Summitar f stops and front element tightness

[Joe]

Hi, I don't know if anyone can help with this but I'll give it a try.

As you Summitar owners know, the front element unscrews pretty easily from the the lens.

The problem with mine is that if I tighten it up the f stops on the aperture ring don't line up, the dot is way past f2 wide open, and closed down the dot is at f9 instead of f12.5.

Does anyone know if there's a simple way to adjust this? Is it the screws on the aperture ring? thanks

 

[payasam]

Joe, my answer was to draw a line with a fibre tipped pen and use that in place of the dot: defeatist, perhaps, but it worked well in practice. The repair person who cleaned the lens either did not know how to set the alignment or did not try to do it.

 

[John Shriver]

Could be that the slotted ring inside the lens is installed rotated half a turn. It may well not be symmetrical. It's held in place only by the two screws from the aperture ring. But getting it back in over the pins is a non-trivial project.

Or, the ring on the other side of the aperture may not be installed correctly. I don't remember if it's part of the outer shell, or a separate part that's set-screwed in place.

 

[Joe]

Thanks for the responses, I'll either send it out or break out the Sharpie.

 

[payasam]

If the lens is otherwise in good shape and if you're getting the entire range of apertures from fully open to fully closed, I'd recommend the Sharpie. Being a didactic sort of fellow, I also put a drop of white correcting fluid (easy to remove) on the black dot and applied some Finger Dirt to it.