WATE produces very soft photos

[BrianS]

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Have you checked the lens for haze?

If it has been sitting for 6 years, a lens can get a build up of haze from lubricants outgassing. 

Try shining a bright light through the lens, from the rear at angles and look to see if it is clear. If it is clear, I would try it walking around outside on the next sunny day. Use close-up, middle distance, and infinity at the various focal length settings.

 

It is possible that you got a defective copy. Shooting at the available focal lengths across the focus range of the lens might give some hints.

Edited December 16, 2020 by BrianS

[jdlaing]

7 minutes ago, BrianS said:

Have you checked the lens for haze?

If it has been sitting for 6 years, a lens can get a build up of haze from lubricants outgassing. 

Try shining a bright light through the lens, from the rear at angles and look to see if it is clear. If it is clear, I would try it walking around outside on the next sunny day. Use close-up, middle distance, and infinity at the various focal length settings.

 

It is possible that you got a defective copy. Shooting at the available focal lengths across the focus range of the lens might give some hints.

Only problem with outgassing from lubricants is Leica lenses produced after somewhere around 1995 don’t outgas even at high temperatures. They just become less viscous. Kudos to Leica for that.

[BrianS]

I started using Dow Corning Vacuum Pump grease on Sonnars, under the aperture ring to give dampening. It is very stable. Some of the lubricants used in cameras over the ages were horrible. The lubricant used by Canon in the late 1950s Etched the glass.

[david strachan]

1 hour ago, BrianS said:

... The lubricant used by Canon in the late 1950s Etched the glass...

Hi Brian

I hadn't heard that before.  Very interesting as I'm a keen user of Canon ltm lenses.

Can you remember who, where, you got this information?

Thanks...

Edited December 17, 2020 by david strachan

[BrianS]

11 hours ago, david strachan said:

Hi Brian

I hadn't heard that before.  Very interesting as I'm a keen user of Canon ltm lenses.

Can you remember who, where, you got this information?

Thanks...

David- first hand information from taking apart a many Canon lenses. Canon used a new high-index of refraction/ low dispersion glass in their lenses starting around 1956. The "haze" that many lenses get is from the lubricants used. I've had Canon lenses where the lube leaked out and covered the lens. On most lenses, this cleans off. On the Canon lenses: it can damage the coating, etch the glass where it needs to be polished down. It is usually the element behind the aperture that received the damage. At some point, Canon switched lubricants. I used an FL and R series 100/3.5 to replace the element behind the aperture in two LTM lenses that were damaged. The glass in the LTM: etched. The optics in the R and FL lenses: hazed over, but cleaned up. I just got an early collapsible Canon Serenar 50/3.5. Looked like wax paper when received, very heave haze. It cleaned up perfectly. That gives me Eleven different Canon 50mm RF lenses, counting the 50/0.95. All near perfect glass.

Edited December 17, 2020 by BrianS

[derleicaman]

13 hours ago, BrianS said:

David- first hand information from taking apart a many Canon lenses. Canon used a new high-index of refraction/ low dispersion glass in their lenses starting around 1956. The "haze" that many lenses get is from the lubricants used. I've had Canon lenses where the lube leaked out and covered the lens. On most lenses, this cleans off. On the Canon lenses: it can damage the coating, etch the glass where it needs to be polished down. It is usually the element behind the aperture that received the damage. At some point, Canon switched lubricants. I used an FL and R series 100/3.5 to replace the element behind the aperture in two LTM lenses that were damaged. The glass in the LTM: etched. The optics in the R and FL lenses: hazed over, but cleaned up. I just got an early collapsible Canon Serenar 50/3.5. Looked like wax paper when received, very heave haze. It cleaned up perfectly. That gives me Eleven different Canon 50mm RF lenses, counting the 50/0.95. All near perfect glass.

Hi Brian, I have also experienced this fogging first hand with two Canon 50/1.2 ltm lenses I own. One of them has a cracked rear element, so that one is more of a parts lens. I have taken the good one apart at least 6 times over the past several years to clean the haze, only to have it come back again. I looked at it the other day, and sure enough it is fogged again.

Any idea of what the best path forward would be? I am considering sending it to YYE, but if the offending lubricant is not removed, I am likely in for the same fogging issue in the future.

FYI, I have a Canon 1.8 ltm and 1.4 ltm 50 which do not have this problem. In fact I used the 50/1.4 to write my "Japanese Summilux" article a few years ago for the LHSA Viewfinder. It's a fine lens, but I would really like to use the 50/1.2 to see how that one performs.

[BrianS]

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On my third try- I found a Canon 50/1.2 with perfect glass. It is an early one. Either Canon switched lubricants after mine was made, or someone completely cleaned the old lube out of this one and replaced it.

Youxin can completely disassemble the helical and remove all of the old lubricant and replace it with a modern one. That should solve the problem.

Nikon had problems with a lubricant used for early Ais series lenses. Get one made during ~2year span, will get oil on the blades. Earlier Ai- no problem, later Ais- no problem. I believe the same happened to Canon: several years of production were done with a bad choice of lubricant. 

[tsleica]

Thats the very rare...

Thambar WATE..

Extremely rare lens ...only a few ever made..

SF WA...

50K per lens..

If you can find one..