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Anyone ever taken apart a Nikon AF lens?

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wkilleffer

wkilleffer

Jedi Knight
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Hey everyone, long time no talk.

I'm getting into photography and recently bought a used 50mm f/1.8 Nikkor AF lens on the 'bay. It was less than the typical price of a new lens being used and all.

It focuses sharply and the aperture ring seems to move the way it's supposed to. The blades were clean and so's the inside of the lens. I tend to use it on a non-AF Nikon N2000 camera my brother gave me, though I also have an AF capable N8008.

The problem is that while it's fast to focus, there is a point near the end of the closer focus range that seems a little stiff, and the AF function on the N8008 seems to balk a little bit there.

Has anyone ever taken a lens like this apart by themselves for service? I don't feel unhappy about its condition or anything like that cause it's doing what I need it to do. But I am curious about this. Any suggestions or advice would be appreciated.

Thank you,
-Bill
 
Bill, th' thing is like a modern car... Phenolic plastic gears, a bunch of 'lectronics to control it. I've serviced Copal Square shutters, Soligor, Vivitar Series One lenses, Pentax, Nikon, Leica, Contax, Exacta,Practika and even Russian Zenit-6 curtains, a plethora of optics and apertures... best bet is use it up and get another when it dies. As soon as you "touch" it, it goes ~INOP~...


Just as in cars, when computers are ALLOWED to take responsibility, we lose.

Cut your losses.
 
Yep, I took mine apart a few years ago. It's still in pieces today. What a nightmare to work on. I had to buy another one to replace it.
 
I don't know how much you got it on 'ebay for, but the 50 1.8 is the cheapest, and one of the best <span style="font-style: italic">new</span> Nikkor lenses out there. A like-new, perfect working condition one should be $90-$100 (or less). A brand new one should be $100-$110.

So - if you take your chances with it the prices aren't that high for another top-notch one (and I kind of doubt it's worth having fixed by Nikon).
 
Ok, this lens new tends to run between $115 and $130 new depending on the retailer. Since most of the big ones seem to do price matching, there's no reason to pay the bigger price.

What I'm probably going to end up doing is buying a used 50mm f/1.8 Series E lens to use with that N2000. Seems lighter and less complicated. The N8008 has an issue with a bad spring in the aperture link ring, so I'll be using it less. I know AF has its advantages, but I don't want to take a nice camera and turn it into a P&S.

Thanks,
-Bill
 
Adorama has it gray market for $108. Which is where (and how) I got mine - but then they are about 200 yards from where I work, which helps a lot...
 
B&H has USA for $109 - I always buy from either B&H or Adorama, they're both great to deal with.

FWIW, the new 50/1.8 has an annoying problem - at and above f/11 it shows a very distinct hot spot in the center of the image. For a cheap chinese-built lens it is sharp as can be, but that hot-spot is annoying. I've checked with several other people and they've had the same problem. I don't think the 1.4 does it, but the price for that extra 2/3-stop is a bit much.

Here's a gallery of quick samples I did after I got mine this spring.

Hot spot:
304670748_ehCcR-M.jpg
 
Ever taken apart a Nikon AF lens???? yup

Ever put it back together and it worked again??? nope

I'm with Doc... any more this stuff is just a black box.... not from lack of trying on our part but man oh man... all that tiny surface-mount pcb stuff makes it really hard to get yer head around what it is _trying_ to think so that you can wrap the function up into a "cause and effect" scenario and then catch it doing something wrong.

Phenolic gears.... there's another word I haven't thought about in 10 years... commercial photo processing equipment uses that stuff all over the place... kinda like precision Bakelite with fibres
 
wkilleffer said:
What I'm probably going to end up doing is buying a used 50mm f/1.8 Series E lens to use with that N2000.
-Bill
Click to expand...

Bill, I just bought one on eBay for $22.50 to replace one of mine that was FUBAR. Seems to be just fine, for the price.
Jeff
 
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