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Leica R7: sticky aperture release - lens or camera?

iDon

By iDon
in Leica R System

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iDon

iDon

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2 questions for the R community:

 

I have an APO-Macro Elmarit 100 which returned yesterday from repair because of sticky aperture blades. Now it seems to work properly, but if I move the aperture lever of the lens i still feel a bit more tension compared to my other R lens whose aperture lever moves more freely. With the camera (R7) it seems to work normally. I've tried to fire the shutter with 1/2000th and look through the shutter and I the aperture is closed. Could anyone check his/her lenses if there are differences between them when it comes to aperture resistance? Is it normal or do I have to send it back to the repair guy?

 

While I tested it, I notized, that my R7 does not close the aperture further than f16 during exposure, only by pressing the DOF lever. I had the camera in B mode and the lens fully closed at f22 and during exposure the aperture was closed only at f16, but stayed at f22 when I pressed the DOF lever or when I turned the aperture ring from f22 to f16 and back. I've read that this would be a common problem of the R4-R7 series and could be repaired by opening the baseplate and cleaning the aperture release mechanism, but couldn't find more information about it. Do you think it is a problem of the lens (my other lens only has f16) or of the camera? Does anyone know how to fix it, if it's a camera problem?

Thanks!

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  • 2 weeks later...
jip

jip

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How can it be that the aperture closes with the aperture preview lever but not when taking an image, that means it's a camera related problem not lens related problem. 

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masjah

masjah

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How can it be that the aperture closes with the aperture preview lever but not when taking an image, that means it's a camera related problem not lens related problem. 

 

I suspect that it's because the aperture preview lever is a rigid motion that will overcome any stickiness in the lens diaphragm mechanism, whereas the stop-down mechanism when taking an exposure is more dynamic and the lens's stickiness may be capable of holding it back. I once had a somewhat similar problem when I first bought my ex-demo 100/2.8 macro, and the lens's mechanism needed a bit of sorting (which the then Leica UK at Milton Keynes sorted within a day or two).

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masjah

masjah

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Perhaps jip doesn't speak German? (Neither do I for that matter.) Surely if you don't understand something, it's hardly unreasonable to pose a "how or why" question?

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jip

jip

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You can test if it's the lens by actuating the lever at the back of the lens slowly with little force, you'd feel the increase in force needed from f/16 and further. 

 

The R8/R9 have more force when stopping down the lenses so maybe on these cameras it wouldn't even be a problem. (They stop down faster with more force than the older R's) 

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