Repair: Fungus Cleaning

27 Mar 2016 200 Comments

by richardhaw in Uncategorized

Hello, everybody! I was a bit busy with a wedding yesterday (photographer#2) so I did not have the time to prepare for a full lens teardown post so I decide to write something else instead this time. It also dawned to me that in order to keep this blog alive, I should not post a lens teardown every week because I will quickly run out of lenses to write about! A balance has to be struck so I will write filler posts like these in between the teardown posts so I hope that you don’t mind.

I will promise that I will make these filler posts as educational as possible and with the same standards as my teardown posts so that you, my readers will not get bored reading my blog. Nikon has made a lot of lenses but I can only afford a few to feature on the blog.

I have some people ask me about how to remove fungus from a lens. This is also a niche topic that is not commonly discussed and even if you found one on the internet or other media, the information that is being presented is usually sparse and scattered all over the net so you will have to hunt for them and decide which one works and which one doesn’t. For this reason, I will share to you my fungus removal routine. This is something that I have been doing to any lens that I bought that has fungus in it. It has worked so far and the lenses stay clean and clear. Let’s start!

Introduction:

If you are easily offended at the sight of a dirty lens then this blog post is not for you! Do not say that I didn’t warn you because you will see some disturbing images in this post and if you are a true Nikkor lover then look away. It can hurt, I know.

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Fungus in a lens is something that all photographers try to avoid as much as possible. This is something that is impossible to avoid because the tiny fungal spores responsible for this is everywhere, from the air we breath to every surface that we touch. The only measure to prevent this from ever happening is not to provide the spores any chance to germinate at all by depriving them of nutrients and other variable essential for them to thrive.

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Repair: Nikon 75-150mm f/3.5 Series E

20 Mar 2016 31 Comments

by richardhaw in Uncategorized

Hello, everybody! It’s not secret that I am cheap, so cheap that I cannot even buy myself a set of dentures or get a shave or haircut. Different people have different priorities and we tend to spend less on things that we do not view as essential to our being and that forces us to make tight decisions on these things to make the most out of our money. For example, instead of buying a pair of expensive shorts that look fashionable I opted for surfers’ shorts so I can wear them comfortably and clean dry them really quick. They last very long and they’re functional, image is only second to utility. I will show you a nice example today that pertains to lenses as far as the Nikon brand goes. It was sold cheap when it came out but there’s nothing cheap with the photos it produces so it has acquired a cult following.

Introduction:

The Nikon 75-150mm f/3.5 Series-E is considered as a hidden gem by its fans despite being a Series-E lens, a line of lenses made by Nikon to complement the entry level class Nikon EM camera. The Series-E lenses were made with cost-cutting as the main factor while maintaining superb optical design and performance. Most lenses under the Series-E brand are good and they have acquired a following so many of them have inflated prices in the used gear market.

It’s a sleek lens with a useful focal length and a decent maximum aperture. I like this lens a lot because it’s small and light. I like the push-pull layout due to the broad grip, this allows me to zoom or focus using without the need to think about 2 separate rings to manipulate. The drawback is most push-pull lenses have this annoying problem called “zoom-creep”, it’s just a name for the phenomenon where the zoom/focusing ring slides towards the camera, throwing your focus and zoom off and it does this un-assisted and gravity is the only force in-play here. Most, if not all old lenses of this type suffer from it to some extent.

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Repair: GN-Nikkor 45mm f/2.8 Auto

13 Mar 2016 15 Comments

by richardhaw in nikon,lens repair,lens maintenance,nikon repair,, Nikon,museum,classic lenses,, Uncategorized

Hello, everybody! Despite the busy schedule I managed to pace my time in order to post this to my blog on a timely manner. Apart from being busy at work, I was sick with hay fever. Hay fever is a thing here every spring and it affects a significant part of the populace. Keep your masks on to prevent hay fever from ruining your Spring. As I promised a before, I would like to present to you some unusual Nikkors as we have dealt with conventional ones in the previous posts. This approach is to nurture your growth and you start with simpler lenses then proceed to the more exotic ones. The subject of our post this time is a mysterious and unique Nikkor that many people do not know much about.

Introduction:

This one is a mystery to many people because it is the only Nikkor of its type that got into production. This lens was designed to aid photographers who used flash guns. Back in the days before TTL metering, photographers need to adjust flash output by re-calculating its power as you go nearer or further from the subject (hence GN for guide number). Nikon’s engineers had to find clever ways to solve this like the GN-Nikkor 45mm f/2.8 Auto and its unusual coupling mechanism. Another good example is the earlier production type Micro-Nikkor-P 55mm f/3.5 where the aperture opens up as you go closer to its maximum reproduction ratio of 1:2 (native) or 1:1 with the included M- ring accessory.

This has a switch at the focusing ring to couple it to the aperture ring so that these move together when you turn either one of them. For example as you focus your lens closer the iris would stop-down and when you focus further the iris would open-up to compensate. It allows you to shoot without even thinking about changing the power of the flash. While this is clever it has a catch, the focusing ring on Nikkors go the other-way and this means turning the focusing ring to the right makes the lens focus to infinity and in order to make this clever iris compensation trick work, it had to turn the other way! This is very annoying so I don’t use this lens as often as I would like to. It’s such a pity because I have grown to love this lens.

This is a nice example of precision engineering. Look at the nicely engraved numbers, it is something that you don’t anymore see in current lenses from mainstream brands. If you think this is all the engravings this lens has then just wait until you read the whole article. This is one of Nikon’s most ornate lenses and it’s one-of-a-kind.

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Repair: Nikkor-Q 200mm f/4 Auto

07 Mar 2016 34 Comments

by richardhaw in nikon,lens repair,lens maintenance,nikon repair,, Nikon,museum,classic lenses,, Uncategorized

Hello, everybody. I’m sorry for posting this late but I was having a problem with the blog so I was not able to post this earlier. For some reason. I can’t access my drafts and my site would not load at all. That was all fixed after I restarted my laptop. I was scared because I have spent a lot of time documenting/writing for this blog and if I lost all of my posts it would mean the end of everything. Now that it is all in the past we can now proceed with our subject for today.

Introduction:

Our subject for today is the amazing Nikkor-Q 200mm f/4 Auto. It’s one of Nikon’s most expensive lenses in its day and it’s the successor to the Nikkor-Q 20cm f/4 Auto which is a revolutionary lens in its own rite. This lens is an improved version and it fixed some of the bigger problems of the older lens so it’s considered to be a different lens in nearly all aspects. Apart from the obvious difference in lens barrel design it also has an improved optical design (slight variation) that makes it a better-handling lens overall. I like how the new focusing ring feels because it’s now broader. It also focuses a bit closer which makes it more useful but is still too-long compared to later lenses from this class. It’s a great lens for its time and many people bought these for taking pictures of sports, news, birds and just about anything that needs a long lens.

The silhouette of this lens reminds me of a softdrink bottle. It looks sexy and people will surely stare at you when you use this lens. As you can see from the photo, this lens is not what I would call small. It’s heavy, long and big so carrying it all-day can be a problem if you wear your setup around your neck. I wish it came with a tripod mount because it is front-heavy but I guess this lens was designed to be used hand-held so it was omitted.

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