Stiff focusing ring on a Biotar 58/2...? No problem!!!

tomasg · Expire: 2014-04-28

hi All

this is how i opened, cleaned and greased, oiled, my biotar 58/2...and put it back togheter

first step:

Before trying this the first thing to do is to check if you can unscrew the ring at the rear element, just loosen it and tighten it back, it will go off later, if you can`t unscrew it then i suggest that you DO NOT go on. I did maneged to put back the lens even without unscrewing it, but it took me four hours! It`s the outer, bigger ring, not the inner that holds a lens element!

Now if you can do that, we can go on, open up the aperture to f2 and align everything

unscrew the screw wich acts as a stopper, limiter

now you turn the FOCUSING ring twards close focus ClockWise, it can be very stiff, keep turning, at one point the upper, front, part of the lens will start to turn, keep turning, it will come out at one point, do everything very gently, never force at this point...

now you can turn the focusing ring all the way out, depending on the condition of the lens, this can be very, i mean very hard!, the focusing ring has a very fine thread, so when you turn it, it looks like it`s threadless...

now you can clean, grease, lubricate, the threads of the focusing ring, use your preferred method, but NEVER use generic sprays like WD40 for example, use one that it`s not acid!
now let`s go back to the front part of the lens, remember the ring we tested? it`s time to unscrew it, under it i found a spacer ring

once you removed them pull up gently the inner ring, it should come off easely, clean, grease, lubricate and so on everything you want...after that it`s time to put the lens together !!!

first, screw back the focusing ring, start to screw it in at infinity position

go all the way in, this is important, becouse otherwise you probably won`t be able to achieve infinity, depending on how you greased it, it may still require some force, my lens reaches the end at a position marked at around 0,65 m

unscrew the focusing ring back to reach infinity then add one more full turn, 360 degrees, if you don`t add this turn you want be able to turn the focusing ring enough in the opposite direction, when needed, simplly put, screw it to the closest infinity position at the end of the thread, then unscrew it one turn, it`s much more easy to do than to explain it

now comes the tricky part: take a look at this picture, no really take a long look, taken before the focusing ring is in position

the notch, jag, incision, however it`s called, on the inner ring of the lens, has to go into the tooth (translation pending), that is screwed on the inner part of the rear ring of the lens, on this picture the focusing ring is in it`s place

to do this put the inner ring into the focusing ring, align the notch to the tooth (TP), turn it ClockWise just a few milimeters, to find the beginning of the tread, once you achieved that, turn it CounterClockWise, you will have to hold the fousing ring in place all the time, move the notch exactly above the tooth, the goal now is to turn the focusing ring CounterClockWise (twards infinity), so that the notch slides onto the tooth, i do it by moving alternatevly the inner ring and the focusing ring, by just a milimeter or so, at one point when the notch reaches the tooth you won`t be abe to turn the inner ring, if you nailed the position you`ll be able to turn the focusing ring to reach infinity, a series of pics:

this is the starting position

by "playing" and with a lot of patience you should be able to do it, i opened and put togheter the lens now five times, it takes me a few moments to do this and 10 minutes to do all the work, i`am by no means an expert, it`s the first lens i opened, the end result:

the rest is much easyer, put back the spacer ring, as a side note for nikon users, i tryed to put the lens togheter without it, but you still can`t reach infinity without a glass adapter

now align the two red triangular marks, be careful, the spacer ring is easy to move

the rear part should just drop onto the front part, now screw on the retaining ring at the back of the lens

oh and dont`t forget to put the limiter screw back in!!!

that`s it!!!

Disclaimer:
1. try this at your own risk
2. your biotar 58/2 can be different
3. befor doing it, wait to see if this post will have some interest, so we can discuss the process and maybe i˙ll have to answer some questions
4. to the administrators: feel free to move or remove the topic, if you think is too "dangerous"
5. please feel free to correct all the grammatical errors, and find a translation for the "tooth" Very Happy

tomas

Helios · Joined: 05 Jan 2008 Posts: 537 Location: East of France

Congratulations ! Very helpful, precise tutorial ... ! I have a Biotar on the way to CLA, but I only "contemplate" it ... and unscrewed nothing for one year ... Many thanks ! Very Happy

djmike · Joined: 01 Apr 2009 Posts: 930 Location: Taiwan

Tomas,
Thanks for sharing.
Mike

LucisPictor · Expire: 2013-12-03

Thanks a lot for sharing!
Putting back together this lens can be very frustrating. Wink

lwsy711 · Joined: 21 Oct 2009 Posts: 230 Location: VA, US

Thanks for sharing! Good habit to take photo for each step! Seems like there will always be some extra and useless parts when we resemble something, at least I am Very Happy

martinsmith99 · Expire: 2013-11-18

I managed to get mine apart & back together, but it did cause some problems at first. I did it differently to this though. I just removed the screw and it came apart. I have a technique of putting it together which requires 3 hands but it works.

tomasg · Expire: 2014-04-28

martinsmith99 · Expire: 2013-11-18

If you find a way or know of a way to adjust the infinity focus I'd be interested. Mine doesn't seem to hit infinity on my Chinon. Most lenses are ok, but this one and another cause issues only on that camera.

peterqd · Expire: 2014-01-04

Great work Tomas. Is that Torx screw original??

