soligor 180mm 3.5 iris issue maybe?

[Layer-cake]

hey everyone, came across a soligor 180mm as part of a lens set I bought and I've noticed the aperture blades don't open fully at 3.5. its a pre set lens and I'm just wondering if anyone is familiar with it and can tell me if this is a designed or if i need to address the issue.

picked up the set for a steal at $90 and it included a takumar 85mm 1.8 and a 28mm 3.5 with original hoods so I'm not going to be disappointed if the 180 is a bit buggered;)

[mo]

Do you have a photo of the blades?

[Layer-cake]

just a quick photo from my phone:


I think there is an issue, i wasnt sure if oil on a present set lens blades would affect it but I just removed the front barrel and managed to massage the blades all the way open........another project to do I suppose.

[WolverineX]

probably too much oil on the blades that prevents fully opening the aperture. use lighter fluid to clean the blades

[Layer-cake]

yeah I think I'm going to go that route, started removing the back mount but its proving rather difficult as the back end seems to be a solid milled piece and I can't see a straight forward way to remove it. first time working on a preset, done quite a few auto diaphragm ones, which seem to be a bit easier;)

[kenetik]

Def looks like oil on the blades. I've had bad luck with Soligors and blades recently. I know they were just a vendor, but I got 3 Soligors in a row as parts of bundles with non responsive apertures.

[Gardener]

I had to abandon my cup of coffee and go find my copy of it. It supposed to open fully of course, but the movement is rather tight, and I can believe that a solidified drop oil, or some debris (mine accumulated quite a bit on the surface right above the aperture) would cause an obstruction. Re: taking it apart - I'd try to loosen the setscrews on te focus ring and go from there.

[Layer-cake]

so it turns out it was some grub screws under the focus ring that had loosened that allowed the aperture mechanism to shift.

[Lloydy]

[Layer-cake]

I thought at first removing the back end would give me access to the blades itself but once I had removed the aperture rings and the mount piece all o could do was turn the whole section with the rear lens element and aperture system, I was a bit stumped because there would be no way I could set it and it would just turn and turn.

so off came the focus ring which didn't help at first as you have to extend the barrel out a bit for the grub screws that hold the aperture system in place visible. gardeners comment convinced to remove it and luckily there they were.





in the pic I put the mount piece back on but you can see the grub through the round hole, this would have been an easy fix if I had known but I've dismantled quite a bit of the lens at this point, need to figure out how stuff gets aligned.

[Layer-cake]

I though at first that there wouldn't be any spring mechanism that helped control the aperture, it just wouldn't make sense in a preset lens.

one thing i have to say about this lens sets previous owner is he loved his lenses;) here's a pic of the 85mm its near perfect!!



I want to keep it rather badly for when I get a good APC camera but on MFT its not a focal length I would use, so its going to be sold. in some ways I always feel bad just buying these sets to break apart and resell especially when I can see the person really appreciated what they had but what I decided to do as a tribute is have the 3 rolls of exposed film that came with the set developed:) they are old, like 1978 old but also seem to have been in their canisters since then, so we shall see what they contain!!