Lomo Square front help. Was working great, now cant get anything in focus??

[Rcorrell]

Hey guys,

 

I been going crazy the last 2 days trying to figure out why, all of the sudden, my Lomo square front attachment will not focus with any of my taking lenses anymore.

 

It sounds quite silly at first (I know), hence why it's driving me nuts, but I was having nothing but great results with my lomo.  I hadn't used it in a couple weeks and had just been sitting pretty in its case, and decided i was going to try a nikkor with I hadn't tested with it yet.  Upon attaching the nikkor lens, I started having a focus problem where no matter what combination or distance i set either of the lenses at, I could not achieve any sharp focus.   So after about an hour of tinkering and swearing, I decided "screw this, I going back to my helios which as always worked without a hitch".....  Before this experiment my helios was right on the money, set the same focus to match the lomo focus and go.  but low and behold now my helios won't get any kind of focus!!!!  

 

I just don't get it?!?  I changed a lens and barely touched the damn thing, and now nothing works with the lens anymore??  as if it was some kind of evil wizardry... The lens themselves work fine, and even with other attachments, its just the lomo part now that doesn't want to work!!  I don't what the hell is going on, but if any of you do or have had this problem, please let me know how much of an idiot I am.  

 

Thank you!!

[Matthew Marshall]

Is it pretty old? Maybe the glue or housing came loose on the lens.

[Rcorrell]

Well all the lomo square fronts are "old" but mine is in great condition. If something came loose it's possible that that is what's causing the problem, but for what I can see and or hear, nothing seems to be loose from an external viewpoint.

[au8ust]

I never have such problem. Can you post some photos of the blurred footage?

[macdonaldz]

lens alignment issue in the anamorphic attachment i would think. the petrascope i have illustrates pretty clearly how misalignment between cylindrical optics renders everything unfocusable. i imagine anyone with any apefoscope could say the same thing (i.e. get something in perfect focus - rotate one of the elements as little as you possible can (( <1 degree)) = everything soft)

[Rcorrell]

lens alignment issue in the anamorphic attachment i would think. the petrascope i have illustrates pretty clearly how misalignment between cylindrical optics renders everything unfocusable. i imagine anyone with any apefoscope could say the same thing (i.e. get something in perfect focus - rotate one of the elements as little as you possible can (( <1 degree)) = everything soft)

 

Yeah, that sounds about right.  I'm not sure how, but i think the rear ananmorphic element / barrel on the attachment has been rotated ever so little, but enough to, like you said, make everything rendered out of focus. So it might seem to be an alignment issue within the attachment's optics.  Now just wondering if it's going to cost me more than the cost of the lens to fix, and then how do you prevent it from happening again?