Problems with an Orion-15 I just received from Australia

[iamzip]

I have been looking for an affordable wide angle lens in LTM for some time for my Bessa L. The Jupiter 12s won't work because of the light meter, so I decided to look for either a Russar or an Orion-15. The buy it now prices are a bit steep, but I managed to find and win one from Australia (I live in the US) for about $100 US. The problem is, the focusing is very stiff, and I am not in fact sure that it is doing anything. I can see something moving back and forth, a cylinder located between the outside of the lens barrel and the lenses themselves, but it doesn't look like the lenses themselves are actually moving.

I am somewhat unsure as to what to do now. I have not yet contacted the seller. I don't want to just write it off, because even though it was not that expensive, it was not exactly free. However I don't know if I want to try to return it, and pay shipping both ways, and still be without a lens.

In doing some searching, I found some posts by a mod here (Kim Coxon), and also a manual on their personal website, about disassembling and re-lubing this exact lens, and I am considering it. Any thoughts? Any experience? In the manual they said that it turned out to be rather easy.

 

[Michael I.]

I highly recommend Oleg Khalyavin as a repairman

 

[Peter_Jones]

I have followed Kim Coxon's instructions on his website, to re-lube and clean a couple of lenses (though not the Orion), and it is quite an easy task to do if you work methodically and keep everything in the correct order and clean.
(Decent chap, cleaned/serviced a J-11 for me as he had not done one before)

 

[brainwood]

I too have an Orion 15. I think it is a fairly simple design when I focus mine the focusing ring screws and unscrews on the Internal helical making the lens physically longer and shorter and so moving the lenses relative to each other to obtain focus. Also the rangefinder ring can be seen moving out of the rear of the lens. Assuming you can see these features on your lens then then grease in the helical may have hardened making turning the lens feel very stiff. It should be a fairly easy job to dismantle the lens and clean and relube the thread. If you don't fancy doing it yourself someone like Yuri at Fedka could Clean Lubricate and Adjust you lens for around 30 dollars

Chris

 

[iamzip]

Peter,
Would you say it is "easy" for someone with no experience working on lenses? I am quite handy, I am going to school for mechanical engineering and have done lots of repair work on cars, musical instruments, some light electronics.

Brainwood, I can see what I assume is the rangefinder ring moving - but it doesn't look like the lenses are moving at all. Is it quite obvious, like an SLR lens, or a little less so? It is hard to make a close observation because of the effort required to turn the ring.

 

[brainwood]

Iamzip

my experience of working on lenses is small but when I have I have found them fiddly rather than difficult if that makes sense.

I have had a look at my Orion and I cannot see the lenses themselves moving when focusing although the lens has recently been CLA'd. Hopefully this is good news for your lens.

 

[iamzip]

Iamzip
I have had a look at my Orion and I cannot see the lenses themselves moving when focusing although the lens has recently been CLA'd. Hopefully this is good news for your lens.

I think this is very good news, I hope. At first I thought there was no way that the lens could focus without the elements visibly moving, I'd certainly never seen anything like that before. But then I thought (hoped, really) that, being such a slow, wide angle lens, the DOF would be quite large and maybe the lenses don't need to move very much to focus. I also couldn't see how the RF ring could move while the lenses could be stuck.

Since this is going to be on my Bessa L, I probably won't be adjusting the focus that frequently anyway.

Thanks for everybody's help!