As part of the 30-Day-Creative-Gathering in September 2024, I captured every-day-life details in black and white photography. Here are my favorite five photos from this series.
Markus Wobisch
Thursday, October 17, 2024
In Detail - Photos of Details in Every-Day-Life
Monday, August 12, 2024
Repairing a Steinheil Auto-D-Tele-Quinar 135mm f/2.8 Lens with Exakta Mount
- A lens spanner to remove the name plate (one of the first steps), to get access to the front glass element. If that is not needed, you don't need the spanner.
- Quality screwdrivers
- Cotton pads plus lighter fluid (for cleaning the aperture blades) and isopropyl alcohol (I use the 91% version) for cleaning the old grease from the focusing helicoids
- In every step, I take pictures and/or draw sketches to remember the orientation of the pieces. For things that you see clearly, a sketch may be more helpful, while pictures also document those details to which you did not pay attention.
- Immediately after separating a piece, I try to understand how it was connected, and I try to immediately reconnect it again before proceeding further.
- Whenever I remove a piece, I clean it and all newly accessible surfaces immediately with cotton pads and isopropyl alcohol, so I have not dirty/oily pieces in my storage container. For small part (screws, springs, ball bearings) I use a storage box with dividers.
While normal screws have a single entry point, the focusing helicoids have multiple entry points. For the correct reassemble of the lens, it is therefore crucial to remember the correct one (otherwise, you will not get infinity focus). So, in the next steps, it is critical to proceed very slowly, making sure to document when the pieces separate.
Thursday, August 1, 2024
Repairing a Meyer-Optik Görlitz Domiplan 50mm f/2.8 Lens
The Meyer-Optik Görlitz Domiplan 50mm f/2.8 lens is a simple triplet. It used to be the inexpensive "kit lens" for Praktica SLR cameras, and it's still liked by some for its special rendering and its "Soap Bubble" bokeh. It has a fully automatic pressure diaphragm, meaning that the aperture closes whenever the stop-down pin on the rear is pressed. This also means that if you want to adapt it to a mirrorless camera, you need an adapter with a "lip" that presses this pin (otherwise, you can only use the lens wide open). Fortunately, those adapters are readily available, and they are cheap ($12 on eBay).
Unfortunately, many of the of the available Domiplan lenses have at least one of two problems:
- The focus is stiff - sometimes extremely. This is due to the old grease in the focusing helicoids becoming sticky.
- The aperture is not working, i.e. the aperture is wide open and pressing the stop-down pin has no effect. This may be caused by oil on the aperture blades or by a disconnected mechanism in the back piece.
- a rubber tool to remove the front ring (see the first step), although you maybe able to improvise here
- quality screwdrivers
- cotton pads plus lighter fluid (for cleaning the aperture blades) and isopropyl alcohol (I use the 91% version) for cleaning the old grease from the focusing helicoids
The front piece with the name plate is extracted using a rubber tool.
For older version, this piece was made of metal (left) while later it was made of plastic (right).
After it is removed, the aperture ring (with the simple spring) can be taken off. But watch out so you don't loose the tiny metal ball on the aperture ring.
The back ring can simply be unscrewed by hand.
At this point, you should try to understand how the aperture stop-down pin on the back of the lens connects to the long lever inside the lens to stop down the diaphragm. Otherwise you may not be able to put the back piece correctly back.
Before inserting the two springs, try to connect the two pieces, such that pressing down the aperture stop-down pin will close the diaphragm.