Lens Polishing

[Baybers]

Various comments throughout the years on this forum and others have mentioned UK based companies that performed this work.
I sent my early Summicron 50 away for cleaning only for the camera repairer return it stating there was coating and pitting damage to two of the inner elements. Here in Australia the last companies to do this work have now folded and I am determined to exhaust all avenues. And yes I'm aware this work can be expensive.
If anyone has any leads I'd be very appreciative.

 

[Phil_F_NM]

If it's only coating and/or light fungus damage, you can do it yourself.
Get a Cerium Oxide paste for optical polishing and have fun. Don't worry, you won't cut away too much glass unless you use a power tool and really lean on the glass in one spot for a long time. Just a few applications, and a few minutes per application are all that is usually needed. You may lose your coating, but the lens will perform better, especially if the coating loss is on an inner surface.
I've polished coated lenses and the coating wasn't harmed.
Good luck.

Phil Forrest

 

[Mackinaw]

You might try Kanto Camera in Japan.

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

Jim B.

 

[pyeh]

Baybers, I have exactly the same issue with a number of my older lenses, including an early Summicron 50 like you. As I understand it, the last lens polisher in Australia was in Tasmania, who closed many years ago. Brett Rogers here on RFF had some history of them.
The only lens polishing and recoating I have had done was in Japan, when I took a couple of lenses over and a friend took me to a chap in the backstreets of some obscure Tokyo suburb. He did an amazing job on a Summilux 35 for me.

 

[Baybers]

Lens Polishing

Thanks for the replies guys, most helpful. I think I will pursue options in Japan. Incidentally Peter I was speaking with the chap at Francis Lord Optics (they used to do polishing, etc) and he was angry that Australia had let the expertise and investment in precision optics fall away over the past decades to where now most everything had to be sourced overseas. But I guess that is par for the course given motor vehicles, toys, shoes...

 

[pyeh]

Baybers, the loss of industrial capacity in our country is tragic and almost criminal.

 

[Sarcophilus Harrisii]

Baybers, I have exactly the same issue with a number of my older lenses, including an early Summicron 50 like you. As I understand it, the last lens polisher in Australia was in Tasmania, who closed many years ago. Brett Rogers here on RFF had some history of them.
The only lens polishing and recoating I have had done was in Japan, when I took a couple of lenses over and a friend took me to a chap in the backstreets of some obscure Tokyo suburb. He did an amazing job on a Summilux 35 for me.

Longman Optical is the Tasmanian company which I understand was connected with EN Waterworth, (the Hobart optical manufacturing firm which evolved out of the defence optics manufacturing activities of the wartime UTAS annexe).

A visit I made earlier in 2021 to Longman's business address in the Hobart suburb of Derwent Park suggested they'd ceased operations, there was no presence there. I've since been informed they may still be operating, but out of a new address.

I have reached out to Longman via email, and shall update this thread with further details if and when I hear from them.
Cheers,
Brett

 

[pyeh]

Brett, it would be wonderful if Longman are still in operation. Thanks for pursuing it.

 

[Sarcophilus Harrisii]

Brett, it would be wonderful if Longman are still in operation. Thanks for pursuing it.

No probs. It would certainly be useful. A couple of previous visits to the industrial unit they operated from were not encouraging—a few months ago their signage was present but the space looked to be used for storing furniture and office equipment, nothing connected with optics. I'd visited years before that only to find someone not at all connected with them in situ.

They do, however have what looks to me to be a new website only updated last year, and the list of things they currently mention sounds quite promising.
Cheers,
Brett

 

[Sarcophilus Harrisii]

I've already received a response from Longman, not unfortunately what we wanted to hear. I'm pasting it in below as received:

Hello Roger,

Thank you for your email.

Yes, we still own Gormanston Road but have moved into a warehouse in Glenorchy we own. I haven’t changed addresses as yet, still wondering where we will end up.

Unfortunately we don’t work with camera lenses, there is no time for us to work with them and the tooling required is no longer with us.

We do coatings but only specialised.

That’s the way things are now, gone are the day this could be performed, and I can’t think of anyone that performs this type of work.

Sorry we can’t help you.

All the bets
Ian
Longman Optical​

Longman's website is here.
A pity because there was a time when here in Hobart we had the repository of skills, knowledge, and the facilities, (much of them produced locally) to do many types of precision optical fabrication and processing—including photographic optics.
Cheers
Brett

 

[pyeh]

That's a real pity, Brett. Thanks for trying.

 

[Freakscene]

My father did this sort of work in Brisbane until 1990, but he no longer has the equipment, and at 91 he can’t see well enough to do it. It’s a real shame that the capacity has been lost, at least in terms of access for consumer users in Australia.

Marty

 

[oftheherd]

Hard to get many items repaired, not just cameras or lenses. Its a sign of the changing times I guess. I bought 3 of a particular camera and put them in storage since I am sure they will eventually give up the ghost and either won't be repairable or it will be way too expensive. But who could or would with a favorite motorcycle, car, or other item?

 

[Sarcophilus Harrisii]

My father did this sort of work in Brisbane until 1990, but he no longer has the equipment, and at 91 he can’t see well enough to do it. It’s a real shame that the capacity has been lost, at least in terms of access for consumer users in Australia.

Marty

Yes it is, Marty. In the decade or so after the war the handful of Australian manufacturers were at a labour cost disadvantage compared to the UK, Germany and especially, Japan. And by 1960 optical glass was apparently no longer being manufactured in Australia, putting Australian makers at a cost disadvantage there also due to transport expenses. Certain manufacturers, notably Waterworth, F Lord and Hanimex made representations to the parliamentary committee on tariffs in 1960, seeking additional tariff protection. They were knocked back. It's a dry document, but reading through it, I get a sense the government lacked both a long term view of the potential, and importance of a domestic precision optics industry, and, any great interest in fostering same.

I have no knowledge of the activities of Francis Lord and others, but the team working with UTAS and then EN Waterworth (later, Waterworth and Bessel) were capable of making components such as roof prisms the equal or better than those being made in the USA. The necessary precision was available for those optical items that warranted it. Such a pity.

I had the rare opportunity to fit a rangefinder-coupled Waterworth lens to my Leica IIIf in March and take a couple of photos with same. Examining the University of Tasmania's collection of Waterworth objects was fascinating, but also bittersweet. It informed me as to what might have been.

 

[Sarcophilus Harrisii]

Various comments throughout the years on this forum and others have mentioned UK based companies that performed this work.
I sent my early Summicron 50 away for cleaning only for the camera repairer return it stating there was coating and pitting damage to two of the inner elements. Here in Australia the last companies to do this work have now folded and I am determined to exhaust all avenues. And yes I'm aware this work can be expensive.
If anyone has any leads I'd be very appreciative.

Thanks for the replies guys, most helpful. I think I will pursue options in Japan. Incidentally Peter I was speaking with the chap at Francis Lord Optics (they used to do polishing, etc) and he was angry that Australia had let the expertise and investment in precision optics fall away over the past decades to where now most everything had to be sourced overseas. But I guess that is par for the course given motor vehicles, toys, shoes...

Francis Lord were one other possibility, indeed, their website specifically mentions repairs to photographic lenses. But your post suggests that is actually no longer the case?

Cheers,
Brett