Leica Summicron DR, asking for opinion on restoration.

[leicaauthority]

https://imgur.com/a/XQuOw9N

I got it next to nothing, as-is, pulled the trigger and decided to gamble. I’m sure someone tried to polish the lens but just failed completely. I took it to my local film camera repair and I was told that the coating is entirely gone and would need recoating unless I don’t mind the straight glass instead with professional polishing. The thing is he doesn’t have the necessary tools needed to complete the job and doubts that anyone in whole of Australia would be able to do it (I live in Australia btw). I wanted to see if anyone had any experience taking their lens to be professionally polished or recoated.
Any tips would be appreciated.

 

[splitimageview]

Good luck, that lens will need a lot of it. 🙂 Nice barrel, maybe look for another lens that has a trashed barrel but good glass.

 

[lukx]

Wow, what a hack job. Looks like it's been polished with sand paper.

Depending on where you are, Skyllaney Opto-Mechanics in the UK might be your best bet if you want to go the restauration route. They seem to offer some of the services you need.

https://skyllaney.com/services/

Maybe shoot them an email to get an idea of the price range for this kind of work. What's unclear (pun intended) is the state of the internal elements. If all elements were subject to this kind of treatment, it might be too laborious to salvage the lens. Also, it almost looks like the glass itself is damaged, not just the coatings. In that case you'd have to take of actual glass during polishing, which might cause issues with the optical formula.

If everything fails, you could try to salvage the lens mount and do a nice conversion of a non-M-mount lens. Again, Skyllaney might be the guys to talk to about such endeavours.

 

[Rayt]

Project of passion only. Surely impractical when you can buy a better sample. Nice barrel though. Even after repolish and recoat will it perform like it should?

 

[Sonnar Brian]

That is bad. I'd be happy just to have the surfaces polished out.

I suspect that a shop that can polish the damaged glass can also recoat it.

I have a hot-glass collapsible Summicron where the front element looked like this. Focalpoint, now closed, made it like new for $200. Polished, recoated, yellowed glass cleared up.

 

[Nitroplait]

FocalPoint could do it, possibly others but unlikely for $200 these days. I'd say flip it and get something that is not in need of this kind of invasive service.

 

[Mackinaw]

FocalPoint, in the U.S. is out of business.

Consider Kanto Camera in Japan. They re-coat lenses.

http://www.kantocamera.com/english/repair/repair.html

Jim B.

 

[Platinum RF]

https://imgur.com/a/XQuOw9N

I got it next to nothing, as-is, pulled the trigger and decided to gamble. I’m sure someone tried to polish the lens but just failed completely.....

Save yourself money and headache, do not re-coat or do whatever, not worth the time and money, in the end you can get a better lens with the money you spent.

 

[raid]

Just get another DR that is clean and does not need such extensive services. It makes a good paperweight.

 

[Fjäll]

Unless you are in it for the experience I'd probably hunt down a clean matching front piece. The DR can be disassembled into two pieces by simply screwing off the front.

 

[Freakscene]

The suggestions above are good ones. There is no-one in Australia who does this work commercially anymore.

Marty

 

[Sonnar Brian]

https://www.ebay.com/itm/RARE-EX-Vi...062518?hash=item4b8ca358b6:g:LxMAAOSw6PRgJBue

DR Summicron- stuck aperture, $600. Decent glass. You could probably get around $200 for the mount alone these days.

 

[Phil_F_NM]

Looks like an ebay Mint -.

It would be fin to sit over a lazy Susan and polish that out over the course of a couple days. It would take 2 stages, one 600 grit and the next some extremely fine cerium oxide, like 2000 grit. Fun project and a labor of love.

Phil Forrest

 

[Bill Blackwell]

... It makes a good paperweight.

That's exactly what I was thinking!

 

[peterm1]

Judging by the damage done to the retaining rings on the lens as well as the damage done to the lens elements this work was done by a real ingrate. A real ingrate with an angle grinder perhaps?

Possibly the son of the lady who undertook the "restoration" of this priceless church fresco.

(I hate to sound negative but I cannot imagine how someone could have deliberately butchered a lens in this way.) And I cannot imagine that it can be rectified as repolishing would change the profiles of the elements. (sorry!)