Repairing a Canon FD 50mm f/1.4 S.S.C. Lens

The Canon FD 50mm f/1.4 S.S.C. lens is one of the sharpest 50mm lenses from its time. It has 7 elements in 6 groups and the aperture consists of 8 blades, resulting in a beautiful rendering of out-of-focus lights. This piece was made in March 1974. It is the older "S.S.C." version, made of metal (all-metal!). It feels so good - especially when compared to the later FD versions (with green distance scale), which are made of plastic.

Before I got this lens, I never liked the Canon FD lenses (based on the green plastic versions), but this is an entirely different thing. I did not plan to buy it - it came as part of a set with a Praktica camera and a few M42 lenses, and it was not clearly visible in the auction pictures. When it arrived, it was in horrible condition: The focus was completely stuck, the front lens was very dirty, and there was significant fungus on the rear elements.

But, it turned out to be rather easy to disassemble and clean this lens. The all-metal construction was a pure joy to work on, and I was so happy to be able to bring it back into almost mint condition (except for that scratch on the name-ring).

I documented to procedure in pictures. If you don't have experience with lens repair, please read tutorials about the methods for disassembling, cleaning and greasing helicoids, etc.
These pictures are supposed to speak for themselves - to help individuals who already have some experience in lens repair.

I'm starting from the front side.

This piece is adjusting the infinity focus. If you don't want to adjust it later, take a precise note and make a mark where exactly it was sitting!

And now, I continue from the back side.
This pin has to be pushed down, to rotate the breech-lock mount and access the screws.

All pieces - all cleaned - group photo:

Mount the lens on a camera, and use this piece to adjust the infinity focus.

Done! The lens is back to its former beauty - with a snappy aperture and nice, smooth focus. I added a nice retro-hood (55mm - to stop stray light, and for mechanical protection of the front element) and not it's ready to be used in the field!

More of my lens repair tutorials can be found here.

Repairing a Carl Zeiss Jena Sonnar 3.5/135mm Lens

The Carl Zeiss Jena Sonnar 135mm f/3.5 lens is a compact tele lens, made of 4 elements in 3 groups. It is famous for being rather sharp, with a minimum focus distance of only 1m. This version was made in the 1970's and features multi-coating.

When I got this, the focus was somehow stiff and there were traces of oil on the aperture blades, so I decided to clean it. Here, I document the individual steps in pictures.

For the first steps, no tools are required. Everything can be unscrewed by hand.

These are the pieces so far. Now, we need a screwdriver to take off the back piece.

Removing the two helicoid keys and (of course!) take a precise note where they came off!!!

Removing the screw that sets the limits for the focus ring.

Remember where you started (I started at minimum distance of 1m).

And count the number of turns before the helicoid comes off.

For the coarse helicoid, note exactly the point where it comes off (it has multiple entry points!)

Clean and relube the helicoids.

And reassemble eeverything.

I don't have pictures of the remaining steps. But at this point, you just have to undo what you did in the first steps.

More of my lens repair tutorials can be found here.