Zeiss Ikon Nettar lens cleaning
Posted by Anders Sun, 28 Oct 2007 17:12:00 GMT
I own this 1930’s camera, a Zeiss Ikon Nettar 516/2, which is a simple folder camera for medium-format film. While it’s really impractical to use, it also gives really large 6×9 negatives, bigger than any other camera I own.
In addition to being uncoated, the lens elements where also a little hazy, giving really bad flare if the sun was shining on the front. Earlier I removed the front lens and cleaned the back side of that, but I saw that the haze was on a lens deeper inside.
The only way to access it is from inside the camera. I have absolutely no idea what I’m doing, having never tried to repair a camera before, but this is what I did:
Opening
The back lens is visible when the film back is opened. To remove the ring holding the back lens in place a special tool is needed, a “lens spanner” (which cost me more than what the camera itself is worth).
I carefully removed the ring and shook out the back lens (with some mild violence), noting which side of it was front and back. This lens didn’t look dirty, so no special cleaning needed there.
Cleaning
This finally made the leaf shutter accessible, behind which the next lens is found. This is the one that was dirty. Unfortunately the only way to keep the shutter open was using “bulb” mode, but accessing the shutter meant having the camera unfolded and extended, putting the shutter and lens far away at the other end of the bellows.
With a cotton tip and a little window cleaner I managed to reach the lens and remove most of the haze. (You really don’t want the shutter to accidentally close on the cotton tip at this point). The cotton tip also left a fair bit of lint on the lens. (Did I mention that I have no idea what I’m doing?). With a dry cotton tip and some blowing I got most of the lint out. I also waited for the window cleaner to completely evaporate before I closed the shutter again.
I’m not sure that window cleaner is a good choice, but it seemed to work. With these old lenses there’s at least no anti-reflective coating that could be hurt by it.
Happy End
I put the parts back together, in what I’m pretty sure is their original places. The lens isn’t perfect, but it’s much clearer than before.
This was fun, so in the future I think I’ll attempt more complicated camera repairs.
