Oil on the Blades, What's it All About?

[gm13]

I have a few lenses in the 85-90 range, My 90 Elmar was CLA'd 7 months ago and now has oil on the blades. The Nikon 85/2 had oil free blades when purchased, no longer the case. The Canon 85/1.9 was CLA'd and is doing fine. Most recently the 35/2.8 Summaron has succumbed (hasn't been CLA'd while I've owned it but it's time anyway). I typically store the 85-90 fl's that don't see as much use as the 35 and 50 in a cabinet, standing upright, uncased and fully stopped down. Is oil on the blades symptomatic of something? Is there a better way to store or is oil on the blades unrelated to how they are kept?

 

[ZorkiKat]

Its a big issue for SLR lenses with auto diaphragms. Oil on the aperture blades can prevent the blades from closing or opening quickly, as required by SLR auto diaphgram mechanisms. But for RF, and even preset SLR lenses, slight traces of oil or what looks to be so, is not a serious problem, unless the oil oozes on the glass surfaces immediate to the diaphragm.

 

[gm13]

Thanks for the replies. Yes, it's definitely oil, I guess it could fog the glass over time? Anyone else have any input regarding the best method to keep lenses healthy and blades oil-free or is it just a fact of life--oil happens?

 

[John Hermanson]

Oil can separate out of the grease due to nothing more than age of grease. 30 year old grease should be cleaned out and replaced. Literally every lens I see for the Olympus Pen half frame cameras have oil on the blades. Focus helicoid disassembly, degreasing and rebuild are required on all. Simply degreasing the blades and rebuild guarantees that oil on the blades will return. John

 

[LeicaTom]

Oil on the blades is a way that people get to buy rare expensive lenses for cheap, while they drill into the sellers head that the lens is damaged/in trouble and needs repair..........the opps "there's oil on the blades and it needs CLA", that's BS!!!!!

It's not a big deal.....everyone makes such a fuss over this when there's NOTHING to worry about, keep the lenses in a kool, dry place and avoid using the lenses in harsh hot sunlight and it will all be ok 🙂

Tom

 

[gm13]

Thanks for the input, I'll sleep better now

 

[Vickko]

There is one lens, quite rare, that you must be extremely careful of, with oil. It is the Nikkor 2.5cm f4 RF lens. The blades are extremely thin, and if gummed with oil, can stick and tear. I speak from bitter experience.

And as I write this, the Nikkor 5cm f1.1 lens iris is pretty fragile too. I would want to be very careful with it, if its blades had oil on them.

....Vick

 

[Frank Petronio]

The more complicated lenses, like a Nikon 55 Micro that screws out to more twice its length, has more grease to squish around. So those lenses tend to get gummed up if you treat them harshly, like me, who left it in a black Domke in the car for most of the Summer. My other lenses were fine.

The smaller simple rangefinder prime lenses are probably the least likely to suffer this fate but I suppose 40 or 50 years could nail them too, just like 40-50 years nailed me too. I would check to make sure they are consistently stopping down OK from time to time.

 

[splitimageview]

There is one lens, quite rare, that you must be extremely careful of, with oil. It is the Nikkor 2.5cm f4 RF lens. The blades are extremely thin, and if gummed with oil, can stick and tear. I speak from bitter experience.

And as I write this, the Nikkor 5cm f1.1 lens iris is pretty fragile too. I would want to be very careful with it, if its blades had oil on them.

....Vick

Yes, I had a 50/1.4 Nikkor LTM that the blades got all out of whack. Luckily none broke and after service it was perfect. Sorry to hear about your 25mm...

Oil on blades is rarely an issue with RF lenses, but with SLR lenses it can cause problems with auto aperture stop-down. The aperture must stop-down very quickly prior to exposure. Like John said above, Pen lenses tend to be very oily. Sometimes they are so gummed up that it prevents the camera from even firing. Sometimes it means the lens doesn't stop down all the way, and you get over exposure.

 

[John Hermanson]

Enough oil on the blades and they simply won't move any more, hot or cold, whatever. John

 

[monopix]

I think you should return the Elmar if it was CLA'd only 7 months ago. Whoever did it didn't do it properly.

As for storage, I don't do anything special and I've never had problems with oiled blades other than lenses I bought already oiled. Maybe you've just been unlucky.