New Summitar! Help..

[thafred]

just got my new summitar bay purchase. (packed in a sweet old Zeiss Ikon leather bag!)
round aparture (no click stops?), beautyfull blue coated glass and in overall nice shape except the upper right part of the front elements inside coating which shows a rainbow like reflection!

on closer inspection I could barely make out what looks like little crystals forming a thin line from the Z at Leitz to the S at Summitar....
Does anybody have a clue what this might be? My gues is oil but how can such an amount of oil get inside the lens and why did it dry and not cover the whole surface. Is it a residue fro a sloppy CLA, like detergents , maybe?

The Ebay seller sold this lens as fungus? (which it clearly isn´t) so I´ve made a nice bargain in my view..I will shoot this lens tomorrow and doubt the "rainbow" has any real effect on image quality in B&w (with color, who knows!..and maybe flare..oh my)
But I really want to know what this might be or if anyone knows were to CLA lenses? (in Europe if possible)

I couldn´t photographthe rainbow but you can see the line above mentioned.

Your Help is highly appreciated!

 

[VictorM.]

It sounds like a slight separation of the front element-but I don't know what the 'crystals' would be. Before you spend money on the lens, try shooting a roll of film with it under various lighting conditions. It may work even with the separation.

 

[xayraa33]

I would agree it is separation of the cemented elements.
I seen similar effects on lenses that have been dropped or hit.
it is more serious than mild fungus IMHO.

 

[thafred]

First pictures with summitar!

First pictures with summitar!

I would agree it is separation of the cemented elements.
I seen similar effects on lenses that have been dropped or hit.
it is more serious than mild fungus IMHO.

OH NO! 😱

That sounds no good.....a pitty cause I think it´s one of the cleanest Leitz Lenses I have! (only very few scratchesand and no haze!)

Anyway, thanks for clarifying the issue! Has this to do with canadian balsam or something? Is it repairable at reasonable cost??

Yesterday I was out shooting some FP4 with it (examples attached) and I could´t see any abnormality on the neg´s, next week I will try color film and see what happens! I like the results so far!

Thank You for your Help!

 

[thafred]

oh..forgot...what I thought were crystalls in fact are tiny air bubbles...so that fits into the separation sheme i guess.

 

[VictorM.]

oh..forgot...what I thought were crystalls in fact are tiny air bubbles...so that fits into the separation sheme i guess.

That makes more sense. From the pictures, it doesn't look as if the separation has much of an effect.

Not long ago, after reading about separation problems with Zeiss Planars on Rolleiflexes, I inspected mine. I almost fell over. The rear group had the dreaded separation. But a roll of film shot wide open didn't show any problems so I ignore it.

 

[raid]

Separation can grow over time tothe level when it is problematic. Fixing separation is VERY expensive. I have been quoted $300 for each of two elements in a Rolleiflex. $600 is simply toomuch for a "fix".

Raid