It's been kept at room temperature since I bought it when it was sitting in the sun.

In English, people doing mechanical work often use the term "frozen," or perhaps "seized up" to refer to a screw or bolt, or perhaps a mechanical joint, that can't be moved by the normal means. Typically corrosion or lack of lubrication is the main culprit.

I presume that Mackinaw figures the heat from a hair dryer might help soften the grease a bit, not melt actual ice.

Regarding the Nikonos I have a Nikonos II (like in your manual excerpt) that I bought back when it was still the current model. It hasn't been used probably for 25 years or so, and was put away with the correct Nikonos o-ring grease. I got it out and found that the lens did NOT wanna move.

So I put some pressure on the lens so as to rock it back and forth in the mount and after a half minute or so I could see a bit of clearance where the lens presses up against the body.

If you look down at the top of the lens, you can see a little silver pin that engages with the black body

This is a key thing... there is another such pin on the bottom. The body has a small groove in both places, top and bottom, such that when the pins are set into the grooves the lens cannot rotate. So... you must wiggle the lens outward (away from the body) far enough to get the pins out of the grooves. As a rough guess this is something on the order of 1/32 to 1/16 inch, or maybe 1 mm, to disengage the pins. Then it should be possible to rotate the lens.

Now, on my camera it still took considerable (not extreme) force to begin rotating the lens. (I did not actually remove the lens yet.)

 

[fabulousrice]

Thanks everyone for the info. I am only pulling the silver part of the lens, but rocking, pulling, shaking, twisting, wobbling, nothing works to clear the pins out of their notch.
The minuscule pins do hit the walls of their little enclosures when I twist or pull or try to rotate the lens, and the bottom one almost clears out of the notch, but the top one really isn't pulling forward at all.

If anyone wants to try it, I'm in the bay area. Buy you a drink if you manage! (insert the sword in the stone reference)

 

[Mr Bill]

I am only pulling the silver part of the lens, but rocking, pulling, shaking, twisting, wobbling, nothing works to clear the pins out of their notch

At this point I'd probably be trying to get a little lubrication to the o-ring holding the lens in. (See reddesert's comments, post #7.)

I'm not sure if plain water will go easily into the gap so I'd probably try a tiny amount of a basic dishwashing detergent - just to break the surface tension. If it doesn't help, no problem - it'll eventually evaporate out of there.

 

[Alan Edward Klein]

Place the whole camera in warm water to dissolve any salt sticking the lens. Take it out of the water after ten minutes or so, dry it off, and try again.

 

[Alan Edward Klein]

...don;t try to remove or twist the lens when in the warm water.

 

[blee1996]

I tried on my Nikonos III, and the lens should come off fairly easily with the method OP described. So I think it might be the O-Ring deteriorated and stuck between the lens and the camera body.

I agree with @Alan Edward Klein to try the warm water method. Since you got it from flea market, I hope not too much money is at stake.

 

[fabulousrice]

I just tried placing the camera lens down in a small container with hot water and soap for 20 minutes, making sure to cover the junction between lens and body, and nothing changed. I'll have to try other methods...

 

[Rick A]

Try placing the camera in the freezer over night. Take it out and carefully heat the camera body face with a blow dryer without heating the lens.

 

[Mr Bill]

I just tried placing the camera lens down in a small container with hot water and soap for 20 minutes, making sure to cover the junction between lens and body, and nothing changed. I'll have to try other methods...

Hi, I'm not sure if you're getting the point. You say you COVERED the junction (between lens and body). Am I correct in assuming that you are preventing the "lubricant" (water) from getting in there? That is exactly where you DO want the water to go... that is the path for water to reach the O-ring.

Here's a listing from keh... some of the photos show the O-ring in question (it's black, on the part of the lens that goes into the camera body). https://www.keh.com/shop/nikon-35mm...lens-for-nikonos-series-58-699065.html#view-5

My guess is that this O-ring is so tight (and "dry") in the bore (in the actual camera body) that it doesn't want to move. Thus the suggestion to get water to the O-ring, hoping that it can then be rocked loose.

FWIW I'm not so sure I would submerge the camera at this point. IF internal seals are compromised there is the possibility of flooding the inside of the camera. I personally have NO IDEA how risky this might be, if at all.

Best of luck with it.

 

[BrianShaw]

I assumed that “making sure to cover” meant “covered by the warm water”…

 

[Mr Bill]

I assumed that “making sure to cover” meant “covered by the warm water”…

Ahhh... maybe so. It's interesting how such a set of words can be so differently interpreted by two different people.

But now I'm visualizing the camera, facing lens-down, dipped into the water just far enough to submerge the the joint between lens and camera. And in this case, now I'm wondering if the air bubble trapped in this area effectively prevents water from reaching the O-ring.

 

[Sirius Glass]

No. You PULL the lens away from the body then twist. To the OP, if you can’t pull on the lens then it could be frozen in place by saltwater corrosion or something…

I stand [or sit] corrected.

 

[fabulousrice]

Hi, I'm not sure if you're getting the point. You say you COVERED the junction (between lens and body). Am I correct in assuming that you are preventing the "lubricant" (water) from getting in there? That is exactly where you DO want the water to go... that is the path for water to reach the O-ring.

Here's a listing from keh... some of the photos show the O-ring in question (it's black, on the part of the lens that goes into the camera body). https://www.keh.com/shop/nikon-35mm...lens-for-nikonos-series-58-699065.html#view-5

My guess is that this O-ring is so tight (and "dry") in the bore (in the actual camera body) that it doesn't want to move. Thus the suggestion to get water to the O-ring, hoping that it can then be rocked loose.

FWIW I'm not so sure I would submerge the camera at this point. IF internal seals are compromised there is the possibility of flooding the inside of the camera. I personally have NO IDEA how risky this might be, if at all.

Best of luck with it.

Ah yes I definitely meant the junction was immersed in water not protected from water entering the joint.
Also I tried the freezer trick overnight and it didn't make a difference

 

[Rick A]

Place the camera on its back and dribble a bit of distilled white vinegar around the base of the lens. You might even try heating the vinegar, I wouldn't take it to boiling though.

 

[Alan Edward Klein]

Have you opened the camera from the film side back and checked to see if there's any damage inside the camera that shows it was flooded?

 

[reddesert]

On a Nikonos I, II, or III, you can't open the back. You can only remove the top and inner from the body shell after removing the lens.

Check if the shutter fires (IIRC you can wind and fire without film loaded). I would guess that if the shutter fires, the body isn't totally full of corrosion and it's mostly a grotty O-ring holding the lens to the body.

 

[fabulousrice]

On a Nikonos I, II, or III, you can't open the back. You can only remove the top and inner from the body shell after removing the lens.

Check if the shutter fires (IIRC you can wind and fire without film loaded). I would guess that if the shutter fires, the body isn't totally full of corrosion and it's mostly a grotty O-ring holding the lens to the body.

Shutter does not fire. I would assume something is physically preventing the lens from being taken out, i.e. a broken piece of metal but I have never seen the "insides" of this camera so I can't really use my imagination for that. Do you have a photo of the back of the lens and the area of the body where it fits? I would love to try to understand what is possibly jammed in there, I'm starting to believe it is not simply rust or corrosion

 

[blee1996]

Shutter does not fire. I would assume something is physically preventing the lens from being taken out, i.e. a broken piece of metal but I have never seen the "insides" of this camera so I can't really use my imagination for that. Do you have a photo of the back of the lens and the area of the body where it fits? I would love to try to understand what is possibly jammed in there, I'm starting to believe it is not simply rust or corrosion

I will try to take some photos for you later today when I get home, unless someone else beat me to that.