Taking Photos with and Repairing the Moldiest Lens I have Ever Seen | Rokkor-x 50mm 1.7 Lens Repair

[@dutchbeef8920]

After shots really show the quality of the optics here

[@detectivejonesw]

This is absolutely fascinating to watch. I would love to start repairing old lenses myself

[@DavidHancock]

Thank you! Old lenses are generally pretty easy to fix. Olympus is a bit of an exception.

[@arricammarques1955]

@@DavidHancock Anxiety start alert! 8:03 Brave skills, David.

[@DixonLu]

What bravery-cleaning it without rubber gloves on.

[@DavidHancock]

:D

[@danilvinyukov2060]

​@@DavidHancock I wanted to say, if the pins in the appature cannot be put back in you could first, stick it i to a rust remover solution. Then use some metal on metal glue to attack the pins in. Make sure you place the plate with pins on something like paper so that when a little glue seeps through and hardens you can just pull it off and scratch away the extra paper parts. Don't rush repair jobs, emotions and the urge to "immediatly fix now fast" usually don't lead to good.

[@DavidHancock]

@danilvinyukov2060 thank you¡

[@nathanmeagher5291]

Wow that was impressive. Good job saving the lens

[@DavidHancock]

Thank you!

[@ngiorgos]

Wow! I'm amazed by both the edited photos and the post-cleaning photos. They turned out much betted than I expected. Especially the post-cleaning ones!

[@DavidHancock]

Thank you! I completely agree. The downside is that it's stuck wide open because I had to take out the aperture, but it's still surprisingly good.

[@sneu420]

Great craftsmanship...! I should repeat this often to really appreciate the awesome tech as well as his dedication & efforts...! ~ Clockwork isn't that simple and aged now...! :")

[@DavidHancock]

Thank you! Clockwork is never simple. :D

[@dutchbeef8920]

I quite like the outdoor film shots with fungus

[@DavidHancock]

Definitely. They're a unique image look that I don't know another way to achieve without extensive photo editing.

[@ajthealchemist]

Great video man👌🏼

[@DavidHancock]

Thank you!

[@monsieurgolem3392]

Wide open prime lens thats all, would be a good learning tool on a film camera.

[@DavidHancock]

Defnitely

[@jonlouis2582]

I couldn't stop wondering what sort of bourbon you had in the glass. But seriously, this was a very interesting video on many levels. Years ago when I was doing more buying and selling of equipment, several Rokkor lenses where among the sharpest I ever tested, and yes, easily serviced. I found that some really ugly lenses return surprisingly good results, and some that look almost perfect and cost a mint give poor photos. A very expensive German brand was the most common example of the later. The most surprising thing in this video was that you own an XK that still works. Thanks for documenting and sharing.

[@DavidHancock]

Thank you! I was enjoying a bottled in bond bourbon from Oregon, though I forget the distillery name. For the XK, I did have to send it off for repair last year. It locked up mid-roll in 2019 and it took a while to find someone who would fix it (and at that he couldn't promise a successful repair, but he managed to do a great job.) They would have a much better following today if Minolta had properly supported them back in the day. They're an absolute nightmare if they fail, to the point that someday I will sell this camera (probably this year) and it will likely not recover the repair cost. Getting one repaired basically means finding someone who can locate another broken one with a different problem.

[@diegoscopia]

I think it speaks very highly of Minolta lenses considering how terrible the condition was. It's possibly my favourite 50mm lens ever made, for the rendering, sharpness and colour.

[@DavidHancock]

I concur for sure about the quality and Minolta's 1.7 lenses across their designs were spectacular.

[@bluegrassengineer]

Great video. Thanks.

[@DavidHancock]

Thank you!

[@hughsydney2620]

What a job 👍

[@DavidHancock]

Thank you!

[@loukashareangas4420]

The second part of the video reminds me of a mikeno62 + bourbon. Good job on the lens, a salvage operation really. You must have at some pont dipped the cotton swab in the bourbon though!

[@DavidHancock]

I almost did, but not to clean the lens.

[@ZommBleed]

That's why it has the same hue as bourbon.

[@olafwDE]

@@ZommBleed 😋🤣

[@yasea0]

Good job 🤘

[@DavidHancock]

Thank you!

[@marcp.1752]

I appreciate much your effort to clean up this mess (literarly...) up, David. But seriously, a Minolta MD II 50/1.7 costs new next to nothing, so would being the better choice, no offense. Interesting, very vintage-esque picture looks, from the before very dirty, rusty lens... ;-) I do shoot Minolta since the late 80's. (manual focus lenses, Minolta SR/MC/MD Mount)

[@DavidHancock]

I know. I didn't really do it to save a lens so much as have fun and make a video.

[@marcp.1752]

@@DavidHancock I know. :)

[@ArchLinuxTux]

Let the aperture doak in some vaporust for a day, may need to do it a few times to get it all off

[@DavidHancock]

I would have loved to have. The rust ended up not being the problem but the pivot pin hole expansion killed the leaves. There was no way to given them the ability to pivot when the aperture moved. A new aperture assembly could be used, but I'd need to harvest it from another lens that has worse elements to make that repair worthwhile.

