Yashica 55mm f4 ML Macro Repair

ic-racer · Oct 21, 2011

I got a cosmetically nice 55 f4 macro through the mail, but, as usual, there are issues.

1) Foggy lens elements
2) Aperture blades covered with oil
3) Aperture won't close down all the way

Since it is in very nice cosmetic condition I thought it was worthwhile to salvage it.

ic-racer · Oct 21, 2011

This well corrected lens has only 4 elements, so cleaning should be easy. The front two unscrew easily and the rear two unscrew easily.
Though, the rear two elements look like they are permanently sealed together with a rim of metal squeezed over on of the elements. I did not see a way to get them apart. Thats OK because the inner element surfaces were pretty clean. In terms of the front elements, the front surface was the worst. It had the awful oily residue on it and it was a little trouble to get it all off. In the end the glass cleaned up pretty well and underneath the haze there were no scratches or imperfections in the coating.

ic-racer · Oct 21, 2011

Oil on the aperture blades.
With all the glass elements removed from the barrel, I was able to flush the aperture mechanism. In this case acetone was used. but be careful. If you get acetone on the outside of the barrel it can take off the numbers. Also, acetone can remove black paint that may be used internally to prevent flare.

Without taking the entire mechanism out and soaking it, it can be difficult to get the blades clean. New oil keeps seeping out from the perimeter onto the blades. With some persistence I got the blades all clean without having to take the lens helicoid apart to get the aperture mechanism out.

Bad news is that the aperture still would stick and not close down all the way.

ic-racer · Oct 21, 2011

Closer inspection of the rear of the lens mount revealed a ball-bearing mechanism for the aperture actuation lever. There was a locking ring over the ball bearings and the ring was too tight, causing the ball-bearings to bind.
Even closer inspection showed that there had originally been a drop of glue or paint to keep the ring from tightening.

I loosened the ring to the original position and applied a new drop of paint to hold it in place. The aperture then worked perfectly.

altim · Oct 21, 2011

Wow, that lens is in great condition. Definitely worth a repair. I'm going to be going through this same journey with a 100mm FD Canon macro, which has some fungus on the inside of the rear element. Hopefully things go as smoothly

ic-racer · Oct 21, 2011

To avoid frustration, I sometimes bid on items that I know will need work. The 55mm Macro was billed as excellent condition so I almost sent it back.

Here is an example of the exact opposite: PICTURE LOOKS BAD but LENS IS GOOD
Another purchase (NOT THE LENS FROM THE ORIGINAL POST), shown below, was anticipated to be a 'project' lens to clean up. It was $20 and I could not tell exactly what it was other than it came up with a search for 'Yashica'.
It turns out that lens was in mint condition with the original stickers on it! So sometimes you loose and sometimes you win.
This is the image from the ad:

ic-racer · Oct 21, 2011

What a good surprise to find that the lens in that blurry picture was essentially brand new with original "Yashica" branded caps!

ic-racer · Oct 21, 2011

That 28mm lens, by the way, is a desirable third generation 28mm f2.8 7 element lens. This is a re-design of the earlier ML 28mm lens with a lens formula the more closely matches that of the Zeiss 28mm f2.8.
Early Model Yashica 28 f2.8 ML Lens:

Late Model Yashica 28 f2.8 ML Lens:

Zeiss Lens:

ic-racer · Oct 21, 2011

ic-racer said:
sometimes you loose and sometimes you win.

And sometimes you can't spell...

wblynch · Oct 26, 2011

What is recommended to clean the glass of haze? I have a low-value hazy lens that I would like to clean but am ignorant on the correct fluid.

Thanks

Hatchetman · Oct 26, 2011

Very interesting thread. Where does all this oil come from in old lenses?

ic-racer · Oct 26, 2011

Hatchetman said:
Very interesting thread. Where does all this oil come from in old lenses?

The grease on the helicoids. Even though grease is traditionally composed of long chain alkanes, stuck together with hydrogen bonds, some of the molecules escape to the air. Lenses with with extensive helicoids, like zoom lenses and macro lenses can be more susceptible to this.

udobam · Oct 23, 2021

Guys, do you still remember how can the front element and its barrel be separated from the apperture mechanism? There are 3 small screws that I removed but the front part with the apperture wont get apart. Do you know by any chance what is the trick? I need to get out the blades to clean them as they are oily.
Many thanks!

dynachrome · Oct 23, 2021

I thought about getting the 55/4 to round out my Yashica ML collection but I have two of the later f/2.8 55s. I also have a 50/2.8 Sigma which goes to 1:1. Years ago I saw a 55/2.8 Vivitar macro but those are rare. It would be easier to find a nice 60mm Zeiss lens. For some reason I can't get the photos in this thread to open up on my phone. I'll have to try it later on the computer.

ic-racer · Oct 24, 2021

Photos are gone as I believe the were hosted on the defunct "PhotoBucket."
I'll see if I can find them on my hard drive.

ic-racer · Oct 24, 2021

ic-racer · Oct 24, 2021

ic-racer · Oct 24, 2021

ic-racer · Oct 24, 2021

ic-racer · Oct 24, 2021

udobam · Oct 29, 2021

ic-racer said:
View attachment 288992
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I don’t understand your photos of the 55/4. How could you get out the front elemets without disassembling the whole lens? My version is now disassembled and the part that holds the front element and the aperture looks like this. I just cannot get to the blades…. Do you remember how was it in your case?
Ps please ignore the rust, I soaked it in alcohol that was not a good idea for the metal parts….

Tel · Oct 30, 2021

You might need one of these: often the front element is held in place with a decorative ring that has no slots or holes to engage a spanner wrench.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/373405146434?hash=item56f0ae5d42:g:uOcAAOSwB8Bf5VZ6

ic-racer · Oct 31, 2021

udobam said:
I don’t understand your photos of the 55/4. How could you get out the front elemets without disassembling the whole lens? My version is now disassembled and the part that holds the front element and the aperture looks like this. I just cannot get to the blades…. Do you remember how was it in your case?
Ps please ignore the rust, I soaked it in alcohol that was not a good idea for the metal parts….

View attachment 289463 View attachment 289464

I believe I unscrewed the inner cone seen in your lower picture.

Kino · Oct 31, 2021

Now that you have rust on the aperture blades, you will have to totally disassemble the aperture and clean each blade with brasso or a similar metal cleaner.

You can get tips on the cleaning part from Chris Sherlock's Kodak Retina Repair channel on Youtube.

udobam · Nov 14, 2021

Many thanks guys. The inner holder was glued thats why I got confused. Now I succeeded it. Cheers!

Yashica 55mm f4 ML Macro Repair

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