Nikon 5cm F1.1 - how to strip down?

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smort

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Hi All,
I'm new to the forum.
I have a Nikon 5cm f1.1 where a couple of aperture blades have partly dislodged from their proper place.
I would like to hear from someone who has disassembled a 1.1 before, does one go in from the front or the back?
I have stripped down other lenses before and I'm just looking for a heads up
Many thanks in advance
All the best
Steve
 
Hi Steve,

I’d highly encourage you to send this lens to Kiitos in Tokyo for repair. They have the most experience with this lens and have the replacement blades ready.

Good luck and welcome to RFF.
 
Hi Steve,
I had a veteran Nikon repairman change broken blades on my 5cm 1.1 Nikkor lens. He said it took him a long time to manage to put the iris blades back in place .
Good luck !
 
Anyone willing to attempt a self-repair on a Nikon 50/1.1 is a lot more brave than I am! I have messed around with resetting aperture blades on a CZJ 58/2 Biotar in M42 mount with 17 aperture blades. Took me about 6 frustrating hours and a lot of cursing to get the Biotar done. Putting in that last blade is the worst. Never gonna try that again, will leave it to the professionals.
 
dexdog said:
Anyone willing to attempt a self-repair on a Nikon 50/1.1 is a lot more brave than I am! I have messed around with resetting aperture blades on a CZJ 58/2 Biotar in M42 mount with 17 aperture blades. Took me about 6 frustrating hours and a lot of cursing to get the Biotar done. Putting in that last blade is the worst. Never gonna try that again, will leave it to the professionals.
Click to expand...

I agree. This is a job for a pro and there are many of them that can do it (Don at DAG comes to mind). Anyone not experienced and trained in camera/lens repair is likely to end up with a very, very expensive collection of vintage Nikon lens parts on their hand attempting this repair. Fixing iris blades is a standard skill of professionals however.

Repairing lenses and cameras is more akin repairing fine mechanical watches than it is, say, assembling furniture from IKEA, or replacing common parts on old cars. If one is comfortable servicing, say, a Rolex with the tools they might have on on hand, I'd say that person has a fighting chance of success CLA'ing a vintage Nikon RF lens.
 
smort said:
I have a Nikon 5cm f1.1 where a couple of aperture blades have partly dislodged from their proper place.
I would like to hear from someone who has disassembled a 1.1 before, does one go in from the front or the back?
Click to expand...

I haven't disassembled a Nikon 5cm f1.1, but I have unscrewed and removed the front optical cell on several occasions. Doing so will give you direct access to the front of the aperture blades, and you may be able to solve your problem from there. You just grab the front filter ring and twist counter clockwise and unscrew, and the entire front optical cell screws out to expose the front of the aperture blades. However, I suspect that you're going to have to strip the lens down properly though.

While I haven't disassembled a Nikon 5cm f1.1 lens, I have disassembled many other rangefinder Nikkors. They're all quite easy to work on and their construction is very similar. I doubt the Nikon 5cm f1.1 is any different. The actual procedure varies depending on whether your lens is internal mount, external mount or LTM mount, but the first step will be to remove the optical cell from the focus helical (that can be as easy as loosening and removing a single retaining ring around the rear element. As you've worked on lenses before (I assume, successfully), I think you'll be fine. Check out Richard Haw's website below for ideas. He's got articles on disassembling a range of rangefinder Nikkors.

https://richardhaw.com/
 
Consider also DAG Don Goldberg. Maybe he has replacement blades or he knows how to fix the original ones.
 
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