who can rebuild the aperture system in a lens?

raid

raid

Dad Photographer
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I need someone to insert a new set of aperture blades into a Zeiss 85/1.4. Do you know of a repair person who is capable of doing this?
 
Most should be able too but....
Since it will be open you may wish to have it cleaned and fully CLA'd.
It's a very nice piece. I would contact John at Focal Point in CO and ask him if he would service it.
He's may have the most advanced shop in the US as far as legacy photo lens repairs go.
Highly trustworthy.
 
I don't know if the repair people left the broken aperture system inside the lens or not. It may take a replacement aperture system of some sort that fits.
 
I am not in a hurry. I have been using the 85mm lens wide open for several years now.
I could send the 35/1.4 lens with the 85/1.4 so that they can craft the same three-blade aperture mechanism from the 35/1.4 for the 85/1.4. I a;ways search for a donor lens, but the 85/1.4 is rare in QBM.
 
Do you know if the blades are sill there? It may be that something inside the lens is loose or simply needs to be reset for the aperture to work again.
 
Three repair people took the lens apart. Each told me that the aperture mevhanism is broken. I do not know what is left inside the lens.
 
Hi Raid
If I was you I would begin contacting old Rollei authorized repair facilities.
Somewhere there may be a box with spare parts in it.
Otherwise, making removable disks will be your best bet or use it wide open.
If you wish to find one that stops down you are likely best to buy a Contax SLR version 2nd hand ($650-$1000).
The price for handmade aperture blades will be very high I'm afraid.

I compared the Contax and Rollei lenses when I owned them. I could not tell them apart at wide open.
Stopped down the Rollei lenses have nervous bokeh with busy highlights because of the "wankel" shaped iris created by the 3 blade system (triangle).
Contrast and sharpness were indistinguishable. The Rollei HFT and Zeiss T* coatings being the only real difference other than the aperture shape.
I'll search my old laptop for samples of my test. Not sure if it's still there.

Anyway, you may get lucky but if not there are options and... you have the lens to use wide open where it really shines the most :)
 
This is a good idea, Andy. I will search for the webdites for old Rollei repair shops. I will not spend a fortune on such repair. I can use the lens indoors wide open, and I could use an ND filter for outdoors when there is lots of light, even though digital color images are affected by such a filter.
If I find a Contax 85/1.4 at a low cost, I may get one.

Thanks.

Raid



f16sunshine said:
Hi Raid
If I was you I would begin contacting old Rollei authorized repair facilities.
Somewhere there may be a box with spare parts in it.
Otherwise, making removable disks will be your best bet or use it wide open.
If you wish to find one that stops down you are likely best to buy a Contax SLR version 2nd hand ($650-$1000).
The price for handmade aperture blades will be very high I'm afraid.

I compared the Contax and Rollei lenses when I owned them. I could not tell them apart at wide open.
Stopped down the Rollei lenses have nervous bokeh with busy highlights because of the "wankel" shaped iris created by the 3 blade system (triangle).
Contrast and sharpness were indistinguishable. The Rollei HFT and Zeiss T* coatings being the only real difference other than the aperture shape.
I'll search my old laptop for samples of my test. Not sure if it's still there.

Anyway, you may get lucky but if not there are options and... you have the lens to use wide open where it really shines the most :)
Click to expand...
 
raid said:
Hi Brett,
I have not seen such a donor lens for years.
Click to expand...
Then you are going to have to hope that Grimes may have some suitable parts on hand or that they can actually fabricate them. It will be very interesting to hear how you get on and what the outcome is Raid. If it's restored to full operation, please post up some photos both of it and with it.
Best,
Brett
 
If you have at least one of the old blades, a new one can be cut out using an old blade as a template, and a new pin hole easily drilled. The only difficult part is the ramp slot, which must be precisely cut at the correct angle. You can use the blade of a brass feeler gauge as the material, and use a new exacto knife to cut the blade. You can easily find a drill bit to make the pin hole. The ramp slot will have to be cut very slowly and carefully.
 
The blades for the 35/1.4 should be identical to those of the 85/1.4. I could send both lenses to S K Grime.
 
photomoof said:
They might be, but the aperture has little to do with the actual blades.

I replaced the blades (which had been removed) on a Nikkor 50 1.1 with blades from a Komura 85. They were so almost identical.

I discovered it because it was obvious there were the same number of blades and the opening was almost identical.
Click to expand...

S K grimes will not do such work, they informed me today.
 
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