I've read some posts about lens cleaning and I thought I'd recount what I was
told. Now this goes back 30-35 years ago, when I first purchased a used view
camera lens which was a bit hazy and thought I'd have it cla'd (cleaned,
lubricated, adjusted). This is how I met this camera technician as he was in
the repair business. He was from Europe and spoke with a slight accent, I
brought the lens to him and asked if I could see what the overall process he
used was. He was a friendly chap and was willing to go through and show me his
overall process. He has long since passed away.
He said he starts by removing the front and rear lenses, and the front cover
plate of the shutter. He places only the shutter body in a fairly elaborate
laboratory oven at 120 degrees F. and leaves it overnight. He said it kills any
bacteria or contaminants that might be in the shutter. If the lenses need to be
cleaned, he removes the glass elements and passes each through a series of six
optical solutions, which he would not tell what the solutions were. Then lets
them air dry. The shutter body, after the bake, is totally cleaned and gears
lubricated. The open shutter body is then put under a fairly strong UV light
for four hours to kill any fungus or spores. While the shutter is under the UV
light he reassembles the lens elements. He said it is not good placing clean
lenses in a moldy shutter body. He assembles everything and then checks for
speed tolerances.
All this for $43 dollars at the time, seemed like a reasonable amount. I still
have the lens and the glass is still crystal clear.
One thing he stressed, never use kleenix tissues or other store tissues to
clean the shutter body. The tissues break apart and fibers or small pieces can
find their way into the shutter causing problems. And the tissue fibers go
everywhere. He recommended using KimWipes, which is a lab type of tissue which
doesn't fall apart. He said moisten a KimWipe with alcohol and gently rub the
grime or dirt off the shutter body.
________________________________
From: pure-silver-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx <pure-silver-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> on
behalf of Eric Goldstein <egoldste@xxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Tuesday, October 26, 2021 11:59 AM
To: pure-silver@xxxxxxxxxxxxx <pure-silver@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: [pure-silver] Re: Zeiss Sonnar cleaning
That was my experience as well. Lens work is done pretty quickly.
Eric Goldstein
On Tue, Oct 26, 2021 at 11:51 AM titrisol <dmarc-noreply@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
====================================To unsubscribe from this list, go to
THANKS!
I contacted them, and Henry said that for a lens the turn-around time is
about 2 weeks.
He said that for some cameras he needs 1wk of work and the waiting list can
be several months; but not for a lens cleaning.
PABLO
On Monday, October 25, 2021, 08:12:49 PM EDT, MARK SAMPSON
<dmarc-noreply@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
I read on the forums that Zeisscamera.com, listed below, has a waiting list
several years long. Can’t verify that, but I’d ask before sending him the
lens. Best of luck with it!
Mark S
Sent from my iPhone
On Oct 25, 2021, at 4:42 PM, titrisol <dmarc-noreply@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Thanks a lot, it seems clean, diaphragm blades open and close easily and all
I see are some cleaning marks which for the age of the lens (89 yr old) is
not bad at all
Inside I can see some dust but nothing to worry about, but it has some
"zeiss" bubbles in the glass.
There is some oiling in the rear element, which is a sign of age
A few days back, Roy Milne saw my picture in flicker and contacted me with
questions to see if the lens was authentic; I didn;t realize this was such a
rare lens
From what he told me, this lens is part of the 1st batch of Sonnars made in
October 1932
Aperture only goes from 1.5 - 8 to avoid diffraction and for the 2nd batch
Bertele changed the distance between elements and is a different lens
altogether (f 1.5-11)
In the mean time I ordered a Kiev4 from KEH to test it, as I don;t have a
Contax RF and will see what I can do
Having a min aperture of f/8 is quite challenging these days with film being
fast
I will be travelling the next few weeks and I might just take the Kiev with me
Thanks all for the replies, you are a bunch of geeks and I love that
On Monday, October 25, 2021, 05:12:19 PM EDT, `Richard Knoppow
<dickburk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
I don't know who is still around who is reliable for opening
and cleaning old lenses. First of all, make sure it needs
cleaning. Shine a flashlight through it and see if it appears
hazy or if there are any particles inside. If its clear leave it
alone.
You may know that the Sonnar is a remarkable lens. Ludwig
Bertele, who designed it, was mostly self taught and was an utter
genius of optics. It is a very high performer but difficult to
make. Bertele wanted to cure some of the problems with the
Triplet (also a remarkable design) but since there was no
anti-flare coating available using air spaced elements resulted
in large amounts of flare. Bertele got around this by using
elements of low index of refraction glass in place of air. He was
able to correct the aberrations up to f/1.5 without creating
severe flare. The Sonnar type fell out of popularity when
anti-reflection coatings were developed. The double Gauss lens,
as typified by the Zeiss Planar of Paul Rudolf (another genius)
and later further developed by Lee and Warmisham. Among the
highest performing of the older Planar types is the Leitz
Summicron by Walter Mandler. The Sonar will hold its own with these.
I wonder if Ken Hough, who is on this list, still does lens
servicing.
On 10/25/2021 1:20 PM, titrisol (titrisol) wrote:
I inherited an old CarlZeissJena Sonnar 5cm/1.5 that my mom
found while cleaning my grandma's estate
The lens seems to be in good shape, glass is clean, and
aperture is fine but I'd like to have it professionally cleaned.
Do you guys know of someone that provides such service???
As background, my grandpa had a Zeiss camera (Contax) that he
used in the late 30s and 40s
He then switched to Leica in the late 40s and the camera
disappeared in the mid 60s when my uncles used it.
According to my mother, he bought the Zeiss from one of the
Italian-Jewish people that came to Ecuador in the 30s and were
friends of the family for a long time.
The lens is a Type 1 (1932) which according to Thiele's book is
1 in 100 (aperture going to f/8 only); type 2 came very soon
after with aperture to f/11
Photos here:
Contax Lenses <https://photos.app.goo.gl/ktQGqn4evrnrjMue7>
Contax Lenses
23 fotos nuevas · Álbum de Pablo Coronel
<https://photos.app.goo.gl/ktQGqn4evrnrjMue7>
--
Richard Knoppow
dickburk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
WB6KBL
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