Anyone else here toying around with lens rebuilding.

[macsavageg4]

So I have been rebuilding random lenses for my primary system Nikon.. I know I know where I am posting. Anyway I figured I would post up my first rebuild of a lens for the Canon mount system.

I picked up a broken Sigma 15-30mm f/3.5-4.5 Canon mount off eBay for next to nothing. I ended up replacing the aperture control ribbon cable and some other sub electrical system bits. First time I had ever repaired a lens for the Canon system.

So just curious if anyone on these forums are experimenting or rebuilding/repairing lenses as well.

 

[Jim Saunders]

Canon is pretty tight with repair parts; I think if they were more available you'd get a better response. I'd try it if I had a proper clean room and the books on them, but as I see it right now if it is worth using it is worth shipping back home for repair. My 0.02.

Jim

 

[Mt Spokane Photography]

I repair lenses as a hobby, but I don't refer to it as rebuilding them.

I have a lot of old lenses that are not repairable to use for parts, but most of the old lenses merely have hard grease or oil in the aperture. I don't bother with Sigma, mostly because the old ones I find are worth very little even if working. There do seem to be many more broken third party lenses, and I find they are cheaply made.

 

[macsavageg4]

Yeah the Sigma was more of a well it is Canon mount and it will give me a baseline to figure out how to service the Canon style of EF mount lenses. Specifically working with the electrically controlled apertures. I have rebuilt quite literally a dozen or more Nikon F-mounts both AF and MF. So far the most interesting bit of a lens that I have had the fun of reworking has been the aperture blade assembly. Layering of those blades is tricky. A Canon lens I'd really like to get my hands on to rebuild is one of the 80-200mm f/2.8s. I have rebuilt/repaired a few Nikon AF versions of that basic lens so I am really curious how Canon built their version of it and more specifically how to repair it.

 

[Jappe]

I have repaired mechanics of few Canon FD lenses and cleaned few old MF lenses from dust/fungus by removing few outer most lenses.