Vivitar 28-90 loose lens mount

[mark_stephan2]

My Vivitar 28-90 has a little play in the lens mount and I'm wondering if this

can be tightened up as a DIY project or if I should just leave it alone. If

it's a simple fix, how do I remove the breech lock ring?

[awahlster]

Is the mount loose when the lens is locked down tight to the body? and is the slop circular or side to side?

 

If it's circular and less then say an 1/8th inch I wouldn't worry about it. If it's side to side first I would look to make sure the munting ring on the camera body is tight.

 

As to removing the ring I personally don't advise DIY repairs but I'm sure one of the other guys will be along with some tips.

[grain]

The best solution I can think of is to remove every part of the lens and replace it with a

canon 28-85 lens. Barring that, it may be the mount on the body as Mark suggests. That's

an easy DIY.

[joe_nash1]

Don't laugh at my fix, but this is what I did. Mine was loose between the base and barrel too. I tried to tighten the small screws, but no help. So what I did was mix up some JB Weld, put it into a small syringe (I used a 10cc). Hopefully your syringe has a small nipple on the exit end. Than with some help, pull the lens apart slightly, inject the JB Weld into the gap all the way around the lens. Set the lens down on its front lens ring. Then push the base down to where it is supposed to be without the slack. Wipe off the excess JB Weld. You have a couple of minutes to work this, but not to long. Leave the lens sitting there over night face down.

Now this is a once done it is done fix, but I got the lens cheap, and had nothing to lose. The lens now works great, still takes sharp pictures, and hasn't loosened. I used JB Weld because it was metal I was working with. I suppose you could use epoxy, but I had the JB Weld on hand already. You can see my pics in a earlier post-

http://www.photo.net/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=00NDWR

 

Good Luck

[mark_stephan2]

Joe, my lens has a little play when attached to the body, I can wiggle it side to side and it is attached to body tightly. It can also be moved slightly when the lens is extended. I'm going to try your repair tip and see what happens. I picked the lens up cheap so this will be a learning experience with little to lose and a lot to gain. If it fails could you use it for parts? I may go ahead and pick up that 28-85/4 lens I've wanted to reaplace it.

[joe_nash1]

Thanks for the offer, but no thank you, how did yours come out? I have enough lenses. I kinda went crazy when I got back into my FD stuff. I have enough lenses to cover the range. I am happy with my Tokina ATX 28-85. I would rather have a Canon 28-85, but they are a lot of $$. The Tokina ATX is a nice lens, very sharp, plus it is very compact. My FD 35-105mm f/3.5 is my baby, I don't think anything beats it. But sometimes too big to just walk around with. I got my Vivitar series 1 28-90 before I got these. But as you know, it is very large lens.