Mysterious ring inside rigid Summicron

[lujume]

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Hey,

 

I just received an old rigid 50mm Summicron from a friend of mine. Lens is silky smooth and feels great, yet there is something strange going on between the elements. There seems to be an oily ring looking like the eye Sauron. I attached some pictures. What could that be?

 

The lens looks pretty bad when pointed into the sun, under normal light conditions there is just very little dust and two scratches apparent, which I suppose won't affect image quality. Haven't tried it out yet since I am a little afraid that white stuff might be Fungus.

 

What do you think of the lens? How much would I pay for an CLA/repair (in Germany)?

 

Thanks in advance!

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[jaapv]

I do not like the look of this. Initially it appears to be damage by oil from the aperture blades, but I mistrust the way it branches out. It could be some strange fungus formation. Keep away from your other lenses and have an expert look at it, that is, if you want to spend money on the lens.

Personally I would look for another lens with mechanical damage and good optics and combine them to make one good lens.

However, it cannot harm to send it to Will van Manen for an assessment?

Edited September 8, 2014 by jaapv

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[CheshireCat]

Cement degradation ?

[jaapv]

I thought that too, but would that not set on beginning by the edges?

[wattsy]

It could be some strange fungus formation. Keep away from your other lenses and have an expert look at it

 

You make it sound like something from Invasion of the Body Snatchers. Fungal spores are everywhere. Whether you get a fungal problem with a lens is down to environmental factors and, in particular, how you store them. Just having a clean lens in proximity to a fungus ridden one isn't going to make "infection" of the former any more likely.

[luigi bertolotti]

Cement degradation ?

 

I think so... too regular to be fungus... and the lens (or the glass only) can have suffered some stress that caused the issue to have a specific area... it could have been also the result of a badly made CLA...

Anyway, not fine glass to have, and probably also not fine to use.

Jaap's advice can be a smart solution : the whole lens assembly is unscrewable from the mount... and Summicrons 50 abound around (a lenshead is usually matched to its mount - s/n is engraved or stitched into the focus mount - but a good repairman can couple correctly them anyway)

[Bill W]

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Since you state the lens was given to you, you do not have anything invested in it. Not knowing where you are located, you can send the pictures to DAG in the USA and Don can probably tell you what it is and if it is something worth pursuing. I vote it is fungus....

[jaapv]

You make it sound like something from Invasion of the Body Snatchers. Fungal spores are everywhere. Whether you get a fungal problem with a lens is down to environmental factors and, in particular, how you store them. Just having a clean lens in proximity to a fungus ridden one isn't going to make "infection" of the former any more likely.

I would agree. However, most repair facilities isolate infested lenses and some even refuse them. At the very least the concentration of spores will be higher near an infected lens than it would normally be. Like one does not like to be in close proximity to somebody who has the Flu.

[250swb]

It doesn't look like fungus to me. Perhaps it is the residue of oil evaporation from the aperture blades (do the blades look sticky?), in which case the lens was stored upright and at around f/4.

 

Steve

[lujume]

Thanks everybody!

 

So I asked the camera shop that CLA'ed my Leica as well and their guess was something with the coating.

Since it does not appear to be fungus I will shoot a quick test film to see how it might effect the output and then send it in for a check.

I would look out for another lens, but I am a student so money is scarce. I hope it will be a cheap fix.

[adan]

...Summicrons 50 abound around (a lenshead is usually matched to its mount - s/n is engraved or stitched into the focus mount - but a good repairman can couple correctly them anyway)

 

Nnnnnn! Remember that Leica's "50mm" lenses come in several slightly different focal lengths. It is why they have the two small numbers engraved on the focus ring (or elsewhere for older lenses) - to match the focus cams with the actual focal length. Tha cams are machined differently for each possible focal length.

 

51.9mm, 52.2 mm, etc.

 

You'd need to get one with the same actual focal length to swap mounts and retain precise focusing throughout the range.

[luigi bertolotti]

Nnnnnn! Remember that Leica's "50mm" lenses come in several slightly different focal lengths. It is why they have the two small numbers engraved on the focus ring (or elsewhere for older lenses) - to match the focus cams with the actual focal length. Tha cams are machined differently for each possible focal length.

 

51.9mm, 52.2 mm, etc.

 

You'd need to get one with the same actual focal length to swap mounts and retain precise focusing throughout the range.

 

True...but, as I said, good repairmen (and many do know well Summicrons) can take care in case : at least is what one told me when I spoke to him about my 2 Summicrons of the same era (one standard, 51.9 and one DR, 50.00 : I asked him if he could adapt the lenshead of the DR to the mount of the other and he said it can be done : net result is that lens focus correctly, with a slight difference between real distance and reading on the scale (more theorical than real, and of no practical effect) : this, without machining the cam's profile in itself. It was an odd idea I didn't pursue, but was/is a clever shop (with lot of original equipment for RF tuning) and personally I tend to believe him... btw he spoke me (was around 8 years ago) of a cost in the range of 250-300 Euros.

Edited September 8, 2014 by luigi bertolotti

[tobey bilek]

Take the lens back to seller. You will never resell it to a knowledgeable person.