nikon 1000mm reflex

<p>Hi guys, its been a while. Got given a Nikkor 1000mm f/11 mirror lens as a present from a friend. Great lens, but, the focus ring is almost unbudgable and I need to recify this, remove, clean old grease, re-grease. Does anyone know the procedure or where I can find some instructions. I search the web and haven't found anything. Thanks.</p>

<p>Over the years here at P.net, I have found some good friends, but not quite so good as your friend. :)</p>

<p>I really have no personal experience with the Reflex-Nikkor 1000mm, but I do have the corresponding 500mm version. Fortunately it still works well, but if it were to seize up, I'm not sure what I would do. With some of these older lenses, I do know that exercising the focus by working it back and forth can often loosen it up somewhat.</p>

<p>A tiny, tiny drop (the least you can imagine and then take half as much) of my favorite, naphtha (not for nothing am I "Lord Naphtha, King of the Petroleum Wastes") can help dissolve some old 'grease'. Introduce it into the focus ring as it is extended. Ferchrissakes don't flood it or you will be really sorry.</p>

<p>My guess is that a lot of these old lenses* got this way because somebody once decided to "lubricate" it. My suggestion is, whatever you do, don't "re-grease". At the most, a touch of watch oil with graphite dust.</p>

<p>________________<br /> *At least the quality ones, the cheap lenses did achieve "silky smooth" by packing something like cosmoline into them.</p>

<p>Try setting it out in the sun for a few hours and warming it up. Then see if it will work better and if so, work it back and forth a good bit. You may save a tidy little repair fee with that.</p>

<p>Rick H.</p>

<p>The focusing on these beasts is stiff, even when working properly. You only have to move the focus ring a fraction of a degree to change the focus by many feet! But, yes, they do get stiff if unused for a while.</p>

<p>Warming the lens up will make it a bit less stiff, but it's probably not a permanent solution. Luckily, dismantling this lens is pretty easy. Simply remove the stop screw from the focus ring and keep winding the focus ring in the near direction. Eventually the lens will come in two and give access to the interior of the lenses/mirror and the focusing helix. Best to make a note of where the two halves part company, so that you can reassemble the lens again correctly.</p>

<p>Or you could send it off to some place like APS (if you are in the states) and they would likely be able to re-grease it for a pretty reasonable cost since it's not a mechanically complicated lens.</p>

<p>I no longer own it, but mine developed the same problem over time. I sent it back to Nikon for cleaning and new grease. Keep in mind, the 1000mm Nikon in good condition is hardly an inexpensive lens - I believe really clean copies sell for US $ 750 to US $ 1000 - do you really want to fix it yourself?</p>

<p>JDM, I've only just become a fan of mirror lenses. I'm a believer in the rejuvenation of the mirror lens in the DSLR age. The DSLR has breathed new life into the reflex lens as far as I'm concerned. I recently bought the Tamron 500mm and I absolutely love it for what it is, and the picture quality with my D700 is beyond my expectations. When I showed it to my friend who owns and likes the sigma 50-500 and is not a fan of mirror lenses (I heard you either love them or hate them), he said I've got this old mirror lens, its yours . But, the focus is too solid, practically immovable, it needs fixing properly. Yes, he is a good friend. I'm back in London these days, and the only couple of places I've seen that repair Nikon lenses quote about £65 upwards for a Nikon lens re-grease on their websites.</p>

<p>Rodeo, thanks for the heads-up, have you actually done this on your lens ? Are you referring to the tiny screws around the circumference of the focus ring ? </p>

<p>Professor, I do want to give it a shot myself, I've just emigrated and have to watch the pennies at the moment, besides I am an engineer and technically minded person. With good instructions I think I can manage it. </p>

 

<p>"Have you actually done this on your lens?" - Yes. I paid nowhere near the above quoted price for my 1000mm reflex-Nikkor, which was stiff and full of dust when I bought it. It came minus the focusing "spokes" and front screw-in cap and also without any rear filter fitted. All-in-all I didn't have much to lose by dismantling it.</p>

<p>I've just had a good look at the lens to remind myself how it comes apart. You have to loosen the three tiny grub screws that fix the focusing scale to the large rubberised collar. You'll need a good jeweller's screwdriver set for this, and take care not to lose any of the screws. Once the two halves of the focus ring are separated, the main focus grip can be rotated until it parts company with the barrel of the lens.</p>

<p>My lens needed the grease thinning a little and some chunks of accumulated "crud" picking out of the helix. I also carefully blew a large amount of dust from the inside of the front lens and carefully wiped it clean using a couple of lens tissues. - but DON'T attempt to clean the mirrors by wiping! A soft brush is probably OK. I took careful note of the position where the two halves of the lens finally separated, and screwed the two halves back together at the same start point. The whole job took no more than an hour.</p>

<p>I've since managed to luck onto a 39mm rear UV filter for the lens. However it's addition seems to make little to no difference to the optical quality. The built-in telescopic hood for the lens is totally inadequate IMHO, and contrast of the lens can be improved by extending the hood using a tube of black paper or similar.</p>

