Lens repair advice needed

Hello my Pentaxian friends.
It's been a very long time since I was last here - hope I haven't missed much . I have had some health related issues so I had lost all interest in photography. However, with the weather improving I finally dusted off my K1-I and my Pentax DA* 60-250 in order to take some photographs of my son's rugby game. To my dismay I found out that the auto focus had conked out and had to shoot in manual focus (anyone remember that?).
Anyway, I wanted to get some advice about getting the lens repaired. Is Johnson Photopia still in business? The last I had heard, it had gone into administration. If not JP then who else can reliably repair the lens?
Thanks in advance.

Naim

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PPG

John Pye Ltd (Service & Repairs)

39-40 Marchington Industrial Estate

Stubby Lane

Uttoxeter

ST14 8LP

Phone: 01283 384409

Contact: [email protected]
This company took over from Johnson’s and moved out of Stoke. No experience of the company

AJ Johnstone in Glasgow are excellent. They are the authorised repairers for Canon and Nikon in the UK and do also do Pentax repairs.

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Jon

Some occasional random stuff at The Photographers Block: link

Thank you both.

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PPG

Is there not a thread somewhere about getting failed SDMs going again after prolonged storage times? If it was OK prior to storage then inactivity is likely to be the trouble rather than outright failure?

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Both the *istDS and the K5 are incurably addicted to old glass

My page on Photocrowd - link

Thanks David.
What you say was exactly what I thought since it was fine the last time I had used it about 3.5 years ago. However, I used it all morning, trying to get it to wake up but it didn't play ball. Are there any tricks to get it to work?
Regards.

Naim

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PPG

I would turn the focus ring to the extremes a few times making sure AF switch on both camera and lens was on, then half press the shutter button and do it again.

My old DA* lenses would need waking up. Mind you never from a 3.5 year sleep. You may need to find a handsome Prince to give them a kiss

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Peter



My Flickr page

A general enquiry about lens repairers:

What is the latest on (if I remember their names correctly) Alan Marlow and Asahi Technical - are they still working?
I seem to remember one of them didn't repair SDM lenses though.
Reports of others welcome too.

My FA50 has a sticky diaphragm and the zoom mechanism on my 55-300 has seized up.

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Peter

Pentax K5
Pentax DA 18-55 Mk1, 50-200 (Samsung), 16-45, 55-300 Mk1, 35 f/2.4
Pentax MZ6 + FA28-90, FA50 f/1.4, M 50 f/1.7
Tamron 80-210mm & 28mm

Try to focus in live view. I don't understand why but this woke up the SDM on my DA200 that hadn't worked for months.

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Regards, Philip

I've not needed a repair for a while... however, I think Alan Marlow has been winding down his repair business now. I spoke highly of Asahi Technical in Brentford, and they were good at getting my SDM lenses working reliably but since I only have the 300 left (and that seems to be mostly immune to failure) I've not had any reason to go across the river. .

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Z-1p, K-1, P50
F50 1.7. SMC-FAs 24, 35, 50 1.4, 85, 135. HD-FA15-30, DFA24-70, D-FA*70-200. The SMC-FA Limited Trinity.
Metz 45 CL-4, AF500FTZ. AF540FGZ.
Some Mamiya and some Nikon

Well guys, the lens has been renamed 'Lazarus' - thanks to you all.


Smudge,
That Live View trick really did work.

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PPG

"Asahi Techical" in Brentford is actually Asahiphoto and they are very much still in business and (when I checked earlier today) have just successfully fitted a "white" solenoid in my K-70 (NO, the original one HAD NOT failed - this was just a precautionary measure to make sure the camera should never get APF!). I will be picking the camera up in a couple of days!

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K-3 II, K-3 and a K-70 from SRS (having now relegated the K-30 /"K-50" to a backup body), & some Sigma and Pentax lenses (and a lot of old 35mm gear!)

good to know - it's been a while since I have needed their service...

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Z-1p, K-1, P50
F50 1.7. SMC-FAs 24, 35, 50 1.4, 85, 135. HD-FA15-30, DFA24-70, D-FA*70-200. The SMC-FA Limited Trinity.
Metz 45 CL-4, AF500FTZ. AF540FGZ.
Some Mamiya and some Nikon

Thanks Smudge.

I was just about to send my lens to Pye's when I spotted your suggestion and it works a treat. Another lens called Lazerus!

This worked for my 50-135 too. It failed to focus recently despite my routine of regular exercise if it was unused for a month. Thanks for the tip.