SLR lens off at infinity: how to fix?

[antiquark]

Hello all,
I have an old crappy hand-me-down Nikkor SLR lens that has a mis-calibrated infinity setting. If I aim the camera at an distant object, the scale doesn't quite reach infinity. (See image). I'm wondering if anybody knows how one would go about adjusting the lens, so that the infinity stop corresponds to actual infinity?

It's not a problem with autofocus, but if I rely on the infinity stop for landscapes, everything's slightly blurry...

"When infinity isn't..."

 

[pvdhaar]

If it turns out that you can't get it fixed, you could tape over the focus/dof markings with your own distance scale.. Not the most elegant solution, but that lens is just too sweet to not use it. There's hardly any AF nikkor that's as compact as that 28/2.8..

 

[rxmd]

It's not unusual for AF lenses to go beyond infinity because of the way early AF systems worked; basically they'd overshoot the target slightly and then readjust, and if the mechanism would hit a hard stop on the way the AF would be inaccurate.

Seeing that you use this for landscapes, you probably don't need a hard stop, it would be OK to have a visual mark? The easiest solution seems to me simply to make a mark on the focusing ring and the lens where the actual infinity setting is, it seems easier than either modifying the distance scale itself or taking apart the lens.

 

[antiquark]

Thanks everyone. Yeah, I'll just put a mark there. I searched around a bit for lens repair tips. The concensus is that fixing your own lens is an effective way to destroy it, if you don't know what you're doing (which I don't!) 🙂

 

[Nikon Bob]

Have you tried asking at one of the repair places in WPG if they can do it? If it bothers you enough and you can't DIY that might be an alternative. In the end just ignoring it works too.

Bob