I'd like to move this thread into the Equipment Care section, do you have any objections?

Attila · Expire: 2025-11-18

Many thanks to sharing!

tomasg · Expire: 2014-04-28

hinnerker · Expire: 2015-08-09

THX for sharing..

Cheers
Henry

indianadinos · Expire: 2011-12-05

Hi,

I was just looking for this ... Hopefully i can fix my Biotars now Very Happy

...

Many thanks for sharing!

Cheers

tomasg · Expire: 2014-04-28

qvillin · Joined: 09 Sep 2014 Posts: 1

You really make this seem doable. I have never taken apart a lens - what did you use to lubricate the parts? where does the lubricant get applied?

Thanks

Sciolist · Expire: 2021-04-16

As a new member I've not yet checked to see if tomasg is still active on the board, but I'm posting to say thank you.

This biotar lens comes apart so easily your logic is defied when you find it's not so straightforward to reassemble it. So you continue to try to put it together as a reverse of how it came apart. Over and over again! I've read that doing the same thing over and over again expecting a different result can be a sign of madness. I may have been getting close. For a couple of months now I've randomly picked up the lens, tried to mate the two parts, *sighed*, then put it back on the shelf. Then I came across your post. 15 minutes later the lens is back on my camera (a Pentax SV). I have the feeling I can't be alone in reading your post and a lightbulb suddenly turning on. As I said earlier, the ease at which the lens comes apart seems to block your mind to reassembly being anything other than a reverse of the same.

If I can help a bit in return. On reassembly I found the same problem of not being able to reach infinity. After some thought I introduced the focusing ring to the depth of field marked ring at 2.5m rather than infinity as you suggested in your original post. This has allowed infinity to be achieved, but at the expense of the distance scale being slightly out. Infinity is being reached just before infinity as indicated on the lens barrel. But at least I now have infinity. When I have more time I'll be going back to do some more trial and error on where the best position is to introduce the focusing ring to the depth of field ring.

Thanks again.

Up and running -

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Sciolist · Expire: 2021-04-16

tomasg · Expire: 2014-04-28

Still alive and kicking, although i mostly only read posts here now. Soon i ll have my tutorials posted on another site with which i am starting a collaboration, i ll post the links here.
Regarding the infinity on my Biotar i found out that the cause must be the fact that i used the front part of the optical block from another lens, so mine is a kind of a hybrid. If i put the whole optical block of a Tessar lens with its original shim it reaches infinity with the Biotars "body". The two lenses are clones mechanically. Viceversa if i put the Biotars block into the Tessar body infinity is lost.
A small tip for greasing, i find most of the greases to stiff to be applied in a correct amount, since the are difficult to sprad on the threads we put more of it, resulting in a stiff focusing. I add few deops of oil to the grease in a small pot, mix it and applay it to the threads. This way i put the correct small amount of grease and since it s softer it s easy to spread it with a brush and grease all the thread. At first the focusing is a bit on a soft side, but as the solvent in the oil evaporates it gets stiffer, after a couple of weeks/months. I use 1 or 2 drops max, so i wouldn t over obsess about the residue depositing on the lens surfaces, but even if that s the case it s easy to clean them.

Tomas

Sciolist · Expire: 2021-04-16

tomasg · Expire: 2014-04-28

Yes, on almost all lenses i grease them with a diluted grease, though i prepare fresh grease every time, really the amount of grease is smal plus a drop of oil, it can be done even on a piece of paper or wood, almost like a painter does it. Smile

More problematic than the threads are the parts that are rotational and need to be assembled tightly togheterd, for example some Russian lenses like the Helios 44-2, Tair 11, the rear part of the focusing mechanism is more difficult to grease to get the right amount of resistance. Them there are big and heavy lenses, like Helios 40 for example, due to the weight of the front of the lens it s difficult to struck the balance between a not too stiff focusing and no "grinding" while one turns the focus ring in a horizontal position for example. Very fine threads also need small amount of not too sticky grease and so on...

Tomas

Sciolist · Expire: 2021-04-16

Thanks Tomas.

jhayashileite · Posted: Sat Sep 22, 2018 5:06 pm Post subject:

Has anyone tried this with the older 17-blade version of the lens? Any tips?