[@ArchLinuxTux]

@@DavidHancock yep, I wrote that when I saw the.ribmng mechanism and before seeing the leavs. Would it even be worth it making some larger pins, even 3d printing leaves and pins. Could you so a vid on the most common 35mm camera issue, the rewind shaft drops inside the camera, the youtub video have incorrect possioning with a pick and it should be in the 10 o'clock possession mot 7, and repair shops aren't nice Abita it, like the use to be(now they try to charge an hour labor just for popping the film door open) Surprised no one has a side gussle 3d printing rewind kobs with crank.

[@brodybunter4453]

David, do you have a professional background in camera repair? It's what I would imagine to be a dying trade, what would you suggest to someone wanting to get into it?

[@DavidHancock]

I do not. I'm more optimistic than many about the future of camera repair. Were I to go into it professionally, here's what I would do: 1- Pick some cameras to really specialize in. Don't try to learn them all. 2- Get the repair manuals for those cameras, whether it's five models or 20. 3- Learn 3-D CAD with various printing techniques -- additive with PLA filaments, additive resin, eventually additive metal -- and learn to design with a laser cutter and different materials like wood, plastic, metal, and leather. There will come a time when no more parts for repairs are available and being able to make them (and building up a 3-D model library at the same time) will be crucial to this business' future. 4- Develop a good business model with solid P&L inputs, track every cost, and refine your pricing based on how much you want to make versus how much time each repair costs. Fixing a Canon squeak, maybe that $40 plus shipping because about 10-20 of those can be done in an hour depending on how fast you are and that's a good hour's pay. Rebuilding the film advance mechanism or installing new shutter curtains, that might take three-four hours and be a $200 job. Those are just random ideas and numbers, BTW. Ultimately, the most important thing that anyone in a camera repair, sales, or service industry can understand, and the guiding philosophy I have when selling cameras is this: Every camera has to be treated like it means the world to the customer because I don't know how much it means. To me it may be a common $40 Mamiya or Vivitar, but to the customer it could be the camera their grandfather used to take their baby photos. Or the camera someone buys today, even if it's a $30 Minolta QTsi could be the camera that ignites a creative photographic spark in them. It's vital to treat every item and every transaction as though it is special and means everything to the customer because it easily could and denigrating or devaluing someone that means a lot to another person can set them back in their creative pursuits. I learned that years ago when a student came to a photo class I was in one day just crushed because the guys at the camera shop ion Berkley had criticized him for using a Canon EOS Rebel 2000, which they called a Plastic Fantastic, and he left their, and spent some days before the next class, feeling like his camera choice was a bad one and would make him a bad photographer.

[@mrdasboot45]

I have a question, I tried to disassemble a Kodak Ektar 152 mm lens for my graflex, but the first screw I tried to unscrew the head broke off leaving the rest of the small screw in place. Apart from drilling the screw out I have no idea of how to get the remainder of the screw out, any ideas? Also maybe some advice of how to prevent this from happening again, thanks in advance and happy Easter 🐰

[@DavidHancock]

Oh geez. Drilling it out is probably the only way with something that small. Those old lenses tended to use brass screws and they shear very easily. As the brass has aged, there's not much to do with those except be super careful when removing them. I've been in exactly that same position before and there's no easy resolution.

[@mrdasboot45]

@@DavidHancock I was afraid of that, thanks

[@ZommBleed]

David usually drops cameras and lenses, so the impact loosens any corrosion lock on the threads. He cleverly edited out that part of this video, hence the high speed rendering. If you slow the video down, you see him edit out that part when he reaches for the tumbler. His DTs caused his hand to shake that resulted in the lens drop. He should have taken a sip a few minutes earlier and then he could have filmed it straight through without the edit.

[@joeysartain6056]

what is the black 1500 ooze? I tried pausing the video to my hearts content but I was not able to read it's label.

[@DavidHancock]

That is Culture Hustle Black 2.0.

[@joeysartain6056]

@@DavidHancock thanks.

[@olafwDE]

So this lens smelled like chicken - expecting the worst ✅ Now it smells like whiskey - hoping for the best 💯✅ Good job, David, now I don't shy away anymore from rotten old glass. It's a) good for practicing repairs and b) can even offer some creative adventures, no matter how bad things will go. I actually have one bottle nest lying around here...

[@DavidHancock]

Nice! And yes, it's great for practicing repairs. Old lenses were built to last and withstand way more abuse and damage than people realize. They aren't like the lower-spec lenses of the 90s onward that had failure designed into them.

[@olafwDE]

Sad but true. Me side-eyeing at a specific Tam...cough..ron zoom lens

[@ZommBleed]

Looks like the lens you sent with my K-1000 purchase. Buyer beware! P.S. It tastes like chicken, too.

[@DavidHancock]

Mmmm. Chicken lens.

[@ZommBleed]

@@DavidHancock Yeah.

[@David_GarciaMontero]

I think some people into ¨soup film¨ or effects like that will start looking for moldiest lenses or whatsoever

[@DavidHancock]

You know, would not surprise me. But hey, if the lens can create a compelling image, it doesn't really matter the condition.

[@David_GarciaMontero]

@@DavidHancock exactly, it will bring some other aesthetics. It will be interesting. Thanks for the video David

[@lc_ap]

That isnt a lens with mold thats mold with a lens

[@DavidHancock]

Definitely yes.