Lens self repair

rowanh

Hey folks,

Before reading this what im asking is how hard is it to take apart a nikon lens and put it back together and more importantly what do the bearings look like.

So i have a Nikon F1.4 Afd lens, its broken, when you focus all the way in on the close side and then try to focus on something further away it gets stuck. If you switch to manual and move past the point its stuck on and then back to AF and focus on something further away it works fine and will continue to focus perfectly as long as you do not go past the point it sticks at.

I spoke to someone in a lens repair company and they said they would fix it for 80 euros. They said the parts needed are a set of bearing which cost around 20 euro and 60 is labour. Now the sensible part of me is saying that sounds reasonable but i would like to try and fix it myself. I spoke to someone in the Nikon parts dept and they sent me out an exploded diagram of the lens as they are not aware of there being any bearings inside it. I could ring the repair place back but i think it would be a little cheeky asking them for help to do myself what they charge for..

So, firstly what as above im wondering how hard is it to take a lens apart and reassemble it, seeing the exploded diagram it does look significantly more complicated than i expected it to be. I often take things apart, i have replaced laptop screens several times for example so i think i would be reasonably competent generally. Then im guessing no one will have a clue but ill attach the diagram and if anyone can tell me which parts are the bearings it would be much appreciated.

regards,

Rowan

magicbastarder

if you've never taken a lens apart before, you'd be a lunatic to try it first on a lens which is of any value to you.
spend a tenner on some cheapo vivitar 28mm jobbie and see what its like first.

sheesh

1.4 lens is worth over a grand afaik so just hand it into a repair centre.

A bearing is something that gives support and allows movement so when I opened the document i was preparing to look for a circular typre object....

unfortunately it's a camera lens so everything circular.

vintagecosmos

Don't do it. I dismantled a 55-200 for a similar reason and had no joy. I've taken apart iPhones and more before without much difficulty. Replacing screens and digitisers etc. but the lens perplexed me completely. There is a boardsie here who does lens repair. Worth getting a quote from him. Zerohamster is his name. Haven't used him myself but search and u will find

rowanh

Grand, thanks for the discouragement. I was of hoping people would say go for it, its easy but in reality i had a feeling its a bad idea. I meant to say its 50mm so its not worth that much but i think taking a worthless lens apart would be a much better idea, i not sure if ill ever get round to doing that so ill see, maybe next winter. I don't really want to pay 80 euro to get it fixed as I barley ever use it and it works fine you just need to occasionally switch the camera to manual and refocus it then switch it back.

endacl

Put the lens down, and slowly back away from the lens....

This is the Voice of Experience, here to do you a favour.