Wenge
Registered User
Anyone had recent positive experience (i.e. not waiting many months) in USA now doing older Leica lens CLA? (I have '70's Canada v3 Summicron 35mm) Many thanks for any info...much appreciated.
Huss
Veteran
Youxin Ye.
Quick
Good quality
Decent price.
Quick
Good quality
Decent price.
jordan.dickinson
Jordan Dickinson
I second Youxins work. Great guy, fast turnaround and easy to get hold of by email or other means. The only thing to note is that if you need collimation due to focus issues, you may want to contact Don Goldberg at DAG Camera. I've got a Noctilux with Youxin right now but needs some collimation and Youxin can't do that kind of work because of the required equipment.
Wenge
Registered User
thank you for those suggestions and yes I should've mentioned the internal glass needs a tweak since the right side of the field is a tad soft while left side and center is sharp.
bhop73
Well-known
I'll throw out Steve's Camera in Culver City, Los Angeles. He CLA'd my Canon 50 f/1.4 in less than a week after I dropped my camera. I'm local, so I was able to drop it off, but I doubt that had anything to do with the work speed. It was perfect afterwards.
coelacanth
Ride, dive, shoot.
Just had my Summicron 35 v1 (8-Element, hard to work on due to, well, having 8 glasses) cleaned up by Youxin. He took the haze and spotty marks out well within a week for me.
For more of "repair" work involving more than general CLA, I've had good experience with both Sherry and Don. I never had Youxin for those type of works on a lens so I can't comment.
For more of "repair" work involving more than general CLA, I've had good experience with both Sherry and Don. I never had Youxin for those type of works on a lens so I can't comment.
muser53
MUSER53
Can't go wrong with Steve's Camera, Sherry Krauter or Don Goldberg. They all do first rate work.
DAG. He's got test equipment that no one else does. He's not going to be super quick, as he's always booked, but even Youxin is not nearly as fast as he used to be. Last job I sent him took 3 months.
nasmformyzombie
Registered
Youxin Ye. Rapid turnaround, reasonable rates, quality work.
Chubberino
Well-known
Avoid Steve Choi in Culver City. His prices are absurd. I needed a CLA for a Summilux 50 Type II and he charged $350. He got me on that one service but now he's lost a customer who would've pent more in the long run. Bad business practices.
newst
Well-known
brennanphotoguy
Well-known
Youxin Ye for sure. He's done 4 cameras for me and a few lenses and they all took less than two weeks from the time they left my home till they got back to me.
That kind of fine-tuning adjustment is not something that a regular CLA would fix. The lens would probably require a full factory level rebuild with the poorly aligned element/s being replaced. I'd be surprised if DAG could do it, and very much doubt that Youxin could do it.
Rob-F
Likes Leicas
John Van Stelten at The Focal Point (greater Denver Colorado area). John offers all lens work, including element separation/re-cementing, cleaning, collimation, stripping & re-coating, etc. He can do anything Leica can do as far as repairing old lenses.
Ye used to be fast, but he's overbooked due to threads like this. 
Last job: 3 months. Current job: 1 month and counting. He used to turn stuff in a week.
Last job: 3 months. Current job: 1 month and counting. He used to turn stuff in a week.
newst
Well-known
I sent Youxin a Canon LTM 1.2/50 for CLA. Unknown to me the lens had been badly repaired previously with the rear element jammed into the barrel. I hadn't noticed it as I had only been using the lens on a mirrorless camera but it would be impossible to focus the lens on a rangefinder.
As it happens the glass was so tightly jammed that it cracked as he was removing it. He subsequently purchased a 'junker' lens with a good rear element and rebuilt mine. I have since purchased a Canon 7 and the lens works well on both the rangefinder and mirrorless cameras.
I wouldn't be so quick to count out Youxin without contacting him first. He has always been quick to reply to my emails. His workmanship is first class, he completes the job quickly, keeps you informed and his prices are very fair.
Swapping out lens elements or lens groups and then shimming the lens to produce a decent image is relatively straightforward. Making micro tilt adjustments to the elements or lens groups to try and remove minor decentering is a wee bit more complicated.
LensRental.com has some excellent in-depth articles on adjusting for decentering and the type of equipment needed to measure decentering. There was one article in particular (which I cannot find right now) that described how improving decentering in one area could create problems elsewhere, so in the end you have to compromise. I can't find that article right now, but the ones linked below also discuss decentering and adjustment, and make quite interesting reading.
https://www.lensrentals.com/blog/2012/07/optically-adjusting-a-lens/
https://www.lensrentals.com/blog/2015/06/measuring-lens-variance/
https://www.lensrentals.com/blog/2016/02/optical-quality-assurance/
newst
Well-known
You may be correct in assuming that Mr. Ye doesn't have the equipment and/or skills to make the repair. I simply suggest that the OP check with him first rather than making the decision uninformed. After all how much more trouble is it to send an email than to start a thread on a website.
splitimageview, who I know has dealt with Youxin extensively, already gave us the answer. But yes, no harm in shooting off an email.
excerpt of an email from DAG from 2009: "Yes, proper collimators, shims & magnification optics. I have lenses made of tool steel by Leitz, Infinity targets, 1 meter test stand & 35 years of adjusting Leica R/Fs."
Make that 42 years...
Make that 42 years...