Opening a Rolleiflex lens

[luis_marco_de_sebastian]

Hi

It seems that my rolleiflex 3,5 F Planar has dust inside the taking

lens, not a lot, just 5 or 6 particles or dots, (it does not look

like fungus as they are all far away from each other instead of

forming a web), but i still would like to remove it. I have shot

slides and the quality is really good, so i do not know to what

extent do these dots affect the optical quality. As i live in Spain

taking the camera to a reputed tech in the USA or even another place

in Europe does not attract me and i would prefer to fix it myself if

nobody knows of a really good rolleiflex repair person in Spain.

 

Have you done it yourselves?

What may i face while trying to clean it? some people say this is

not really difficult operation while others diagree... Does the

Rolleiflex repair manual explain how to open the lens so as to clean

it? or is there any other book that may help me with this? maybe

even online manuals with pictures...

 

One last thing, if i finally open it and this happens to be fungus i

have read that the acid of a vinager solution can remove it, is this

right?

 

Any ideas, suggestions... are really appreciated

thanks

[bleck]

The dust isn't doing anything to degrade image quality. You said yourself your slides look great. God forbid, don't ruin a perfectly good Rolleiflex by trying to take it apart without knowing what you're doing.

If you really want things cleaned up, send it to a repair shop that does this kind of thing on a regular basis.

[cjtower]

The fundamental rule is: if you can't tell if the dust or scratch has bearing on your chromes or prints, then is doesn't! I have friends who have tested lenses and filters with scratches and dust. They intentionally inserted the dust specks into 50mm normal lenses in 35mm format, and also scratched inexpensive filters, as well as affixed things to them such as a human hair, a tiny pin, or whatever. You really have to have something on or on there to alter the image a lens can deliver. Even slight haze inside an old lens will not necessairly show up in prints (density of it anlocation might matter though), especially b&w. The risk would outweigh the benfits. I can't comment on the 3.5f, but most old 3.5's are relatively easy to take apart if you have a spanner wrench and are careful. However, it depends where the dust is located (between two elements you can "unscrew" or between two sealed airspace elements -- again, I am no 3.f expert.

[diego2]

You resolved a problem?

I have the same problem with my lens and I don't sure if open it it's ok or not.

please can you answer me? (I speak spanish too)

[kelly_flanigan1]

If there is no problem; dont do anything. This is like having surgery when there is nothing to gain; and it costs money; and you may die too. There are books on repairing cameras; the rollei TLR etc too. One as a repair person should decline work that has not net gain to the customer; but has risk; and costs money. A good doctor does the same thing too. The wrong repair can make your camera miss focus. a tech can swap out the front elements; anc create a nicer looking camera that missfocuses. Wait until the shutter requires servicing; then the cleaning can be done when they repair chap is already doing the repair.