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Getting in to lens service & re-housing?


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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

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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.

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