Summicron 35 fell apart into two pieces on its own

[ColdShower]

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I’ve been shooting with this lens on and off for 6 months now. All of the sudden I picked up the camera and the front part came off the helicoid mechanism. Luckily, the lens dropped from 1 inch onto the night stand which is wood and lens had the cap on. As you can see a shim came off as well. I’ve never had this happened to any lens and I own quite a few.

I don’t see how these parts are held together or retained with each other, unless they are glued? 
Any idea how this can be repaired? This lens was actually sent back from CLA not too long ago. So strange  

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Edited June 16, 2024 by ColdShower

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[lct]

It is a documented issue due to plastic parts in variants of the Summicron 35/2 v4 made in Canada. I don't know which version or variant your lens is but i would return it to the repair shop who did the CLA unless you did the usual mistake of grabbing the lens by the hood.

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[hmzimelka]

6 hours ago, ColdShower said:

I’ve been shooting with this lens on and off for 6 months now. All of the sudden I picked up the camera and the front part came off the helicoid mechanism. Luckily, the lens dropped from 1 inch onto the night stand which is wood and lens had the cap on. As you can see a shim came off as well. I’ve never had this happened to any lens and I own quite a few.

I don’t see how these parts are held together or retained with each other, unless they are glued? 
Any idea how this can be repaired? This lens was actually sent back from CLA not too long ago. So strange  

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The lens block should have a thread which gets paired with a threaded retaining ring in the focusing assembly. Between this ring and the optical block the shims are fitted for some focus calibration. See how @yukosteel disassembles some of his lenses here... https://www.yukosteel.com/2021/05/disassembly-voigtlander-35mm-f2-ultron.html

You might get an idea of how the retaining ring looks like and I hope it's still in the focusing assembly. Make sure you don't touch the shims with your fingers and try use gloves or small tweezers. They can be extremely thin, delicate and also prone to finger prints.  

It's a 1 min fix if all the parts are there and you have a lens spanner. Yuri also uses medical pill bottles with notches cut out for hard to reach rings that need tightening or loosening.

Edited June 17, 2024 by hmzimelka

[crons]

16 hours ago, ColdShower said:

I’ve been shooting with this lens on and off for 6 months now. All of the sudden I picked up the camera and the front part came off the helicoid mechanism. Luckily, the lens dropped from 1 inch onto the night stand which is wood and lens had the cap on. As you can see a shim came off as well. I’ve never had this happened to any lens and I own quite a few.

I don’t see how these parts are held together or retained with each other, unless they are glued? 
Any idea how this can be repaired? This lens was actually sent back from CLA not too long ago. So strange  

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Which 35  Summicron? There are 4 pre-asph (Canadian or german) and 2 asph versions. 

How long is the CLA guaranteed for? If it's too long send fhe pictures to the guy and send him the lens and pay for the repair. 

Older used lenses. This is what happens. 

Edited June 17, 2024 by crons

[ColdShower]

On 6/16/2024 at 10:33 PM, lct said:

It is a documented issue due to plastic parts in variants of the Summicron 35/2 v4 made in Canada. I don't know which version or variant your lens is but i would return it to the repair shop who did the CLA unless you did the usual mistake of grabbing the lens by the hood.

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I actually picked up the camera and the lens feel forward on the night stand. Had the cap on so nothing happened. I sent it back to the shop. 

[hmzimelka]

14 hours ago, ColdShower said:

Thanks for the info. This never happened with any lenses I owned before from any make. 
I guess now I know it happens to these expensive lenses. Thanks for the link. 

I've had this almost happen to my Elmarit-M 28mm ASPH (now sold) where the ring got loose but the optical cell didn't fall out. 

I've experienced this same retaining ring looseness on some Zeiss ZM lenses. This is also partly (or solely) where the the "Zeiss ZM Wobble" comes from. Zeiss since remedied this by using thread lock and/or a thick tacky grease on the threads. The grease helps in the situation that if the ring does somehow works its way loose, that the ring then doesn't easily unthread itself completely from additional lens use or vibrations... 

In most cases, this ring just needed to be snugged up. I've not seen a case where the ring was off or came loose by more than a half turn.

[Kl@usW.]

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That doesn't surprise me. I have now had this experience with Leica for the second time. The first time was with an SEM 3.8/21, which I bought new, used sparingly, and which was never disassembled. The second time was just recently with a Summicron 50mm V5, where the optical cell became increasingly loose during a vacation. I packed the lens away to avoid having to pick up the front part off the street and because the pictures would probably have become unusable. The lens is currently with Cathy Kuiper for repair or reassembly.

Of course, it's a hassle when you're far from home and didn't bring a backup.

[ColdShower]

I dislike to be negative on a brand I rely on, but after charging an arm an a leg for these products, to experience these issues is truly unacceptable. The worst part is the turnaround if you are under warranty to repair it.

I've never had these issues with my Voigtlander's lenses not even with vintage Canon, Nikkor, LTM glass...

There is a pattern here that must be reverted. and to top it off,  we are being hit with price increases. SMH

[ColdShower]

6 minutes ago, Kl@usW. said:

That doesn't surprise me. I have now had this experience with Leica for the second time. The first time was with an SEM 3.8/21, which I bought new, used sparingly, and which was never disassembled. The second time was just recently with a Summicron 50mm V5, where the optical cell became increasingly loose during a vacation. I packed the lens away to avoid having to pick up the front part off the street and because the pictures would probably have become unusable. The lens is currently with Cathy Kuiper for repair or reassembly.

Of course, it's a hassle when you're far from home and didn't bring a backup.

Hate the comparison but I shot Sony for 12 years straight ,Canon before that and Nikon. Never had these issues. not even once.

Edited June 21, 2024 by ColdShower