Nokton lens barrel (a little play?)

[Rurouni]

Hi I just acquired a Nokton and was wondering if there is usually a little play in the lens barrel (after the focusing sleeve near the front of the lens)? The focusing sleeve is nice and smooth and so is the aperture dial, but the portion in between them has a little play.

Hope I managed to describe that accurately..

[sf]

Mine had some - a little. It was the Nokton 40 f1.4. Performed great, though.

[lido]

Mine doesn't have any, black Nokton 50/1.5.

[kevino]

My 35mm Ultron has a tiny bit of play (like you're describing). The Ultron and Nokton appear to be built in a similar manner. I remember seeing a fix for the Ultron posted here or on pnet although I've never tried it. I wonder if the same fix would work for the Nokton as well since they are of similar build and appear, in some cases, to have developed the same problem.

[Rurouni]

Thanks for the info, guess I'm not the only one facing this little problem. But the image is most impt, will shoot a test roll soon and see if everything's ok. *cross fingers*

[ray_g]

The nokton I sold to BJ (Bignell) had a similar problem, IIRC. He described an easy fix, and thanks to gmail's amazing archival system, here's his email from 2/1/05:

Ray,

Upon closer inspection, I think I've discovered the problem. Underneath the
name plate ring, which easily unscrews, I found that the small hold-down
screws are coming loose. When I get home, I'll pull them out and put a
little nail polish on them to keep them from coming loose again.

I'll let you know how it turns out.

Thanks,

BJ

[Rurouni]

Hey thanks ray for the tip, what is the name plate ring that the email refers to btw?

[ray_g]

The front lens ring, between the filter thread and the front lens element. That usually unscrews.

[Rurouni]

I added a pic of my Nokton together with an indication of where there is some play in the lens. (before I try adding extra torque to the lens)

That's the part that we're all talking about right? Feel free to re-edit the image.

[kevino]

Yep. That's it. I found a post here that led me to a post on pnet with a fix for the 35 Ultron. I just did a couple of searches here and couldn't find what I was looking for.

IIRC, it involved a bit more than just taking off the front ring and tightening that first set of screws. The repair inolved taking out the first set of screws, removing the aperture ring (being careful not to lose the ball bearing or spring for the detent), taking out another set of screws and then finally to the screws that cause the problem.

Apparently this final set of screws would loosen up a bit causing the play. The fix is to back out those final set of screws, put a bit of nail polish on the threads and re-install, hence fixing the problem.

I remember the guy that posted the fix saying that he contacted Gandy about it. Gandy's reply was that it was a common problem - $150 to fix! This fella did it himself in about 15 min.

Try some searches here & on pnet. I dont know if this fix would work for the Nokton, but it's so similar in constuction to the Ultron....

I wish I could be more help but I can't find the thread I'm looking for!

[Rurouni]

$150! O_o

hmm.. will this loose front end affect the image in any way? If not I'm pretty happy letting it be or until I can get it tightened up at a reliable shop. There's no CV dealer where I live : /

Thanks for the info, I'm glad I didn't try to dismantle it yesterday night!

[Rurouni]

So I'm wondering now, if I want to try the fix mentioned at http://www.photo.net/bboard/q-and-a-...?msg_id=006dyD

, and referring to the photo i posted above and the article, should the first part to unscrew be the portion just below the black marumi filter? I think I'm gonna try it up to that step and see how complex the repair actually is.

[goo0h]

Originally Posted by kevino

I remember the guy that posted the fix saying that he contacted Gandy about it. Gandy's reply was that it was a common problem - $150 to fix!

That's a bit disconcerting. I hope Cosina is looking into this....

[pau3]

Hi everybody,
I have a similar problem with my 28/1.9 ultron. There is some
"play" in the aperture ring and even in the ring closest to the
camera body. Does anybody know if this problem may affect
the quality of the pics? Or if it can be solved in a similar way
as described above? I don't know if the 28 ultron has a similar
construction to the 35 ultron, but after some not very deep
inspection I think that the outer ring doesn't unscrew. The only
visible screws are in the back of the lens.