Lens Servicing

My trusty 50mm f1.7 Minolta prime lens purchased off of eBay has been my favourite lens since its purchase. Despite being 20 to 25 years old it's still giving me some excellent shots. However it is showing it's age a bit and the iris blades have started to stick a bit leading to erratic overexposures when I stop down.

So this evening armed with instrument screwdrivers, tweezers and a variety of platic tubs I set about dismantling the lens to extract the iris for a clean (with a little help from the internet). This shot shows some of the disassembly, the offending iris assembly (contaminated with oil...which you can see as dark streaks on the blades), the dismantled iris assembly and finally the result....lots of tiny bits all in labelled plastic tubs ready to be put back together again.

The iris has been cleaned, degreased and is in the airing cupboard drying out prior to reassembly. Hopefully another days blip will be taken with the newly serviced lens...watch this space!

PS - photography can become a SERIOUSLY obsessive hobby!!