How to clean / polish lens Agfa Record?

Rogier

Rogier

Rogier Willems
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I have a very nice Agfa Record II.
Unfortunately there is a oil like haze on the lens.
Yesterday I have taken the lens apart (surprisingly easy to to! ) and have been able to take most off.
Unfortunately there is still one spot left right in the middle of the front element.
What and how can I remove it?
I have used Rubbing alcohol, Lens cleaner and even Hydro peroxide.
What other solvents can I try?
Is it possible to polish it off with lets say tooth paste?
 
Try lighter fluid or lacquer thinner. If the lens is coated you might damage the coating. I'm not sure. I wouldn't risk using tooth paste. It might be too abrasive and cover the lens with fine scratches.

Have you tried shooting with the lens? Oft times "spots" like that really have very little effect on the image.
 
the lens on those are coated...usualy are at any rate.

people pay big money to buy a vintage lens with a natural formed oil slick type coating covering the old non coated lenses...
 
Coated lenses of that vintage usually have a bluish sheen to them. Uncoated lenses look more white. I'm talking about light reflected off the surface, not the color looking through the lens, where you probably won't notice any difference.
 
Hmm I don't recall that. Will check tomorrow in daylight :)
The only blue I can see now is on the "stain"....
 
Hard to tell what to do next considering you may of already removed most of the coating; reading from your first post. load some film and see if it still takes a nice picture. its ment to have the blue colour reflection...the oil type pattern may or may not be some of the coating broken down but it is still usualy worth leaving there...better some/a thin coating than none in most instances...take a picture and see
 
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Rogier said:
I have a very nice Agfa Record II.
Unfortunately there is a oil like haze on the lens.
Yesterday I have taken the lens apart (surprisingly easy to to! ) and have been able to take most off.
Unfortunately there is still one spot left right in the middle of the front element.
What and how can I remove it?
I have used Rubbing alcohol, Lens cleaner and even Hydro peroxide.
What other solvents can I try?
Is it possible to polish it off with lets say tooth paste?
Click to expand...

Wait a minute! AN OIL-LIKE HAZE IS ON THE LENS? ... AND YOU TOOK IT OFF? Oh -- My -- God. That was your lens coating.
 
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chippy said:
Hard to tell what to do next considering you may of already removed most of the coating; reading from your first post. load some film and see if it still takes a nice picture. its ment to have the blue colour reflection...the oil type pattern may or may not be some of the coating broken down but it is still usualy worth leaving there...better some/a thin coating than none in most instances...take a picture and see
Click to expand...

That "oil-like haze" was a type of lens coating. It was supposed to look like that. Taking it off was a VERY bad idea.
 
chippy said:
exactly! what a disaster
Click to expand...
There is now a new one to add to my very worst repair ideas I have ever heard of list.

1. using alcohol to clean a focusing screen
2. baking paint on a plastic camera
3. Using super glue for internal camera repairs
4. oiling shutter blades, with WD-40 ...

... and so on.
 
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FallisPhoto said:
That "oil-like haze" was a type of lens coating. It was supposed to look like that. Taking it off was a VERY bad idea.
Click to expand...

agreed..it was obvious straight of the bat (oops thats a saying here, hope you get its meaning)......its arkward to make comment without comming across as nasty or condecending to Rogier but it would have been better to ask about this before jumping in and removing the coatings
 
Rogier said:
To me it looks more like a fingerprint that's edged inn...
Click to expand...

you can only clean along the lines that FallisP has mentioned, if the fingerprint is still there just leave it..chances are it wont adversly affect the image anyhow..you will likely do more damage trying to remove it
 
Will see, I had to do something.
I just scanned the 6x9's for the first time with a decent scanner (Coolscan 9000) rather than Costco. Needless to say its a huge difference :)
However I also noticed that the center of the images is very blurred due to what ever was on the lens.
Still have a roll off 120 Velvia and will shoot it this weekend. See what it will do.

Thank you soo much for the advice.
No worry for my feelings its all fine :)
 
try using a loup on the film directly to confirm the picture is blurred in the center...just incase the neg is not scanning properly flat
 
then only to confuse matters more, if the neg is blurred still in the center try to see if it runs horizontal or verticaly toward the edge of the film, it could also be film flatness issues in the camera in which case it is important to wind on to the next frame just before exposing the next frame.

the point is to make certain it is the lens and not another problem before taking drastic steps to remove lens coatings
 
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