DS-M 50/1,4 Dry focusing ring

Hi everyone. My Yashica DSM 1,4 focusing is quite "dry" and not plesant at all to use. It focuses as it should though. Besides taking it apart to replace the grease, do you think it is a good or bad idea to put a drop of lighter fuel either on the top part of the ring, or inbetween the ring and the body part ? Any opinion ? Thank you.

By "ring," do you mean the front trim ring of the lens, or the focusing ring? Are you wanting to loosen a part? A drop of naphtha (lighter fluid) can help soften dried grease, but I'd be careful about putting it anywhere if you can't see exactly where it's going--you don't want it to seep down in between lens elements or into the diaphragm, for instance.

 

If you're going to disassemble the lens anyway to re-lubricate it, then you can can remove any old grease with a bit of naphtha at that time.

The point of really extremely small drops of naphtha is to loosen up the old "lubricant". If done cautiously it can help. Taking it apart is more certain, so long as you can get it back together again!

Never flood anything that is assembled or you may create new problems.

 

Cheap lenses in some cases and cheap repairs both packed in huge amounts of 'grease' so that the product would feel as nice and smooth as the more tightly specc'd expensive lenses.

 

Do not follow that example. More lenses have been ruined by 'lubrication' probably than by anything except dis-assembly to destruction.

 

It is sometimes said that if you take a lens apart enough times, you will soon have enough spare parts to build a second one.

Thanks. I mean the focusing ring. I used lighter fluid on a Canon rangefinder (got the tip from the forum) and it worked nicely. But this lens is different. I thought of putting a tiny drop between the focusing ring and the front tube which extends when you focus closer. Or to do the same at the bottom between the focusing ring and the fixed part of the body (where the DOF graph is) I know the risks of using too much fluid but I won't dismantle the lens. Never done such thing so I'd rather send it for CLA but this might cost more than another lens.