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Aperture blades open or closed during storage?
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PostPosted: Wed Oct 05, 2011 3:01 pm    Post subject: Aperture blades open or closed during storage? Reply with quote
When not using a mf lens either short term or long term, is it better to leave the aperture fully open or closed, or does it not matter either way?


PostPosted: Wed Oct 05, 2011 4:53 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
Leave 'em about two stops down from fully open, and with the focus set at a reasonable hyperfocal distance. That way, when you forget about them for 30 years and the basement floods and the lenses seize up from rust and corrosion, they are the most usable in their damaged state. Laughing


PostPosted: Wed Oct 05, 2011 5:10 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
hmm, about the same I would have said, set them to the midfdle aperture dettinbg and the lens focus at infinity


PostPosted: Wed Oct 05, 2011 8:55 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
Scheimpflug wrote:
Leave 'em about two stops down from fully open, and with the focus set at a reasonable hyperfocal distance. That way, when you forget about them for 30 years and the basement floods and the lenses seize up from rust and corrosion, they are the most usable in their damaged state. Laughing


Thanks, very helpful! Rolling Eyes


PostPosted: Wed Oct 05, 2011 8:59 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
Store your lenses in a proper environment and use every one of them at least once per year. Smile


PostPosted: Wed Oct 05, 2011 9:56 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
DigiChromeEd wrote:
Thanks, very helpful! Rolling Eyes


Well, what kind of answer did you want? Confused


I have a whole box full of unfortunate lenses in this state.. only a few are usable now, and they could have all been at least partially usable had their previous owners set them right before they put them away.

The truth is that if you are concerned about grease hardening up, oil migrating out of the aperture, springs losing tension, or the blades rusting, you have a choice to make. Either you use the lenses enough to keep them in good shape (and in this case the aperture setting doesn't matter)... or you chose to not exercise them and deal with the consequences.

Hopefully you will use them every once in a while... but should you forget, or should something unfortunate happen to them when they are stored, my advice was genuine. You said "short term or long term"... and long term means different things to different people.


PostPosted: Thu Oct 06, 2011 1:14 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
I don't know whether this helps or hurts for 30-year storage but I am getting very fond of graphite lubricant.
Its just dry graphite dust.
I am using it a lot on old shutters.
In theory this will not deteriorate or make aperture leaves stick, or evaporate and condense on your lenses.


PostPosted: Thu Oct 06, 2011 6:03 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
Orio wrote:
Store your lenses in a proper environment and use every one of them at least once per year. Smile
That's probably the best advice; it's the lack of use combined with poor storage conditions that causes problems. I'm trying to make sure all my cameras get wound on and fired a couple of times a month and all controls moved. It's quite tedious, but hopefully, no stiff, dry grease.


PostPosted: Thu Oct 06, 2011 6:28 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
Scheimpflug wrote:
DigiChromeEd wrote:
Thanks, very helpful! Rolling Eyes


Well, what kind of answer did you want? Confused


I have a whole box full of unfortunate lenses in this state.. only a few are usable now, and they could have all been at least partially usable had their previous owners set them right before they put them away.

The truth is that if you are concerned about grease hardening up, oil migrating out of the aperture, springs losing tension, or the blades rusting, you have a choice to make. Either you use the lenses enough to keep them in good shape (and in this case the aperture setting doesn't matter)... or you chose to not exercise them and deal with the consequences.

Hopefully you will use them every once in a while... but should you forget, or should something unfortunate happen to them when they are stored, my advice was genuine. You said "short term or long term"... and long term means different things to different people.


Thanks. What I was thinking about when I wrote this post was oil on the aperture blades and the blades themselves sticking and becoming unusable. I just wondered whether there was less chance of this happening if the aperture was left open or closed when not in use. As you said, the best solution is to use them every now and again but this becomes more difficult especially when LBA kicks in! I think I need to reduce my collection to the lenses I actually use on a regular basis and sell the rest. Wink


PostPosted: Thu Oct 06, 2011 7:39 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
****Thanks. What I was thinking about when I wrote this post was oil on the aperture blades and the blades themselves sticking and becoming unusable. I just wondered whether there was less chance of this happening if the aperture was left open or closed when not in use***

On my Kiron zoom I have to use an elastic band to keep the lens at f22 when not in use, if I don't do this the iris sticks at wide open and only banging the lens with my hand will free it. So on my lens with no manual stop down and for long term storage I'd choose the chance of maybe weakening the iris return spring rather than end up with the blades stuck wide open and a strip down to free them.


PostPosted: Thu Oct 06, 2011 1:36 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
Quote:
I don't know whether this helps or hurts for 30-year storage but I am getting very fond of graphite lubricant.
Its just dry graphite dust.
I am using it a lot on old shutters.
In theory this will not deteriorate or make aperture leaves stick, or evaporate and condense on your lenses.


This is what we use in our garage, on ingnition locks and door locks on some of the cars. Let me explain, at least for the european members: the Opel Astra, model "G" (the last model it s called "I") has this problem with ignition locks, that get blocked with time. The solution is to use graphite dust, (Opel remedy) no other grease , wd-40 or oils, becouse they get "harder" with time. We where all very sceptical, but it works. I guess it would work well on aperture blades too, my only doubt is that the excess dust will get on the internal lens elements. It would be worth trying on a cheap or otherwise usless lens.

All my AF lenses are fully stopped down when not mounted on a camera, this is not a coincidence, so i store my MF lenses like that, but i do use them all from time to time.

Tomas


PostPosted: Thu Oct 06, 2011 2:56 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
Graphite powder is used in good quality locks, any oil traps dirt and risks seizing the lock. I worked for a major utility company that had thousands of pumping stations and treatment plant ( clean water and sewage ) and they changed to a standard lock system throughout the company so we only had to carry a small bunch of keys. At one time I had over 700 keys in my van.
Anyway, after a year or so locks started to jam solid, and they were ones that people had oiled, as they did the old locks. The lock company had a team going around stripping, cleaning and re-lubing with the graphite powder. Apparently it sticks to the sliding surfaces by being fine enough to impregnate into the surface imperfections of the metal, no matter how smooth the machining is.
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