Mamiya 6 Lens: Inspecting a Botched DIY Disassembly
Originally posted on Instagram. Notes from the repair bench, kept here as a searchable archive. View the original on Instagram
I bought this Mamiya 6 lens recently knowing that it did not work so might be fixable or usable for parts. My end of the week project was to inspect the lens. As you can see in the first photo, it has been attacked rather crudely in an attempt to remove the front element. It appears that the element group removal was attempted while the front name ring was still installed. Bad move, it will not come out that way. The availability of inexpensive spanners has convinced some people that they should disassemble their lens for “repair”. I would recommend starting on something less valuable than a Mamiya 6/7 lens!
Photo three shows the front element group removed from the lens. It has some odd sort of discoloration/damage to the front element. Photo four shows the front element at 60X and I have no idea what this sort of damage is caused by. The front element is smooth so I imagine this damage is to the lens coating.
Photos five and six are 60X views of residue that I found inside the front element housing. I first suspected water damage but I haven’t seen these sort of filamentous segments and gold particles before in any water damaged camera or lens. Usually it is just sand particles. I’d be curious to know what sort of trauma this lens has been involved in.
The shutter does work fine and shows no damage at all. I think this will be a parts lens at this point.
