Just found out my lens tilt fix wasn't actually fixing it

I've been doing this for about 8 years, always straightening lens elements with a spanner wrench and a prayer. Last week I ran a collimator test on a 50mm that I thought I'd dialed in perfect, and it was still off by 0.03mm on the center. Turns out I was just shifting the barrel instead of actually adjusting the element seating. Found the spec in an old Nikon service manual PDF I dug up from 1983. Anyone else ever realize they'd been doing a basic fix wrong for years?

2 comments

2 Comments

janahenderson5d ago

Wow, that's a humbling realization we've all had at some point.

miles_jackson95d ago

fr I just read this article about how our brains literally trick us into thinking we know more than we actually do. it talked about how people who are beginners at something tend to overestimate their skill while experts underestimate themselves. crazy how that works. saw a study once where students who just finished a test were way more confident than they should've been about how well they did. real eye opener for sure.