ovredal73
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 p.1 #1 · My Frankenstein Rokkor | |
An ode to my first 58mm f/1.2 Minolta Rokkor and a hello to a my new Frankenstein Rokkor:
I have been a self-confessed Rokkor addict since this lens got in my hands this spring. It rarely leaves my 5D. Only my Zeiss 35 1.4 sometimes get to take its place.
But a month ago I slipped, fell and smashed my laptop and bent the hell out of my Rokkor which was hanging off my shoulder attached to my 5D. The lens front went straight down on pure concrete and bent the filter threads and the entire front inwards toward the glass. I could not turn the focus ring as it was bent as well as internal parts, but somehow the front glass escaped the crash without a blemish. After much bending with pliers etc I got things back in usable shape. But everything was offset with a tiny bit, deformations everywhere internally and externally. At certain distances I could not get sharp focus anymore for reasons I dont understand, but continued to use it with itīs newfound limitations. However I had two more Rokkors sitting at home just for this event: One old metal version and a newer rubber grip version.
After much trial and error, I now have a 900 dollar Frankenstein Rokkor. The shim, rear glass holder, drilled adapter and lens cap comes from my original. The rear lens group assembly comes from the rubber grip version. This rear group actually has some different designs than the metal ones, but they are still interchangable. The rest is the 2nd metal copy. I have cleaned the 2nd metal copy of heavy internal fungus, used isopropanol to get oil off the blades on two copies, put a thin double layer of electrical tape between the lens itself and the shim to build back out to infinity focus on the Frankenstein which had a difference in distances, and I spent the last two night testing and building and rebuilding the lenses in various combinations.
I have tried most available combinations of elements from the three lenses as well as simply using the two other lenses "untouched" with the shim and mount from the original, but for various reasons they were not happy campers individually. The rear glass on the 2nd metal copy was very damaged from cleaning, the rubber one was clearly not as sharp as the metal ones. Wide open it was ghosty and simply not sharp. Interestingly enough the rubber one completely cleared my mirror at infinity. The Frankenstein Rokkor reaches the mirror with a hairīs width, but no big problem. But now I have a perfectly working, sharp rokkor again. And I wish to say - all the work and cost is worth it :-)
Edited by ovredal73 on Sep 08, 2008 at 11:22 PM GMT
Edited on Sep 08, 2008 at 10:22 PM
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Glad you have a working lens again, but that's quite the amount of work!
