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Iscorama 1968 tight focus


Rob Bannister
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ok so I dont plan to take this apart myself to try and loosen it up but I was wondering if anyone knew anybody close to vancouver canada who is qualified. I dont need to take it down to vancam or somewhere who will tell me they can and mess up this beauty.

 

Also do most of these have pretty tight focus. It doesnt seem wrong but its just to tight to pull focus during a shot. I love the long focus throw but its hard to go from one extreme to the other. Also I think its too tight for a follow focus.

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why would you want to give treasure to some local bozo..
the problem with most of the junk on ebay is people messin with the lens home repair or sending it to some clown who makes a living taking plastic apart. your lens has plenty of plastic in it but i would contact this guy.
most repair ass holes we keep you waitin around for  6 months bernie will not.




here is my quote from repair thread


just another shout for an old irishman ex londoner bernie o at

http://www.super16inc.com/

many people are doing diy repair on anamorphics which is great if you trust yourself.
some lens i think are getting kind of rare so for the sake of a few hundred dollars get it serviced by a legendary old fella before he gets the shakes and cannot do it no more
he has been repairing motion picture gear since the 60s and is a real decent super talented bloke.

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do not expect a leica level material standardised process from iscorama they are all over the shop.

they did not make any money from these optic marvels.

did not make enough of them cut corners with the cheapest one the isco 36 and the 50 with the over use of brittle plastics.

the 42 and 54 have much more robust focus systems.

keeping the smallest iscorama focus system dirt and grit free is important.

also many will have sections of the threads where grease has gone dry.

 

a complete clean out of grease is needed also a conversation on what type of grease you want which will be important for you.

in the past i have even sent lens in and send can you make the  lens focus feel like this.

quite a bit of focus feel flexibility when you use difference types of grease.

 

with repair guys always give them a shopping list of what you think is wrong and what you want done to save time and money.

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  • 2 months later...

So, back to half the original point: relubing the focus mechanism, any tips about what's a good thing to use? :)

I just got my Isco back from John at Focal Point Lens, and it's stiff - forgot to ask him to lube it. All other matters with the lens were solved (busted front thread, alignment, scratched front element), and now I can finally appreciate the magnificence of the lens.

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Thanks man! Gotta find this SuperLube here in Brazil. :P

 

Absolutely no problem! The polishing and recoating was done only on the outside face of the front element, and that costed me $275, this price is multiplied by the number of faces they have to polish and recoat. The alignment and general repair was gonna cost $95, but he did it for free. He said the plastic body was so damaged that he could not guarantee it would keep it all in place, so, he didn't charge.

 

One important thing to keep in mind is that the recoating runs take a while because they can't do it just for one lens, it's an expensive process and they need a certain ammount of lenses before they do it. So, my lens just sat there for about a month because they didn't have enough lenses yet to do it.

 

I was testing it yesterday and it was a great job. It DOES have some serious damage that was impossible to repair, but it doesn't show up on the images produced (thank god!). The rear element has some bad scratches, and the body is awful, but everything looks amazing through the camera. hahahaha.

 

I'll try to post comparisons later. The "Before" images are here.

http://www.eoshd.com/comments/gallery/album/83-recoating-iscorama/

 

You can see there's a terrible haze around ALL light sources in the frame, or NEAR the frame. Shooting outside during the day was impossible, because the top portion of the frame would go almost white. Cloudy days were TRULY impossible. Flares were very scarce and thin.

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Rob, to answer your question, my isco 36 focus doesn't feel particularly tight, it probably requires less effort

than my kowa to turn. I'd have sent mine off for van-deimen cine mod by now but the turn around time sounds

to unpredictable. Their site says 90 days but others have reported much longer.

 

Still holding out hope a reliable company will start doing it in the US.

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I'm sending my Isco out to vandiemen tomorrow.  I'll let you know how long it takes, and how much it costs with everything said and done...

 

I personally went to 4 shops that were recommended to me all over LA.  1/2 of them just marveled at it, and shook their head and told me no, or no time to do it.  1 of them told me they could do it maybe but would probably take over 6 months, and the last one said to take it to vandiemen...

 

And that's LA for ya..  LAzy.

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It's bs there is nowhere in LA to get this done!

 

Did vandeimen give you a quote on turn around time?

 

I'm sending my Isco out to vandiemen tomorrow.  I'll let you know how long it takes, and how much it costs with everything said and done...

 

I personally went to 4 shops that were recommended to me all over LA.  1/2 of them just marveled at it, and shook their head and told me no, or no time to do it.  1 of them told me they could do it maybe but would probably take over 6 months, and the last one said to take it to vandiemen...

 

And that's LA for ya..  LAzy.

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