Foggy Xenon

[Dez]

I have recently bought a nice old Leitz Xenon lens. Everything is good except it is a bit foggy. This is presumably on the surfaces on either side of the aperture blades.
I understand these lenses are really difficult to dismantle. I am hoping someone can give me some info on how to get at the surfaces that may be fogged here. I don't want to strip the whole lens, just get at these surfaces. Can anyone out there give me a hand?

Cheers,
Dez

 

[johannielscom]

Send it to John van Stelten at Focal Point, or contact Don Goldberg at DAG (less expensive, longer wait)

That lens is way too tricky and way too complicated to doctor yourself and will need professional collimation after cleaning.

 

[Dez]

Sometimes you get lucky.....

Sometimes you get lucky.....

Not often, but sometimes. I have heard from numerous people that stripping down the Xenon is a formidable task, and I believe it. In this particular case however, all I needed to do was to twist the front of the lens, and the whole front group comes off as it does in a Summitar, exposing the aperture blades and the glass surfaces that had been fogged by re-condensed oil from the blades. Now the lens is as clear as can be, and able to make images as well as it did when it was new, which I am told is not all that well, but I will see what it can do. In any case, the cosmetics are beautiful, and it is a really impressive piece of flarey glass!

Cheers,
Dez