Repairing Rolleiflex 35mm Lenses

[illumiquest]

I have an 85mm f/1.4 Planar and an 18mm f/4 Distagon, both Zeiss lenses for the Rolleflex 35mm system which have fungus. My local repair guy has never seen either lens and doesn't want to risk screwing up by taking them apart. Any suggestions on who might know these lenses and would be able to do repairs welcome.

Thanks!

 

[elekm]

Mechanically, these lenses are fairly simple to disassemble. There is a small sprung part that handles the autoaperture, but it's not that different from other cameras.

It's really only one step removed from a screw-mount lens.

 

[illumiquest]

The problem with the 85 is there's no visible way to get into the lens. The front element is held in with a standard ring but there's a decorative ring around that with no notches and no good way (suggestions welcome) to remove it. The back mount is held on with three screws but removing this gets you nowhere except to the aperture pin. The only thing I can think is that the lens comes apart in half by removing the three small set screws on the focus ring but I'm very reluctant to go into a lens without knowing what I'm doing.

 

[ic-racer]

When my Rollei Makro Planar diaphragm fell apart I sent it to Marflex and they were still repairing these. This was in 2003.

 

[unclemack]

There are "rubber" ring-shaped tools available in various sizes for removing decorative rings. I always used 2 small pieces of double-sided sticky tape, each fixed to opposite sides of the ring. Fingers on the tape, just press sideways & unscrew. Try in a different place if it doesn't work first time. All you need is that extra bit of grip.
Once or twice I did have to drill a 1mm. hole at opposite sides, away from lettering, and use a standard lens key. The holes were later filled with black shoemakers' wax. Only ever did that with the customer's approval of course and only after other methods had failed, usually because of corrosion or damage.

 

[ic-racer]

I have quite a few 50mm 1.8 and 1.4 Planars which I have taken apart for one reason or another. On some of them removing the 3 screws on the focus ring will allow you to undo the focusing helicoid. This may allow you to get to all the lens elements. However, getting the double helicoids back in synch for proper focusing can be difficult.