martin_shanahn

<p>don't be afraid of tackling a fixed elmar ltm 90/4, they aren't worth that much and likely have much haze, oil etc.on the internal eliements. Mine unscrewed easily from the rear focus section but short of ruining it with pipe wrenches I could not separate the 2 halves.<br> Mine is a 4 element. It has a doublet at the rear, a middle lens and a front lens. A lens wrench will loosen a retaining ring for the rear doublet. It will be a tightish fit and I had to lever around it bit by bit. It's sealed and you'll only need the clean the outside surfaces. Its removal will get you to the rear side of the middle element for cleaning. The front lens is trickier. Back off the tiny screws on the name plate till they are just proud of the surface, DO NOT REMOVE, they will get lost and/or you'll not get them back in. With finger pressure now on the screws you should be able to unscrew the name plate, then retaining ring, a washer and then pry out the lens. I used VERY dilute hydrogen peroxide and windex (in distilled water) the coating are soft so be gentle. When I reassembled , there was still some haze and flare so i did all surfaces again with a dampened micro fibre cloth on cotton sticks. When putting the front element in, I first used a permanent marker around the edge to black it and a vacuum cleaner to suck out dust, likewise for the rear. These lenses are sharp but suffer typically from flare. The contrast and flare levels are much improved on what was an unuseable lens.</p>

<p>I received my a7ii a week ago and loving it. I bought it for travel and have found manual focussing easy using magnification which I have allocated to C1, near the shutter button.<br> The only short adapters tried are for leica screw and canon fd. Pentax nikon and minolta add about 30mm, so if length is relevant?. I don't consider it to be but weight is! I ruled out the laea4 because of weight and bulk, but if you need AF the minolta dynax lenses are value (consult dyxum to find the best)<br> I have tested all my fifties and the pentax A smc 50 1.7 was a clear winner over canon fd 1.8, nikon E 50 1.8, nikkor pre Ai 50 f2, and rokkor FG 55 f1.8 ,all for best combination of sharpness and contrast at f2. But if I wanted to take the odd portrait I'd use the rokkor whose boket and low contrast is sublime.<br> Of my 135s , tested at f4 and at 4m for portraits, this is the order from best to worst. 1.nikkor Q auto 135 f2.8 (the focus peaking lit like a xmas tree), but boy is it heavy!. 2. M42 TITAR preset135mm f3.5 (what? and I've seen one for $10 AU recently. 3. canon fd breech lock 100mm f2.8. 4. rokkor 135 f2.8 ( lots of different versions of this lens ). 5. SANKYO KOHKI SUPER KOMURA 135 F2.8 with interchangeable komura mount.<br> I think the nikkor too heavy and the titar only focusses to 2m , the rokkor is heavy and long so the canon will do and it is short too.<br> I have a 20mm fd 2.8 and a rokkor mc 24 f2.8, a rokkor mc 35 f1.8 so I won't be looking any further.<br> Cheers from OZ</p> <p> </p>