DSLR Gurus: How lenses are made!

[GTaudiophile]

Interesting link: Virtual Lens Plant

 

[mugs]

Edit: Nevermind, I'm confused

 

[fuzzybabybunny]

Wow, this thing is really circulating, eh?

First saw on POTN, now here. Sweet.

I'm currently taking apart a 180mm lens for cleaning and the illustrations have been very helpful. Inner barrel, outer barrel, stuff like that. I hope my 180mm lens doesn't require proprietary tools to fully open. Those flat rectangular "screwdrivers" in the video look like they were only used for assembling the actual glass lenses though.

BTW, I'm opening up my lens because an official cleaning is $400

 

[SuperNaruto]

koooool

 

[spidey07]

That's some pretty amazing stuff right there.

 

[MichaelD]

Very interesting! :thumbsup: I like "factory tour" videos like these. Thanks!

 

[GTaudiophile]

Originally posted by: fuzzybabybunny
Wow, this thing is really circulating, eh?

First saw on POTN, now here. Sweet.

I'm currently taking apart a 180mm lens for cleaning and the illustrations have been very helpful. Inner barrel, outer barrel, stuff like that. I hope my 180mm lens doesn't require proprietary tools to fully open. Those flat rectangular "screwdrivers" in the video look like they were only used for assembling the actual glass lenses though.

BTW, I'm opening up my lens because an official cleaning is $400

Yes, I stole the link from DPR

 

[spidey07]

Kinda makes you realize why lenses are so expensive. There was a ton of hand labor/assembly in there.

 

[johnjbruin]

Originally posted by: MichaelD
Very interesting! :thumbsup: I like "factory tour" videos like these. Thanks!

Yup - very nice.

 

[foghorn67]

Originally posted by: fuzzybabybunny
Wow, this thing is really circulating, eh?

First saw on POTN, now here. Sweet.

I'm currently taking apart a 180mm lens for cleaning and the illustrations have been very helpful. Inner barrel, outer barrel, stuff like that. I hope my 180mm lens doesn't require proprietary tools to fully open. Those flat rectangular "screwdrivers" in the video look like they were only used for assembling the actual glass lenses though.

BTW, I'm opening up my lens because an official cleaning is $400

have you tried a local camera shop? A place two blocks from me cleans lenses.

 

[Koing]

Cool thanks.

Koing

 

[NanoStuff]

God created the lenses but canon is taking credit for it. Cheap bastards.

 

[Sukhoi]

Damn, that was interesting!

 

[GTaudiophile]

Wow. I am impressed how much work is done by hand...in like an old world manufacturing sort of way.

 

[GTaudiophile]

So the Canon EF 500 F4L IS runs for $5250 at B&H. Easily one of Canon's most premium lenses.

Now let's see the process for making say a EF 50 F1.8 MkII

 

[timswim78]

Very nice.

 

[SKORPI0]

Originally posted by: GTaudiophile
Wow. I am impressed how much work is done by hand...in like an old world manufacturing sort of way.

Rest assured a robot probably won't replace the assembler. $6000 for a lens? I'll have to be a Paparazzi to pay for that.

 

[NanoStuff]

Originally posted by: SKORPI0

Originally posted by: GTaudiophile
Wow. I am impressed how much work is done by hand...in like an old world manufacturing sort of way.

Rest assured a robot probably won't replace the assembler.

So what, you're suggesting we're going to enslave some alien race to assemble our camera lenses? That's ridiculous.

 

[mrrman]

that is neat...I was curious about how lenses were made

 

[aphex]

very cool.. surprised at the lack of gloves during much of the assembly process

 

[AndrewR]

Originally posted by: fuzzybabybunny
Wow, this thing is really circulating, eh?

First saw on POTN, now here. Sweet.

I'm currently taking apart a 180mm lens for cleaning and the illustrations have been very helpful. Inner barrel, outer barrel, stuff like that. I hope my 180mm lens doesn't require proprietary tools to fully open. Those flat rectangular "screwdrivers" in the video look like they were only used for assembling the actual glass lenses though.

BTW, I'm opening up my lens because an official cleaning is $400

How did that Tamron get so dirty as to need a cleaning? I seem to remember some posts about never opening a lens to clean because it causes more problems than it solves. I've never contemplated it before. Let us know how it goes because if it works, I might look at buying some cheap, fungus-filled lenses on eGay for cleaning into something worth money.

 

[foghorn67]

Originally posted by: aphex
very cool.. surprised at the lack of gloves during much of the assembly process

fingertip covers were used.

 

[Raiden256]

Utterly fantastic!

 

[fuzzybabybunny]

Originally posted by: AndrewR

Originally posted by: fuzzybabybunny
Wow, this thing is really circulating, eh?

First saw on POTN, now here. Sweet.

I'm currently taking apart a 180mm lens for cleaning and the illustrations have been very helpful. Inner barrel, outer barrel, stuff like that. I hope my 180mm lens doesn't require proprietary tools to fully open. Those flat rectangular "screwdrivers" in the video look like they were only used for assembling the actual glass lenses though.

BTW, I'm opening up my lens because an official cleaning is $400

How did that Tamron get so dirty as to need a cleaning? I seem to remember some posts about never opening a lens to clean because it causes more problems than it solves. I've never contemplated it before. Let us know how it goes because if it works, I might look at buying some cheap, fungus-filled lenses on eGay for cleaning into something worth money.

I was shooting around a sand dune for over 8 hours. The sand was constantly blowing and got into absolutely everything. I'm still getting sand out of my backpack, nearly a year later and after repeated vacuum cleanings. It's either pay $450 for repair, which is pretty much the price of the lens, or attempt a cleaning myself. So far I've been methodically taking it apart, with the "leave as much intact as possible" philosophy. I'm photo documenting the procedure, but it looks like I'm going to need those special tools that I talked about in my previous post to go any further