Front Element Haze Issue- Recommended Repair Shop?

I just noticed Focal Point is closed and I have a Tessar 13.5cm f/3.5 with haze within the front elements. Besides that it's a beauty of a lens and I'd like to get it in tip top shape. Any recommendations, preferably from personal experience?

I appreciate it!

Ray

Take it apart and clean it yourself? It's not too hard, usually.

Unscrew the front half, the part in front of the diaphragm/shutter, and on the back you will most likely find an external retaining collar that you can remove by hand. Remove that and use a small suction cup to pull out the exposed element straight out. It will bind in place if you let it tilt.. Clean that, clean the back of the front element, put the loose one back in, bevel side out, and replace the ring. It's usually just that easy. The only rough part may be that the fit of the back element is tight, so you need to be patient and careful getting it out, and not force getting it back in, but make sure it's going in perfectly straight, not canted.

Hmm, I never considered doing it myself but your explanation seems pretty simple. I'll go for it. I appreciate the guidance.

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Originally Posted by mdarnton

Take it apart and clean it yourself? It's not too hard, usually.

Unscrew the front half, the part in front of the diaphragm/shutter, and on the back you will most likely find an external retaining collar that you can remove by hand. Remove that and use a small suction cup to pull out the exposed element straight out. It will bind in place if you let it tilt.. Clean that, clean the back of the front element, put the loose one back in, bevel side out, and replace the ring. It's usually just that easy. The only rough part may be that the fit of the back element is tight, so you need to be patient and careful getting it out, and not force getting it back in, but make sure it's going in perfectly straight, not canted.

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When you remove the lens is there any need to put it back in at the same angular position?

Chuck, I've taken a number of CZJ and B&L Tessars apart for cleaning. The front singlets were each swaged into a threaded ring, the rear doublet was swaged into a threaded ring. Unscrew, clean, rescrew and make sure the rings are fully seated. Not much to it. Other lenses may be different.

I once opened a 7"/4.8 Ilex plasmat type to remove haze. The inner elements dropped in. Easy out, easy in, but they'll go in in both orientations. Only one is correct. Don't ask how I know that.

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Originally Posted by Chuck Pere

When you remove the lens is there any need to put it back in at the same angular position?

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No.

Success. It was pretty easy and done within 10 minutes. Thanks again, Ray

Quote:

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Originally Posted by mdarnton

Take it apart and clean it yourself? It's not too hard, usually.

Unscrew the front half, the part in front of the diaphragm/shutter, and on the back you will most likely find an external retaining collar that you can remove by hand. Remove that and use a small suction cup to pull out the exposed element straight out. It will bind in place if you let it tilt.. Clean that, clean the back of the front element, put the loose one back in, bevel side out, and replace the ring. It's usually just that easy. The only rough part may be that the fit of the back element is tight, so you need to be patient and careful getting it out, and not force getting it back in, but make sure it's going in perfectly straight, not canted.

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Michael Darnton...are you sure about this? I would think that an individual lens element would need to be installed at exactly the same angle of original placement.

In fact, while its usually fine to simply unscrew a multi-element lens cell (I do this all the time) - delving more deeply and removing individual elements might, at least when the optic in question is relatively complex (multi-element wides, aspherics, zooms), require the correct use of a precise collimation device to ensure correct element placement. Or maybe not? What am I missing?