Canon 100/3.5 with separation, easy fix?

stupid leica

stupid leica

i don't shoot rf
Local time
5:41 PM
Joined
Aug 13, 2009
Messages
315
View My Gallery
Brian (or anybody!),

I've got two Canon 100mm f3.5 LTM's. One is the black/silver version with 35mm filter diameter and no click stops, the other is the later all-black version.

The all-black one has some peripheral separation on one of the pairs of elements. My local repairman and i looked at the two lenses today, side by side, and i was hoping maybe the glass could be swapped. He didn't think so, but i think maybe he just isn't thinking outside the box very much 🙂

Anyways, yeah that is what i am wondering- the older lens has pretty good glass, at least better than this all black one. If they glass can be swapped, that is what i would like to do.

On the other hand, could i possibly do a ghetto fix, by pulling all the optics out, and just scrubbing the coating/balsam/whatever off those elements? i did this with the eyepiece of a Nikon eyelevel finder and it worked out well enough.

I got this lens (the all black) pretty cheap, so i'm not too worried if i can't do a graceful fix.

Thanks!
 
test the lens with the glass as is. Separation on the edges will probably have no affect images. Swapping glass can be tricky, and I would bet the all-black lens was reformulated with newer glass. Canon reformulated the 50/1.8 when it was switched to black.

Now: the "Quick and Easy" method of making a cheap lens useable that suffers from separation: Index matching Fluid as used for oil immersion lenses. I picked up a Canon 135/3.5 Black for $15 several years ago. Totally separated group. Took out the glass, cleaned the balsam off with Isopropyl Alchohol, put in a drop of Index Matching Oil, pushed the elements back into the fixture. The Oil gets rid of Newtons Rings and the surface tension is more than enough to hold it together. 6 Years later, still fine.
 
Last edited:
Brian,
Thanks for the quick reply. I have half a roll through the lens already, i did think of just trying it as-is. If it doesn't look that hot, i'll prob try the method you described.

Thanks man
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom