RZ67 110mm Lens: Straightening a Dented Filter Ring
Originally posted on Instagram. Notes from the repair bench, kept here as a searchable archive. View the original on Instagram
Client sent in a photo of his dented lens filter ring on a Mamiya RZ67 110mm lens (photo one). While it is nicely dented, I could tell that this would be fixable. This is because wisely, no tools were used in an attempt to “straighten” it out. I see a lot of lens dents where someone decided that a pliers was a good tool for this job. It is not. And in fact, if any metal tools like pliers are used to straighten out lens dents, you will likely have permanently damaged threads.
In photo two, I show the finished lens with the dent removed and ready for a filter to thread on.
A little of the process: photo three shows a Mamiya 110mm lens in my fixture with a dropping tool ready to take a small hit with a hammer and straighten out a dent. These tools are made of non-metal material so they are softer than the filter ring and will not damage it. The fixture is shown in photo four with a few of the dropping tools that I use. If you want to fix dented lenses, it is worthwhile to make of have this sort of fixture constructed. My tool has curves for ten different filter thread sizes. I’d not recommend the filter thread straightening tools sold online, they are often not strong enough to work and may cause damage due to them being metal.
