Who Can Repair Lens Filter Ring Damage?

[RedSun]

We have a 210mm lens that has some damage on the very front. I think it is worth about $200 in decent condition. So it may be worth it to get it repaired.

Who are the good repair men? What are my options? I'm not sure if I want to spend $100 or more to get it fixed....

[Leigh]

Any camera repair shop should be able to do that, even a bad shop.

There are tools designed specifically for straightening filter threads. They're pretty cheap.

If you want to buy one and do it yourself, go to Micro-Tools.

- Leigh

[David R Munson]

Buy the tool from Micro-Tools. Alas, I have found Leigh's statement about shops being able to make such a repair to generally be completely untrue. Most I've encountered have said they'd have to send whatever dented thing off to a repair center for an estimate.

Reasonable shop owners with mechanically inclined sensibilities seem to be all but extinct.

[Leigh]

That's a very sad state of affairs. I don't doubt that it's true.

When I was working in a repair shop full-time, we had the tools at the front counter and would repair the lens immediately, gratis.

But of course that was when America took pride in itself and cared about what it did, not just about how many $$$ it could make.

- Leigh

[RedSun]

I have a lens filter ring tool from Micro-Tools, but is is unsatisfactory. It is a little like the one shown in picture. For a very tiny dent, it may work. But for most of the damages, it would not work. I do not know how the pro shops do it. Just bend back by using brutal force?

[David R Munson]

That's a very sad state of affairs. I don't doubt that it's true.

When I was working in a repair shop full-time, we had the tools at the front counter and would repair the lens immediately, gratis.

But of course that was when America took pride in itself and cared about what it did, not just about how many $$$ it could make.

- Leigh

I ran into it when I came back from abroad and immediately dropped my 210mm lens. I called around to at least a dozen places each in two cities and nobody could do it on-site. I was shocked and disappointed to say the least.

I have a lens filter ring tool from Micro-Tools, but is is unsatisfactory. It is a little like the one shown in picture. For a very tiny dent, it may work. But for most of the damages, it would not work. I do not know how the pro shops do it. Just bend back by using brutal force?

Last time I used one, the preferred method was to use something like a piece of leather to keep from mashing the threads, and just work back and forth in small increments. Depending on the particular dent and the particular dented thing, a piece of hardwood dowel will work well to manually work over the affected area. In a pinch the padded (again, use a piece of leather or something) jaws of channel-locks or an adjustable wrench will also work, but require more care because it's a lot easier to completely screw things up.

Fun tip: I've also used the adjustable wrench trick to fix dented bicycle wheel rims after particularly severe run-ins with potholes, etc.

[goodfood]

I drop my 210mm Apo Symmar less than a foot land on the carpet floor. It got a ding and can't put filter. It is not easy to find a camera repair shop now a day. I found a plastic bottle cap almost the same size of the filter ring. I file it round edge or use sand paper to round it (make sure is perfect round), then push into the filter ring. You can't believe the ring is so soft and come back to shape. Hope this can help.

[RedSun]

Well, I tried it on a Bronica lens. Well, to the end, the dent goes away, but it is almost impossible to attach a filter ring. That is the whole purpose of fixing it.

I'm not sure if I want to try it again on this lens:

[John Schneider]

Well, I tried it on a Bronica lens. Well, to the end, the dent goes away, but it is almost impossible to attach a filter ring.

For this you need some lapping compound. It's an abrasive-filled, sulfur-containing high pressure oil that will gently cut away the binding metal without the parts not seizing: http://www.newmantools.com/clover.htm

McMaster carries this as well, but their page is not as descriptive.

[Drew Wiley]

My buddy slipped on a wet rock a couple weeks ago and dinged a filter thread on one of his Contax 6x6 lenses. Neither of us had a pair of pliers in our pack, and we were still a
week's walk away from the nearest road. He did it australopithecene style, and found a soft branch and beat on it with a rock. It worked, and he got his filters on again. Dealing
with another lens which actually fell in the creek was a little more complicated, but it's back in service now too.