Got haze? Send it to me

[RSalles]

I'm searching for uncoated lenses which have been affected with haze. Do you remember that lens you use to love to photograph with, or have acquired by a bargain price, but finally had a severe fog that make it impossible to register an image without that sea of haze between the subject and your preferred film? Yes, exactly! Sleeping for ages inside a drawer, unusable by fog... So, maybe there is some hope for a new life to that Voigtlaender, Cooke, Dallmeyer, Wray London or Emil Busch piece of glass.

But, the lens I'm talking about must fulfil some points:
- Not cracked, nor broke, not severely infested by fungus, have no elements separation at large scale, has to be uncoated (as the haze cleaning can remove the coatings), must can be disassembled (no crossing threads), if in a shutter, have to be in a shape which can be removed from the shutter.

It's a better then nothing service: I'll ask you to send me some pictures of the lens, mainly showing the optical elements affected by haze. After that I'll give you an estimate for the costs to fix it, and let you know the time I'll have to work on it. As son as the lens are in my hands I'll contact you immediately to let you know what you can expect as a cleaning service for the lens as a final result.

I'm a very responsible person, have more then 10 years fixing issues with lenses for me and for friends, mainly not AF lenses. If I arrive to the conclusion that, after a close inspection of the lens it can not be fixed by me, I'll return it to you, and you pay the shipping fees. After all, it doesn't hurt to give it a try to that wonderful glasses which you have lost hope in fixing it.

Latter I'll offer also the possibility to send some lens for coating in Russia - some lenses which can be fully disassembled, as they only accept the optical elements: the coating is made in the Zavod factory in Krasnogorsk - KMZ, near Moscow.

It would be great if a given lens could be cleaned, sent to the coating service and back to you in a mint state!

If you're interested, drop me a line in PVT and we can go ahead from that.

I'll try tomorrow to post some pictures of a lens that was given to me by a friend, have arrived with a very big amount of haze in the front and back elements, and I'm finishing the cleaning service. I'll take some shots and post here as it's the biggest lens I have worked with removing haze until now: a Dallmeyer Pentac 2.9/8".

Mods, I'm not sure if this is the right forum area for a service offer, but if it's not, please do not delete the thread, just move it to the right place, ok?

Thank you,

Renato

[Oren Grad]

Moved to Resources.

Product and service offerings should never be posted in the main discussion sections. Also, you should check with the moderators before posting anything that amounts to an advertisement.

[EdSawyer]

I have a couple pentacs with some haze, how did the one you worked on turn out? The haze seems to be on the rear element.

[RSalles]

Ed,

Conversation started with the forum mods, I'll not continue here until receive a sign from them, but I will send you a PVT message,

Cheers,

Renato

[RSalles]

Everything talked and questions answered, so, I'll continue from where I was.
I'll try tomorrow to take some pics of the last lens I'm cleaning and until where I have gone so far,

Cheers,

[RSalles]

Dallmeyer Pentac pre-cleaning - there are full resolution shots in this link: https://goo.gl/photos/PCyBhKrNSBFXk1hU8

Pre-cleaning Front:



Back:



What I've done so far - I intend to work few hours more to complete the job, include new painting on the barrel with a as-close-as-possible original painting.

In the next post, some pics and links of "on cleaning" part, not finished yet,

[RSalles]

Front - on cleaning:




Back, on cleaning, not yet finished:



Diagonal shot of the back element, daylight, trying to collect haze with sunlight:



Working from the centre toward the edges, it's quit evident the amount of small scratches hidden under the haze - which I'll try to remove if not too deep.

Thanks,

Renato

[EdSawyer]

Renato -

Looks like some good progress. Presumably you are doing some sort of polishing here? I got your PM, will reply to that soon.

thanks for posting the pics,

-Ed

[Steven Tribe]

I am always positive about DIY, but I don't believe in polishing without a solid pressure plate which is the exact match of the lens curvature. The lens has to come out of the mount for serious work.

[RSalles]

Ed,

That's it, alternating compounds, working slowly, always wet, patience, as randomly as possible, that's it.

Steven,
In the mail I sent to Ed I explained how preferable is to remove the optical element from the mount, but in this case I have not arrived to do it without the risk to crack it trying, so, better to avoid. Possibly due to the type of application of this aerial lens, the optical elements were cemented on the barrel, as it was subject to constant vibration aboard, and 75 years of cemented optics requires heat, chems or brute force to be removed, or a combination of some of them, so I preferred not to do it. So, I had a choice: or to clean the lens with the glass mounted, or not to clean. I did and the lens will be at least fully usable now.

Cheers,

Renato