Soligor 1:2.8 135mm

Hi, I picked up this lens recently and even though it seems to perform very well wide open, the aperture is VERY slow. I can turn the aperture ring from 2.8 to 22 and count 12 seconds as the blades slowly, and smoothly close down. It is stiff to open from closed by manually moving the lever with the lens off the camera

1. Is this an easy fix?..I can find little mention of this lens having this problem with google, but it seems very sharp at 2.8 so it may have potential.

2. Is this a well regarded lens? Anyone got one?...any comments?

Thanks


Andy

Sounds like oily aperture blades to me. They can be cleaned with lighter fluid, but you must partially dismantle the lens first, of course. 135mm manual focus lenses are usually quite simple designs and quite easy to dismantle and clean. Presumably, you didn't pay a lot for it, so why not have a go at doing it yourself. It certainly isn't worth getting it professionally done.

Ah, Thanks, I thought possibly oil but it's the first time I have had this problem.

You say partially dismantle...is this from the front or the back?...and do I need a special tool to start unscrewing glass retaining bezels?


Is there anything liable to 'ping' out and get lost in the carpet or is it straightforward?

I have a couple of lenses that have been apart prior to my ownership, and there are some marks as if the wrong tool for the job was used.

Yes, it was quite cheap, it came with a Clubman MC auto 1:2.8 28mm with the KR mount so I had it stuck on the camera within 20 minutes of opening the package!

There is also a Pentax-A 50mm 1:2 with a bit of fungus on the front element so I reccon my days off might be spent inscrewing things.

Andy

You'd need to remove all the glass.. Front and back, so that you can give the aperture blades a good soaking with lighter fluid. The good thing is that 135mm lenses are usually only four element designs and come apart quite easily. There will probably be two large elements in front of the iris and two small ones, behind. The rear two are usually held together in some sort of housing.
Ideally, a special tool called a lens spanner should be used to remove the retaining rings, but it's possible to do without.
See the thread 'Fun with Fungus' on this forum, for a step by step guide on how to dismantle a lens. Also do a bit of Googling on the subject of cleaning the blades. There are lots of good guides out there.

Excellent, found the 'Fun with Fungus' thread and will give it a go soon and report back.

Thanks.

Andy

I used to have that lens in the 70's. Sharp but very poor contrast.

I have not had this lens but I have an NPS with what looks like poor contrast - I shoot in raw then a slight move of the black slider to the right in acr and the problem is solved - the contrast slider does not seem to do it.

This may not work with your Soligor but it may be worth a try if it does have poor contrast

Well it doesn't seem too bad to me, but then I have a motley selection to compare it to. I shall take it for a walk and see how it performs [wide open only..]

It's possible that there were several versions. If the contrast is OK wide open, it will be OK stopped down.