<p><strong><em>It came minus the focusing "spokes" and front screw-in cap and also without any rear filter fitted. All-in-all I didn't have much to lose by dismantling it.</em></strong><br /> <strong><em><br /></em></strong>Rodeo, you described exactly how mine came ! Thanks for the advise, will let you know how I get on, just waiting for my tools and stuff to arrive first. I also could not figure out what the rear filter actually does. It just seems to prevent dust from entering that rear cavity, but with the rear lens cap on it seems unnessesary. Did you manage to replace the front screw in cap ? I think its a 108mm snap-on , of which I haven't seen any available, or 120mm push-on type (correct me if I'm wrong), which are asking silly prices. I'm looking at finding some jar top of that size to adapt ! As for the screw in spokes, they should be easy to replace with something that has that same thread, you found something ?</p>

<p>Hi Andrew. Glad I could help.<br>

I never have managed to find a front cap for the lens, but it lives in a foam lined fitted hard case that's fairly dust proof. The rear filter makes a small difference to the focus, meaning that there's a slight focus shift between filter and no filter.</p>

<p>Nikon's official line is that the filter(s) form an integral part of the optical system, and one of them should always be fitted. As I said previously; I can detect no improvement in image quality with the filter in place, but as you suggest, it does help to keep dust out of the lens.</p>

<p>BTW, a <em>small</em> amount of WD-40 dabbed - not sprayed - onto the focus helix in a few places will thin down the existing grease and make the focus a lot less stiff. Do this at your own risk, it's not any sort of "official" remedy, and be careful not to overdo it, you don't want the focus to shift at the slightest touch.</p>

<p>Below is a sample from my 1000mm Reflex-Nikkor. It doesn't look particularly sharp, but shooting through 10 miles of atmosphere doesn't help much! A higher shutter speed would maybe have improved things, but it was a trade-off between high ISO noise and vibration. The heftiest tripod I have (an old Manfrotto #29) is probably not quite hefty enough for this monster lens either.</p><div></div>

<p>Rodeo, even though I haven't yet got around to fixing the focusing ring, I solved the front missing front cap problem. Those car filler tubs that have the rubberised cap on top. One of those caps fits just like it was made for that lens ! This is the specific one I got, but I'm sure other brands should be the same. You may have one lying about in your garage.<br /> <a href="http://i.ebayimg.com/t/AC555-AutoCare-600ML-Easy-Sand-Sanding-Car-Metal-Steel-Body-Dents-Scratch-Filler-/00/s/MTYwMFgxNTc2/$T2eC16ZHJHwE9n8ii0q8BQn+hJBMVw~~60_35.JPG">http://i.ebayimg.com/t/AC555-AutoCare-600ML-Easy-Sand-Sanding-Car-Metal-Steel-Body-Dents-Scratch-Filler-/00/s/MTYwMFgxNTc2/$T2eC16ZHJHwE9n8ii0q8BQn+hJBMVw~~60_35.JPG</a></p>

<p>alternative, to buy, I suppose would be one of these<br>

<a href="http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/125307-REG/Kaiser_206992_120mm_Push_On_Lens_Cap.html">http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/125307-REG/Kaiser_206992_120mm_Push_On_Lens_Cap.html</a></p>

<p>Rodeo, hi. Yesterday I removed the three small grub scews, but, it still stops same place. There has to be something else. What about the silver base for the 'focusing spokes' , maybe they have to come, if they come off ? or any screws under the rubberised collar ? Any help appreciated. Thanks.</p>

<p>Ok Rodeo, I figured it out. You must have done it a long time ago (in a galaxy far far away). You remove the 3 grub screws, but this only separates the scale from the focusing ring, and the scale ring is pulled to the rear and away from the focusing ring. If you look <strong><em>under </em></strong>the focusing ring, in the gap that is now created by the withdrawn scale ring, you will see 2 screws protruding , (these are the locking screws) , at the location where you see the screws,<em><strong> lift the rubber grip</strong></em> away from the focusing ring to access the head of the screws which lies concealed underneath. Removing these screws will allow the focus ring to be completely removed. Because the rubber is old and become brittle, it may split somewhat, as mine did, but that is a small price to pay for the end result. I found that mine had no grease whatsoever, so I greased it plus a few drops of oil. Too much grease and it gets squeezed out of the helix anyway. One goof up I did, put marker lines at the point of separation, but I cleaned the barrel with spirit, and completely forgot and wiped off the markers lines ! Now, even if the marker lines were still present, its impossible to engage exactly at the same spot because the helix is so fine, so its going to be a little bit one way or the other. It took me a couple of hours of trial and error to get it right again. I then focused on the camera to infinity, and set the infinity mark focus ring there (the focus ring is adjustable either way before screwing down to take this adjustment into account. Lesson learnt. The lens now rotates freely and stops at the correct points of its rotation limits. I expected it to be a little bit free-er, and thought maybe the grease wasn't the 'right type' or something, but I suppose that lens is meant to be on the stiffish side to prevent loss of focus. Its certainly not as free and smooth as my Tamron, so not the speedist of lenses to focus, maybe thats why they added the 'spokes' to assist, but its a definate improvement. I suppose all this also applies the 500mm versions of the Nikon mirror lenses. Cheers.</p>