Is Arax still offering this service? Their website under 'repairing' now says "We NOT work with 35mm cameras and lenses, sorry."
Summicron front element recoated by Arax, looks good.
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rulnacco
Well-known
Unfortunately...
Unfortunately...
Arax is out of the the lens recoating business. I e-mailed Gevorg earlier this week, and here is his reply:
Unfortunately we no longer offer the polishing and recoating service.
Arsenal factory in Kiev sold all machines which works with optics.
I'm very sorry for bad news.
Damn!
Unfortunately...
Arax is out of the the lens recoating business. I e-mailed Gevorg earlier this week, and here is his reply:
Unfortunately we no longer offer the polishing and recoating service.
Arsenal factory in Kiev sold all machines which works with optics.
I'm very sorry for bad news.
Damn!
peter_n
Veteran
digitalintrigue's post is from 2007. They stopped recoating a couple of years ago. A pity, they were very good.
bawang
Established
I got exactly the same reply.
peter_n
Veteran
Don't jump to conclusions. Gevorg Vartanyan at Arax did excellent work, DAG used to send all his recoating jobs to Kyiv and commented to me about how good Gevorg was. Just because a service is inexpensive and in a foreign country doesn't mean it's crap.
One thing I liked about Gevorg is that he knew his limitations. He would ask you to send only the element that required coating and not the whole lens assembly because he's an optics guy pure and simple, not a lens technician. As far as I know Arax is flourishing and they've shut down for summer vacation.
One thing I liked about Gevorg is that he knew his limitations. He would ask you to send only the element that required coating and not the whole lens assembly because he's an optics guy pure and simple, not a lens technician. As far as I know Arax is flourishing and they've shut down for summer vacation.
chippy
foo was here
would of been handy if he said who they sold them too
bawang
Established
I sent him an email asking the question, but he never replied. It remains a mystery.
rulnacco
Well-known
Hallelujah!
Hallelujah!
After being disappointed by Arax's discontinuance of lens recoating (see above; like Bawang, I also sent a followup e-mail asking if Gevorg knew where I might send my lens to for recoating and got no answer), I did some checking around. Lo and behold, I found this firm, which I had never seen mentioned on any photographic forum:
www.optil.co.uk
And even more amazingly, they are located only a few miles from my home in South Croydon!
So I popped in today and chatted with the two older gentlemen running the firm. They were very pleasant, let me peek around a bit (fascinating), had a look at my 5cm Summicron and were positive they could take care of the few scratches in the front coating & the more extensive coating wear on my 9cm collapsible Elmar.
They stated that their service is recommended by Leica, and their website lists a very impressive set of other clients. They told me they could polish and apply a hard single coating to front element of the lenses (all I really want done), that they would colour-match the coating, and that it would cost me a mere £52 per surface if I brought them the elements only, and £62 if they had to disassemble the lenses themselves. They said it might take as much as three weeks, as they waited until they had a batch of optics that needed coating before they put them all together into the chamber.
They told me that they also manufacture lenses to specification. Who knows what kind of surveillance optics the secret services have had them fabricate, lol.
It's obviously not quite as cheap as Gevorg's service was, but it looks extremely promising and is still very reasonably priced. When I get the 35 Summaron I just won on eBay up to snuff so I've still got a walking-around lens handy (the prism in the eyes is out of alignment), I'm gonna drop off the Summicron and let them have a go. I'll try to report back on the results.
Hallelujah!
After being disappointed by Arax's discontinuance of lens recoating (see above; like Bawang, I also sent a followup e-mail asking if Gevorg knew where I might send my lens to for recoating and got no answer), I did some checking around. Lo and behold, I found this firm, which I had never seen mentioned on any photographic forum:
www.optil.co.uk
And even more amazingly, they are located only a few miles from my home in South Croydon!
So I popped in today and chatted with the two older gentlemen running the firm. They were very pleasant, let me peek around a bit (fascinating), had a look at my 5cm Summicron and were positive they could take care of the few scratches in the front coating & the more extensive coating wear on my 9cm collapsible Elmar.
They stated that their service is recommended by Leica, and their website lists a very impressive set of other clients. They told me they could polish and apply a hard single coating to front element of the lenses (all I really want done), that they would colour-match the coating, and that it would cost me a mere £52 per surface if I brought them the elements only, and £62 if they had to disassemble the lenses themselves. They said it might take as much as three weeks, as they waited until they had a batch of optics that needed coating before they put them all together into the chamber.
They told me that they also manufacture lenses to specification. Who knows what kind of surveillance optics the secret services have had them fabricate, lol.
It's obviously not quite as cheap as Gevorg's service was, but it looks extremely promising and is still very reasonably priced. When I get the 35 Summaron I just won on eBay up to snuff so I've still got a walking-around lens handy (the prism in the eyes is out of alignment), I'm gonna drop off the Summicron and let them have a go. I'll try to report back on the results.
Last edited:
chippy
foo was here
thanks for posting that info rulnacco, its always handy to have a source for these...
there is a company in Tasmania (Longman Optical) that does them too, also things like beam splitters, ND filters, mirrors and a heap of other things..at least they used too recoat the lenses, i am sure they still do, it used to cost about A$70 per surface, i dont know if their prices have gone up since, possibly have
http://www.longmanoptical.com.au/page/products.html#optical
there is a company in Tasmania (Longman Optical) that does them too, also things like beam splitters, ND filters, mirrors and a heap of other things..at least they used too recoat the lenses, i am sure they still do, it used to cost about A$70 per surface, i dont know if their prices have gone up since, possibly have
http://www.longmanoptical.com.au/page/products.html#optical
35mmdelux
Veni, vidi, vici
Thanks for the FYI. Scan some pix and let us know the results. Spaciba --Paul
peter_n
Veteran
Thanks for the info rulnacco! Looking forward to seeing the results!
Murray Kelly
Well-known
Thanks Chippy. I have an RF with a splitter problem they may be able to help with.
Murray
Murray
nanhi
Newbie
Lens Coating
Lens Coating
Hello Folks if you need the services of lens coating stripping, polishing & hard coating, here is the cheapest source:-
Mr. Mukul Garg
http://www.universaloptics.in/
mukul garg <uniopt@hotmail.com>
UNIVERSAL OPTICS.
D-1, INDUSTRIAL ESTATE.
ROORKEE - 247667.
(UTTARAKHAND)
INDIA.
He will take the lens element only, as he is not a Repair Shop, by a Lens Manufacturer.
He did such a great job on the front element of my white face Rolleiflex F2.8 TLR.
Regards.
Lens Coating
Hello Folks if you need the services of lens coating stripping, polishing & hard coating, here is the cheapest source:-
Mr. Mukul Garg
http://www.universaloptics.in/
mukul garg <uniopt@hotmail.com>
UNIVERSAL OPTICS.
D-1, INDUSTRIAL ESTATE.
ROORKEE - 247667.
(UTTARAKHAND)
INDIA.
He will take the lens element only, as he is not a Repair Shop, by a Lens Manufacturer.
He did such a great job on the front element of my white face Rolleiflex F2.8 TLR.
Regards.
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