Braun Super Paxette Lens Cleaning

[erichkopp]

Good evening!

I bought a Braun Super Paxette I (the version with a fixed-mount 45mm Staeble-Kata lens) the other day. Everything seems to work well but I want to clean out what looks like maybe some small amounts of fungus in the lens. Before I get too deep into disassembling things I might not need to be messing with, what is the best way to do this? I unscrewed the three small flat head screws that hold the focusing ring on and then unscrewed the lens assembly from the body. It didn't look like there was any real obvious way to get in there from that angle so I spent a while of trial and error putting everything back together the way it was. It took a lot longer than I expected it would, but I verified with a meter stick that the focus was accurate once I was fairly confident I had things the way they needed to be.

It looks like the front of the lens, where its info is stamped into, is slotted and could be unscrewed with a spanner wrench. Perhaps this is the correct way to get inside and clean things a bit?

I attached a few photos. The original photo of the lens shows a lot more detail but I think I compressed it a bit too much when uploading. I'm tempted to just run a roll of film through it and not worry about cleaning, but I like to tinker.

Any suggestions would be appreciated!

 

[radi(c)al_cam]

Good morning,

I'd suggest: before you screw (and probably go the chemical way), try ultra-violet light first.

Put the camera, facing the sunlight, on a windowsill*, for a couple of days. *(Choose a place where neither the children, nor the cats, dogs, whatever, can play with it.)

I admit, it won't help against (metallic or other) dust particles, but it will pretty certainly serve against the (further growth of the) fungus.

— A sort of «UV curing», well, in the usual sense of «cure» 😉

 

[erichkopp]

Thanks for the advice! I've been doing that and we had a particularly sunny day today. I'm not sure if whatever little bit is inside has changed but there was some purple-ly discoloration on the front lens that I couldn't get to look any better after a few passes with lens cleaner, but now seems to have disappeared. Much appreciated!