Spent 2 hours cleaning a stuck aperture on a 50mm f/1.4 and it felt like magic

I had this old 50mm f/1.4 that's been sitting on my shelf for months because the aperture blades were oily and slow. Took it apart yesterday and used some lighter fluid and a q-tip to clean each blade carefully. After letting it dry for an hour the blades snapped back perfectly. The difference before and after is night and day. Anyone else have luck reviving lenses with just a basic cleaning like that?

2 comments

2 Comments

king.kevin19d ago

Nah man I gotta disagree a bit. Sure it feels good when you get it working again but lighter fluid on the blades makes me nervous. That stuff can leave residue if you don't let it fully evaporate or worse it can mess with the coating on the blades over time. Ive tried it once on a 28mm and it worked for like a week then the blades got even slower because some of the junk just moved around. If youre gonna do it at least use naptha or something like Ronsonol and keep the qtip barely wet.

ryan71919d ago

Whoa hold up, I gotta push back on that one! I've been using Ronsonol lighter fluid on my clippers for years and never had a problem with residue or coating damage. You just gotta let it air dry for like 10-15 minutes before you fire them up again, that's the trick. I think most of those horror stories come from people drenching the blades and then turning the clippers on right away while it's still wet.