Nikon 50mm 1.4 lens: Reassembly
Transcript
Okay I’m back I’ll put my chair here and sit down.
Remove the filter ring
Alright so I took it [the lens] outside, found a nice distance and these screws here. See if we can screw here. There’s four of them all the way around. I don’t know if you can see it. I use a thin-shanked screwdriver there, that gets down the side without scratching this filter ring, and that works really well. I love these things. I get them from Canon. So, I have that. You see there’s also the much thicker [shanked screwdriver] but if you get that down there you can actually scratch this on some of them. So, it’s all set.
I moved this to infinity when I was outside and then I just moved the ring to where infinity was. Lock it down and now it comes to the stop. It’s at infinity so really all I have to do is finish it up. I’m just going to tighten this ring up and then we’re going to put in a set screw. Put on that ring and then I can put the leatherette on any time.
Add set screw, clean, and reassemble outer ring
Now we’ll put the rest of our screws on our mount and this lens will be done. Go ahead and get our set screw in there. Make sure it’s flush.
We’ve got a nice feeling lens there. [Let’s] go ahead, clean this guy [inside of the ring] off. It’s got a little bit of junk inside there. I use this to get a lot of grease off. Obviously, it’s kind of a soft sponge. [It] gets in the grooves and doesn’t scratch anything.
Go ahead and screw this [outer ring] on here and tighten [it] down. This [ring] here has a little hole there; that is not a set screw. That is for just putting a drop of glue in to lock the threads, so it doesn’t unscrew on you. Customers don’t like that.
Add rear-mount screws
We’ll go ahead and do is put on our two rear mount screws that we don’t have on yet.
As you see I got a couple screws left over; those are a coupler that I removed. I just did need a coupler, or I think I needed it for another lens, so I just took it off this [lens] here. I don’t normally need a coupler and I do have other lenses that have couplers. [I] just do what I have to do to get stuff going.
Clean everything; it’s good customer service!
Alright so I’m going to go ahead and clean up this lens a little bit and I like to take my cleaner and clean and get these numbers looking nice and shiny. Nothing like handing back a lens and the numbers are all dirty and you can’t read them.
You can see how this [Q-tip with cleaner] is just taking them off; it looks like some paint may be missing on these. The 1.4 and the 2 are shining up but I’m not sure yet. Yeah, they are. I think it’s just a bunch of junk in there [from] years of use and abuse. This lens has taken a lot [of abuse].
Okay, I think it’s the best that’s going to get. I’m just going over the lettering trying to get some of this. Takes a while; sometimes some of this stuff gets really gets caked in there. It dries and it doesn’t like to clean [up]. It’s starting to look much better now.
These are all the little things that make customers happy in the end. Hand back something dirty and people just like, “Blech!” They don’t feel good about it. But having something back clean — clean viewfinders, clean elements, numbers cleaned — it doesn’t really take a tremendous amount of effort.
I don’t know if you can tell they’re just starting to shine now. These are little things that customers like these are things that keep customers coming back to you. Otherwise, they just get dissatisfied, and you never know they just don’t ever come back to you.
Most of my business is repeat customers. A lot of it is! People take a chance on me. They like what they see and the next thing you know they’re sending me pretty much [everything]. I’ve got one guy — I think he’s sending me his whole collection, just one little piece at a time. [It’s] keeping me quite busy.
Test for smooth focus
Alright, so this lens is pretty much it. [There’s] something going on — when I put this ring on my focus, [it] isn’t wanting to move and that is because that guy right there — that [set] screw. We all run into it; we have issues.
Remove the index ring
Alright, so, this comes out, this little metal ring here. (Maybe. I can’t remember if I have to take the leatherette off first.) These [screws] have glue on them too, but they’re not in tight, so they’re not making it too difficult. Slip your index ring off; see no index. If didn’t put a mark there, you wouldn’t know where your idex was. I’m stacking all this up over here so it can get washed and clean.
Be sure there’s no dent in the focus ring
This guy here [the set screw] — I just want to test something really quick. I know; I’ve got the screw out still. I just want to make sure there’s not a dent in it [the focus ring]. If you want to make sure there wasn’t a dent in this ring, I put the ring on and it got tight and reason is the set screw is starting to bump the outside. It’s starting to distort this barrel, I think.
Create space with a divot
So how do I take care of that is I put another divot. [I use a ] small screwdriver. So instead of [the set screw] just going in and hitting threads and staying on the threads, what I do is just put a little bit of a divot. [Unscrews set screw.] Let me clean that out.
Sorry about that, I had to bring it out of camera for a second and use my little air compressor. My air compressor is only set to around 30. When people set these things really high, it’s not a smart thing to do. You don’t want to blow stuff halfway through your camera.
Insert and glue (or paint) the set screw
I’m going to go ahead and set this screw much lighter this time but it’s in a divot so now this is not going to move. To keep that screw in place. (Struggling with tube of glue.) Let’s see if I can get this. That top is glued on there, he’s not coming off there.
Alright can we get this guy [a jar of paint] here to keep that set screw where it should be, do it’s not backing out. Just put a small drop of paint on there. The paint will dry, and the paint will stop that screw from backing out. Paint will be a very good sealer, so, we shouldn’t have any problem with that, it’s in a divot. Once that screw dries, you’ll barely be able to see it, and see now that is nice and smooth so we’re doing good. Alright, that’s pretty much the [reassembled] lens.
It’s back in service
I can put it back in service doing checks and stuff. This one [lens], since I tend to use it as a collimator, it’s a service lens. I use it in the shop any time I get a camera that’s got a problem. I’m going to put this one on the collimator just to make sure my eyeballs were not out and then if anybody has a camera that comes in that needs adjusting, I go to this lens. This will be my go-to lens and it has been for years. It’s a good lens; it looks nice on the collimator, and you need one that you can actually trust.
There we go, we’re all set.
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