Roughness in Biogon focus

[jl-lb.ms]

Hi all - I just bought a Zeiss Biogon 35/2, and while it's in beautiful condition, it seems to have some "roughness" in the focus. That is, the focus mechanism seems to have moments of feeling "dry" or less than totally smooth. I've had two Zeiss lenses before and haven't noticed it in either of them.

Is this a normal occurrence in Zeiss lenses? Could someone suggest what might be off? If it needs repair, is this something that can be done?

Thanks in advance,

John

 

[Bob Michaels]

John: I have been a bit vocal here in the past about lubrication problems with Zeiss lenses. Oddly, never had a CV lens with that problem. I have had several ZM lenses that required disassembly and relubrication as the lack of smoothness in focusing just gets worse. Fortunately, I have an excellent camera repair guy locally. Don't know what you can do.

BTW, passed by Long Beach a few months ago on my way to Bay St. Louis and Waveland but I didn't cut over from I-10 to HW 90 until Gulfport. Is life pretty much back to normal? Looks like it in Gulfport but Waveland and Pearlington will never be the same.

Hi all - I just bought a Zeiss Biogon 35/2, and while it's in beautiful condition, it seems to have some "roughness" in the focus. That is, the focus mechanism seems to have moments of feeling "dry" or less than totally smooth. I've had two Zeiss lenses before and haven't noticed it in either of them.

Is this a normal occurrence in Zeiss lenses? Could someone suggest what might be off? If it needs repair, is this something that can be done?

Thanks in advance,

John

 

[EdwardKaraa]

Mine does that when mounted on the camera but is very smooth when unmounted. If that is the case, it's not really serious.

 

[kbg32]

My 25/2.8 Biogon became completely dry after 6 months. So much so that it squeaked when you turned the focusing ring. I brought into my local repair shop and they lubricated it. Been great since. I had called Zeiss, but I didn't want to send the lens to Germany and have to wait at least 3 weeks or more. My shop did it in 2 days.

 

[Rob-F]

Mine does that when mounted on the camera but is very smooth when unmounted. If that is the case, it's not really serious.

If it is a large, heavy lens, the roughness might be caused by binding of the heavy front part of the lens mount if it is not being well supported. Keeping one hand under the front to help support it might be useful.

 

[jl-lb.ms]

BTW, passed by Long Beach a few months ago on my way to Bay St. Louis and Waveland but I didn't cut over from I-10 to HW 90 until Gulfport. Is life pretty much back to normal? Looks like it in Gulfport but Waveland and Pearlington will never be the same.

Bob, "back to normal" is fairly subjective. Downtown Long Beach looks way better than it ever did, but there are still hundreds of empty lots all along the Coast. Many simply gave up and moved on. Lots of families were ruined, much of the beachfront property line is empty, but there have been some material improvements.

Please PM me here if you ever plan to make it by again. Thanks, John.

 

[ChrisLivsey]

My 35mm f2 Biogon was rough/uneven in feel and eventually began to squeak at certain points when rotating. It went back to Zeiss earler this year who said I had worn out the helical, (worn out focussing ring, play in barrel) I took it as a compliment 😎
The repair and return was quick and efficient and the lens feels great. It has the bonus of being fully tested in all functions, flange distance and optical quality and quoted as "MTF adjusted" at Zeiss Germany. Blueprinted?

It certainly performs as well as ever and maybe better if I was the pixel peeping type.

190 Euros was the cost.