Rasmus Frostell Posted October 28, 2018 Share Posted October 28, 2018 Hi, sorry if this has been posted before. I'm wondering, what is a good way to start learning to service lenses and eventually learn the re-housing process? It's not much of it at all online. I've taken apart some cheap lenses i bought just for practice & cleaned them. But i'd like to learn more. Switching mounts, making the f/t-stops click free, putting on better focus rings and so on. Any ideas on where to start? Best, Rasmus Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Member Dom Jaeger Posted October 29, 2018 Premium Member Share Posted October 29, 2018 Hi Rasmus, there's a lot you can learn yourself by doing what you're doing and practicing on cheap stills lenses. There are a few good online resources, this recent thread mentioned a few: http://www.cinematography.com/index.php?showtopic=77997 But if you want to get into it professionally, you need access to things like lens projectors, collimators and a machine shop, and to go to professional training sessions by manufacturers. These can be expensive if a company doesn't sponsor you, so ideally you would try to work for a rental house service department, a cine lens repair business or one of the rehousing specialists like P&S Technik or True Lens Services. Having some knowledge of or qualifications in optics, fine mechanics or machining would be helpful. You could also work for a lens manufacturer I guess. There are no doubt many more businesses servicing stills lenses, but that really is quite different to cine lens service. Ours is a relatively small industry, so there may not be that many opportunities available. I started in a rental house, working on dollies and heads and accessories, beforing moving on to cameras and finally lenses. The best lessons I learned were from older technicians, passing on their knowledge like in the trade guilds of old. Even the manufacturer's training courses don't teach you much more than basic disassembly/reassembly procedures, so it really is something you need to learn through experience. Lens re-housing is probably a little different from service, and I imagine it would have even fewer oportunities, since there are only a handful of places that do it. Unless you were part of the design team, it would be more like working for a manufacturer, just assembling the parts, although some of their technicians do repair work as well. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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