Beware photography fans! I don’t know if any of you know about this store, and I sure would like to hear about your experiences if you do. Here’s my story…
I paid to have 3 lenses cleaned by them. The first time, it was well done. They said the job was guaranteed for 3 months. But the problem (fungus) came back after a week, even though the lens was kept in a 45% humidity environment. I asked them about the guarantee and they refused to look at the lens and said it was fine. They lied about the guarantee. In the mean time I had already sent 2 other lenses to be cleaned. I’m happy with one of them but the other was not even cleaned!!! I paid for a job that was not done! I e-mailed them twice to try to solve the problems and they are ignoring me.
Please avoid at all costs. There are plenty of other stores to choose from. Do not encourage these lying thieves!!!
I’ve never had lens cleaned by them (waste of money IMHO, I can do it myself just as easily), but I’ve bought stuff there, and just dropped in to chat a few times, and found them to be quite good.
In fact, a few years back I was looking for a portable hard drive that would take CF cards directly, and Michelle told me that the ones they I could find a bigger range, cheaper if I went to NOVA instead of buying from their store (they only had one type at the time, and it was high-end).
I forgot to mention that the cleaning involved taking the lenses appart. Something usually done by pros. Is that what you meant? After seeing the crappy job they did on my lenses, and the lies they fed me, I tend to think I could do a better job myself. Say, cfimage, what do you think I should know or read before I try dismantling a lens myself?
And, the same “Michelle” you mention in your post is the one ignoring me. I guess you were lucky. I have been very polite with them until now. They seem to have changed the old saying for “The customer is always wrong”.
With fungus, it’s pretty much impossible to get it all out, which means it shouldn’t be surprising that it comes back. Some of the fungus spores are too small to see. But if you really want to try, firstly get yourself a repair manual for the lens (contact the lens maker for where to get one). And then -
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First remove the two (might be more depending on the lens) tiny screws that hold the rear electrical contact strip
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Using a blade knife or similar ,gently lift the cover on top of the lens.Approaching from the rear lift the right side first-it will be glued on with a light contact glue so should lift easily.Note that the focus switch has a small extension inside the lens so the cover will have to be jiggled gently to allow it to come free completely
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Under where this cover was inside the lens you’ll see a screw and small metal tab .This is the stopper that keeps the lens from focusing past infinity. Remove this screw and tab
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Now you can rotate the focus ring all the way in. You should then be able to remove the whole front/inner assembly from the main body.It will probably need to be wiggled a bit.
Be sure that the rear electrical strip comes out with this assembly.It may need a bit of a push
Now you will have the inner assembly which has a relatively large plastic focus ring sitting loosely around it. What happens next is that the front lens group comes out the front. It’s held in place by four plastic clips,one of which is glued with a tiny tab (on some at least, i’m not sure if all lenses have it).
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Basically all you do now is remove that glued tab and force apart the front and rear groups. You’ll see where they join because the focus ring has some large pegs that fit in between the front and rear groups. Just use a screwdriver or similar to pop the front part away.
Mark the parts if you like so that reassembly is easier.They can only go together one way but it’s simpler if there are marks to guide the process.
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With the front a rear halves separated the cleaning can be done.There are only two surfaces inside (i.e - the glass elements can’t be taken apart any further)
The aperture blades are also accessible if anything needs to be done to them ,like removing oil or similar problems
Putting it all together again is mostly easy. The only tricky bit i can remember is that the rear electrical strip is awkward to get back in due to lack of room .
Use a small amount of contact glue on the side cover.
Good luck.
you might find you need some pretty specialised tools to open and clean some lenses, depending on the construction of the housings. be aware that each thread can have several start points (ie, in small pitch threads, there are often multiple threads cut into the sides of the tube so that there may be three or four starting positions to wind the lens back into its housing tube), and correct focusing will only be achieved if you get the lens into the exact orientation as it was when you dismantled it.
if you can find a manual for the specific lens, get it and follow it.
label lenses and tubes in-situ with register marks, and photograph all parts before separation, if you have a long unbuilding sequence. then follow the reverse to rebuild.
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use the right tools.
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use the right tools
and 3. Use the right tools. I recommend S J Grimes for lens tools.
soak the lenses in 100% alcohol to kill the spores of fungus growths. you must remove all oily lubricant first as the spores are buried in the oil film, but do not scratch any piece of the lens set, or you will damage the coating. when you rebuild, do it in a clean draft-free room with a clean pair of cotton gloves or similar. make sure you have washed your hands in alcohol first, and avoid breathing on the lenses.
i used to take apart and service microscopes and binoculars, some of which were rather expensive…