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View Full Version : That tiny screw on the back of the lens



Rider
14-Dec-2006, 07:52
Do most people remove the tiny screw on the back of the lens, or drill a hole in the lens board?

Ron Marshall
14-Dec-2006, 07:54
I removed the screw on all of my lenses.

BrianShaw
14-Dec-2006, 08:35
I once left it in and drilled the lensboard. I'll never do that again -- too much effort for no benefit at all.

Ernest Purdum
14-Dec-2006, 08:52
You can also use a needle file to make a tiny slot extending out to the position of the screw. While taking it out may not cause a problem, it does eliminate the possibility of one more nuisance you don't need while getting ready to make a picture.

I'd particularly want to leave it working while mounting a lens to a miserable recessed lensboard.

Walter Calahan
14-Dec-2006, 10:55
I remove them.

Ralph Barker
14-Dec-2006, 15:42
FWIW, I remove them, too.

Glenn Thoreson
14-Dec-2006, 16:57
It's just a counter clockwise rotation prevention device, to put it in scientific (?) terms. It's to keep the thing from unscrewing itself from the lens board. In the days of magnetic shutter tripper/flash sync contraptions, it also positioned the shutter and held it in proper position. Totally unnecessary these days. Remove it and make life easy for yourself.

Brian Vuillemenot
14-Dec-2006, 17:13
I file a small slit coming out of the lensboard hole to accomodate the screw. This keeps the lens from rotating in the lensboard, especially important for large lenses where the aperture knob may be obstructed by the lensboard retaining flange on the camera if the lens rotates. Besides, removing the screw is tampering with the lens, which may adversly affect it's resale value.

Leonard Evens
14-Dec-2006, 18:13
I don't generally keep the screw in place, but there is one exception. I have a Toho FC-45X, and one of my (circular) lensboards is designed to allow for additional rise, fall, or shift by rotation of the lens on the lensboard. For this to work, the screw has to be in place, and the lensboard has a matching slot in which if fits.

I would recommend remvoing the screw but make sure you keep in in a safe place. You can never tell when you will need to put it back on the lens for some special purpose such as the one I mentioned above.

Turner Reich
14-Dec-2006, 18:16
It's like the mattress tag, you just can't go and take it off and throw it away. Actually I keep mine in but they are a nuisance to deal with. Take them off and they would be lost forever.

Turner Reich
14-Dec-2006, 18:21
Another screw issue; I have a cheap Wolle copy Raptar lens and I wanted to remove the elements. The front, I think it's the front the barrel threads put the lens info on the inside, came right off but the rear would not budge. Nothing I did would loosen it at all. Then looking closer, that always helps, I saw a tiny set screw. Took it out and the element unscrewed easily. Screws where you want them screws where you don't.

Ralph Barker
14-Dec-2006, 19:49
. . . Take them off and they would be lost forever.

Not a big problem. Ole probably has a 3-drawer file cabinet full of them. ;)

Ole Tjugen
15-Dec-2006, 00:19
Not a big problem. Ole probably has a 3-drawer file cabinet full of them. ;)

Eh - no. I have ONE of those screws. It ate two screwdrivers before I gave up and made a notch in the lensboard instead. Remember that almost all my lenses are more than 30 years old, and second hand. Someone else has lost all the screws before I bought the lenses!

Capocheny
15-Dec-2006, 01:12
Nary a lens in my kit contains a screw!

All removed. :)

Cheers

BrianShaw
15-Dec-2006, 07:41
Eh - no. I have ONE of those screws. It ate two screwdrivers before I gave up and made a notch in the lensboard instead. Remember that almost all my lenses are more than 30 years old, and second hand. Someone else has lost all the screws before I bought the lenses!

Okay, Ole's post inspires me to be honest. That's really why I notched the lensboard the one time I had a shutter that came with the screw still in it. Why are they so tight???