| Author |
Message |
    
Ezio
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, March 22, 2004 - 01:29 pm: | 
|
I need to dismantle the lens elements in a Cintagon 50mm (Argus C-44) to clean some internal fungus. How to proceed? Unscrewing the protruding front ring was intuitive enough, but what is the next step? Should I perhaps remove the diafragm ring? I would rather not, because it has click stops which implies ball bearings etc. that I may not be able to reassemble. Also, it seems not to be connected to the second front ring (the one with internal threads). The latter however has no indents to use a spanner, but it protrudes just a few mm. Should I perhaps try to grab it with pliers and unscrew? |
Dan Cluley
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, March 22, 2004 - 10:40 pm: |
|
Is this the f2.8 or the f1.9 version?
Dan Cluley |
Ezio
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, March 23, 2004 - 02:04 pm: |
|
2.8. I've never seen the 1.9, so I cannot tell the difference. |
Dan Cluley
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, March 23, 2004 - 11:28 pm: |
|
2.8 is much more common. It was the standard Argus made lens that came with those cameras. The 1.9 was made by the same German company that made the 35 and 100mm C-44 lenses.
On to cleaning...
Look at the front glass element. The black ring directly around it should have a pair of notches to allow it to be unscrewed. That will allow the front element to come out, and give you access to the front of the middle element.
If you need to clean between the middle and rear glass, the first step is to mark the focus. Turn the lend barrel so that the arrrow points directly at one of the distance marks, then place a piece of tape on the black part of the lens barrel sot that its edge lines up exactly with the line between the black and silver parts of the lens barrel. Remove the three setscrews from the black part of the lens barrel. There should be one on each side of the distance scale, and another on the opposite side. Hopefully these will be flat head, but more likely require a square drive. I can usually find a flat screwdriver that fits diagonally and will work. Once those screws are out, the black part of the lens should slide off to the rear of the lens. Now grasp the brass threaded part (it has the groove the the setscrews seated it) and unscrew it. Once that is off, there is a retaining ring with two spanner holes that hold the rear element in.
To re-asemmble, Note that inside the brass threaded part, is the grey part with the bayonet fittings. Inside that cylinder there is a brass pin that must line up with the matching groove in the lens body. Start threading the brass part into the lens, looking through the hole in the center stop just before the brass pin hits the ring inside, at that point hold the brass part still, rotate the inner part until the pin lines up with the top of its groove, and then screw the brass part on down to seat the pin into the groove. Now re-install the black part and its screws. Turn the barrel down until you reach the tape mark. At that point, loosen the screws, rotate the black barrel (but not the inner threaded part) until it is set for the proper distance and tighten the screws back down.
Hope this helps.
Dan Cluley |
Ezio
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, March 24, 2004 - 09:08 am: |
|
My are these detailed instructions! Thank you so much for your cooperation! Hopefully I wouldn't need to go that deep. I'll work on it and report. |
Dan Cluley
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, March 25, 2004 - 12:37 am: |
|
While you're at it, have you cleaned the shutter blades of the camera? If the shutter blades on the C-four or C-44 get gummed up, they slow down the shutter and put stress on the internal mechanism. This will eventually either mess up the main spring or a little lever will break (it is basically irreplacable)
Unfortunately the shutter on the C-44 is held together with rivets, so the best thing is just do is squirt a little lighter fluid onto the blades (with the lens off) fire the camera once or twice and then use a Q-tip to wipe up the residue. Do this once or twice and then let it dry.
Dan Cluley |
Ezio
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, March 25, 2004 - 05:33 am: |
|
No/yes. The shutter blades were not sticky, but they had small patches of what looked either slight corrosion or fungus (but, on metal???). Anyway, gently wiping them with a mix of lighter fluid and a few drops of gun oil cleaned them pretty satisfactorily. I'm still try to find a strong spanner that would allow me to unscrew that front element. It is pretty tight, and the usual makeshift solutions (fingernails, scissors, etc.) are of no use. |
Charles Fallis
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, March 27, 2004 - 04:50 pm: |
|
Have you tried Micro Tools and/or Ebay? Both have spanners for sale that will work for this. |
Ezio
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, March 28, 2004 - 12:12 pm: |
|
So much work for nothing... I made myself a spanner by grinding the end part of the handle of a metal letter opener, which happened to be of exactly the required width and thickness. Opened the lens as per Dan's instruction (the fungus was on the aft surface of the middle element), cleaned, reassembled. Decided to run a film through it to check focus. Ten shots, twenty... and then the iris jams. There is a salad of blades, and at least two of them have been ripped off the basis ring. Oh, s..it.
are |
katie
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, March 03, 2005 - 10:12 pm: |
|
help help! I have a similar problem! The ring to focus on my C4 is totally jammed I am hopeing if I can get the largest part (closest to the body)off that I could clean it out I got main part with glass elements off, but how do I take off the brass ring on top of the brass threaded part? there are two notches do I just stick something in them and twist hard??? hope this is descriptive enough... i don't know terminology. |
