Voigtlander 21mm lubricant showing in rear

[veltliner1]

Hi All, my first post of RFF. Thank you for building such a great resource.

I have a brand new 21mm Voigtlander 21mm purchased from Adorama and there is a grey lubricant visible at both close focus and when the rear elements are extended at infinity. It is very thick and not coming off but I have never seen such a thing and concerned that I have a sample that was over lubricated and that eventually this will make it to my shutter curtain or the blades.

Is this normal?

Picture attached, thank you in advance for any comments.

 

[Disaster_Area]

It's hard to tell from those photos as there's a lot of reflections... are you talking about the vertical line just to the left of center or the little dot at the top of that line near the edge? Either way, if this is a brand new lens and you have to chance to exchange it for a sample you consider perfect, why not? Better safe than sorry, and you'll just kick yourself later if you don't.

 

[Sparrow]

There is nothing visible on mine, the lubricant is either clear or deeper within the threads

 

[Disaster_Area]

Ahhh... now I see what you mean, the threads are kinda out of focus, so I thought you meant it was on the lens. Yeah, that definitely seems like excessive lube... again, better safe than sorry.

Don't know what kind of lube they use, but with that much, I'd be afraid of it getting runny in really hot weather and dripping into the camera body. When I re-lube a lens I use what lube I can gather on the head of a VERY small screwdriver... that looks like it was put on with a butter knife

 

[veltliner1]

Thank you for the replies, I uploaded another picture with arrows pointing to the lubricant. Unfortunately, I just now started using the lens and noticed this but bought it back in November so outside of the return policy at Adorama.

 

[Disaster_Area]

in that case, it would get some foam tipped makeup swabs (don't use Q-Tips, they can leave fibers) and wipe up whatever excess lube you can... you don't need to see it in order for it to work. Wipe what you can see, twist the focus a couple of times, wipe, repeat until you can't see anymore lube squishing up. You really only need microscopic levels of lube.

 

[Disaster_Area]

To confirm, I just checked all my CV lenses (15, 25, 35, 50) and only on the 35 can I see a TINY bit of lube like you're seeing... nothing on the rest. Definitely a case of accidental overlubrication

 

[veltliner1]

Thank you Gadget Monger, I appreciate the advice and will try to clean this up myself and keep an eye on it as the weather warms up.

 

[boomguy57]

My brand new CV 21/4 is in the mail from Adorama...I will let you all know what I find.

 

[Sparrow]

Thank you Gadget Monger, I appreciate the advice and will try to clean this up myself and keep an eye on it as the weather warms up.

... that off-white stuff is a silicone based grease I wouldn't worry about it being affected too much by heat

 

[veltliner1]

Great, I am relieved and appreciative. I wish I'd joined this forum sooner! Thank you all.

 

[Corto]

Welcome to RFF, And your post title made me just about choke on my afternoon beer!

 

[veltliner1]

Wow, now that you mention it, that does sound pretty sordid.