Sony I'm in love

HeatherTheVet

Top Veteran
Location
Scotland
Name
Heather
I've found her! 20 years languishing in a suitcase, one week on ebay and a few days with the Royal Mail and here she is in my hands, my new love. Canon FD 35-70mm 1:3.5-4.5. I think we're going to have great adventures together. I actually felt like I'm doing "proper" photography when I hooked her up and took the first couple of pictures (of the arm of the couch, the telly in the corner etc) it just seems to fit. Which is lovely, especially as she's only been out the box 10 mins, and I still don't really know what I'm doing.

Onwards to great things!
 
She has partnered the NEX-5. We may go to the park with the dog this afternoon to make a start on our plans for world domination. Its pretty overcast though and I suspect rain will be ruining play.
Saw a great photo waiting to be taken this morning before I had collected the lens. An old lady with no teeth, clearly a recent immigrant with little English and even less teeth sitting in a doorway on a fold out stool selling the Big Issue, her grandson standing beside her making cutesy eyes at my dog. In B&W would have been very Streetshooter. Maybe next time!
 
Focus is a bit squiffy, but here's one of the first pics.
5718793513_8541aff99b_b.jpg
[/url] Rodster by heather_t_vet, on Flickr[/IMG]
 
Disaster! The aperture blades are stuck at 3.5. I'm left with the options of sending it to get fixed (likely more expensive than the lens itself), buying another one (two for safety?) or getting the screwdriver out. Might be worth pointing out here that I have NO IDEA about the inside of lenses. But I have lots of screwdrivers, lighter fluid and cotton buds.

Most upsetting.
 
Hmmm. Zooms are more complex than primes, but I have successfully fixed sticky aperture blades on two Carl Zeiss Jena primes for m42 mount.

Firstly I would decide if I could afford to break it & replace it; then I would devote at least a whole afternoon - if not a whole day to carefully taking it apart (in a nice clean room).
With any luck the aperture assembly will be a discrete unit that you can soak in a cleaner and work manually until it frees up. If the blades must be taken off (and thus put back on) individually then this is a lot more fiddly.
My only concern would be collimation on reassembly, I imagine because of the many lens groups involved in a zoom design compared to a prime this might be quite hard.
Good luck!
 
Ps. I would leave the lighter fluid well away from the lens elements themselves, their coatings will not respond well to organic solvents!

I wonder if Brian is around, I think he's quite experienced with lenses.
 
This lens is quite old, 20 years maybe? I don't know anything about the mount types or what a breech-lock is. I know there's a wee springy bit that should open the blades but doesn't. A work in progress!
 
The 35-70 was only available in the "new FD" mount where you mount it by twisting the entire lens rather than the breech of the older FDs, and press a buttion on the lens to release it. This is what your lens will be. Touch wood, I've never needed to open up a new FD lens so I don't know the procedure to follow.

A new FD lens will look like this. This is a 24mm f2.8 but the base of the lens and aperture ring should look similar on your 35-70

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Thanks for those links, they look pretty helpful. However - suddenly and without warning or reason it is working again. I have no idea what is going on, but at least it is fixed for now. Of course in the meantime I have gone and bought another one, haven't I, so now I have two. Except the one I bought has exactly the same issue! Maybe I can get all DIY happy on that one and work out what's going on.

When I feel more affluent I'm going to splash out on the 18-55mm as well for situations in which a quick focus is required, I'm still pretty slow. But I have a pile of bills to pay before I can justify that.
 
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