derekwalker•16d agoMost Upvoted

Finally caught my own mistake with lens element spacing

Been repairing old manual glass for about three years now. For the longest time I kept getting soft images on one specific Takumar lens I fixed three separate times. Last Tuesday I read a post on a vintage lens forum about element seating. Turns out I was putting the rear group back in slightly rotated. Been doing it wrong for two years. Now I mark the barrel with a tiny scratch before disassembly. Has anyone else had a simple rotation issue mess up their rebuilds?

2 comments

2 Comments

felix47815d ago

Used to think element rotation was purely cosmetic, but seeing how badly it wrecked my sharpness completely flipped my mind on that one. Your scratch tip sounds way smarter than my old method of hoping for the best.

faith_smith15d ago

Element type really does matter more than people give it credit for. Did you test different elements on the same monster or just swap blindly? Because I learned the hard way that water on a fire weak creature still eats sharpness fast if you're hitting armored spots. The scratch test tip works, but you have to check each new area as the fight moves. Got caught off guard once when a tail came off and the new hitzone wrecked my edge completely.