Iscorama tight focus

[Lucian]

Hi folks,

 

My iscorama 36 is focus is pretty tight, it turns fine but it tends to jiggle footage if I try to pull focus.

 

I keen to have it serviced mostly for that reason, I'm located in LA and the most reputable lens store won't touch it "because it's plastic and could break too easily"

 

Does anyone know a place in LA they would trust to service an isco? has anyone successfully had tight focus dealt with ?

 

Bernie at super 16 receives many recommendations but one user sent their isco in and it came back just as tight and apparently they didn't know how to open it up. To that end i'm reluctant to mail to them.

 

Any advice appreciated.

 

Thank you.

 

 

[dhessel]

These things are old and the grease gets hard over time, I had a 54 that was stuck on infinity due to this. The 54 and 36 are very similar design, I serviced the 54 my self and it was very easy to do - not that I am recommending that you do it yourself since they are expensive. The grease probably just needs to be cleaned of a re-applied. 

 

From what I have heard about Bernie I find that user's statement kind of hard to believe. 

[Lucian]

Hmm, I am not experienced with working inside lenses but I did do the close focus mod. Is cleaning and re-greasing pretty straight forward?

[dhessel]

I believe with the close up mod there is a risk that you unscrew to far and the front will fall off. That is exactly what you want, unscrew the front part completely to gain access to the threads.

 

I use lighter fluid for cleaning the old grease. It breaks it down and evaporates without leaving any residue and is a common way of cleaning lenses. I have successfully removed hardened tank grease from the Helios-40, seriously that thing is a monster:), and fungus spots from multiple lenses with it.

 

Once all the old grease has been removed from the threads re-lube it with white lithium grease or something else specific for lenses if you want. I have always had great luck with just white lithium. That's it really, after my cleaning the 54 was very smooth just like new.

 

If you find you have to disassemble the lens to get to the threads, do so slowly and carefully. The lens has 4 glass components, starting from the front there is a plano-concave then a plano-convex then the 2 anamorphic elements. The first 2 glass elements can be safely removed and put back on. There is no reason to remove anything other than the first glass element for this procedure and it should remain in its housing - they should be removed together since you just want access to the threads.

 

The way these lenses work it is hard to mess up infinity focus like on traditional lenses. What ever you do though, do not alter anamorphic elements at all. They are very precisely aligned and a tiny offset will result in a blurry image. 

 

Good luck.

[Lucian]

Thanks for the info! yes the front element screws off very easy after the close focus mod. But I think lighter fluid damages/melts plastic though? I might need to just send it to a pro :P

[dhessel]

Not that I have ever seen, it is safe on lens coating too. Ultimately its what ever you are comfortable with. If the grease isn't to hard you may just be able to wipe it off. I had to use the fluid since the grease was hard and the lens was completely stuck like it had been glued together. When I regreased the Helios-40 I didn't have to use any fluid.

[Alin]

Hi there, I'm a couple years late to this thread but does anyone have details how to disassemble the iscorama pre36 to reapply grease and close focus modification? Thanks!