Damaged Zeiss Ultra Prime?

[Anton Bergstrom]

I got a call from the producer from one of my recent productions saying that the rental house called her and said that one of the lenses where damaged and that it would need repair.

 

Its a Arri/Zeiss Ultra Prime and i called the rentalhouse to see what was damaged.

They say that the black coating between the back glass and the PL mount was scratched,., a thing that could happen if you're not careful when changing lenses.

 

My question is what does a scratch on that part do? Why is that black coating there?

 

It the black coating on the bottom of the picture.

 

Thanks for all the help and explaination i can get.

 

/Anton

[Brian Drysdale]

The black cuts down on any light reflecting between the lens and the imaging plane when mounted onto the camera. This could potentially reduce the image contrast or possibly a slight fog on a darker part of the image if there's any stray light.

[Anton Bergstrom]

OK thanks for the answer, was something like that it guessed.

Expensive to fix?

[Brian Drysdale]

OK thanks for the answer, was something like that it guessed.

Expensive to fix?

 

Depends on what needs replacing.

[John Sprung]

Expensive to fix?

 

Depends who's fixing it. If it's minor, just touch it with a black sharpie. In the old days, rental houses didn't used to ding us for little stuff like this. It's considered normal wear and tear. What rental house is this?

 

 

 

 

 

-- J.S.

[Tom Jensen]

Go look at it and see the damage for yourself.

[Anton Bergstrom]

I cant go to the rentalhouse, otherwise i would just to learn and have a discussion with them.

 

But the rentalhouse is 600 km away, so not anything i pass on the way.

 

Thanks for all the help!

[John Sprung]

But the rentalhouse is 600 km away, so not anything i pass on the way.

 

Now you have two good reasons to not do business with that company again.

 

 

 

-- J.S.

[Dom Jaeger]

If the scratch is just on the rear element housing it only needs a touch of matte black paint. I wouldn't use a sharpie as the ink actually has a purplish sheen to it, not so good for anti-reflection.

 

The only other issue is if the rear housing looks to have been hit hard enough to have caused any distortion.

 

Unless the damage is willful (I once had an assistant scratch a number into a mag door because he "couldn't find the camera tape") we usually wear the cost of minor cosmetic damage. Sometimes I need to spend time checking gear if it looks to have been hit hard, which we charge for. Some rental houses might be more precious with their gear, I don't know. High end cine lenses are precision instruments though, even if they're sturdily constructed.

 

You haven't said how much the rental house is charging, it might not be much. They should be able to explain to you the work required.