Vivitar Series 1 - 70-210mm f3.5 - Early Kiron version

guardian · Joined: 18 Mar 2009 Posts: 1747

I brought this lens in last year as part of a "package" deal. The feature lens in that deal was a Hexanon 35mm f2. So this Series 1 Kiron was small potatoes by comparison. I paid based on the Hexanon. This zoom was a "throw in".

But the potatoes turned out rotten at the core. This Series 1 was full of fungus! And it's not even a VMC; it's too early.

I tried without success last year to tear it apart. Went back to it today:

Turns out they glued this lens together. I just kept on flowing acetone onto it. Finally was able to unscrew the name ring. But what, you might ask, about the four Phillips screws around the front of the barrel?

I still cannot free them, even now with access to both top and bottom. I've tried everything except heat. After finally freeing and unscrewing the front lens group I am seeing a BRASS ring into which the four small screws are screwed. I suspect corrosion because the screws almost surely are steel.

But the principal negative I've encountered so far is somebody unloaded the entire glue pot onto the threads of this lens during assembly. Not only is disassembly made far more difficult, but the glue creates a mess which is difficult to clean up.

I have the front lens group fairly clean now. Used mineral oil. The second lens group came up with a bunch of star burst patterns in the coating. Not sure how that situation will resolve itself.

There's a lot more glass in this thing with fungus. And the glue just keeps coming. Sad

SonicScot · Posted: Thu Aug 08, 2013 10:38 pm Post subject:

Sounds like a nightmare. Sad

Lloydy · Expire: 2022-01-01

I spent most of my working life as a maintenance engineer, not a desk engineer but the guy with spanners in his oily hands. And the thing that pissed me off just about every single day was desk engineers who made things without the slightest thought about how the **** it comes apart! Rolling Eyes

Loctite on bolts that didn't need it was my pet hate. Twisted Evil

( and I've got spanners up to 200mm )