8mm Forum: cleaning 16mm lenses

This is topic cleaning 16mm lenses in forum 16mm Forum at 8mm Forum.

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Posted by Greg Varner (Member # 4197) on March 14, 2014, 10:27 AM:

I have three lenses off an old bell & howell magazine camera, the one with the turret and 6 rotating lenses, that seem to have dirt and fibers on the inside of the lenses. I have spoken with all my local camera shops in the area and they either do not deal with cleaning them or have never done it before?? Does anyone know of a place that could clean them or any advice? Thanks in advance

The lenses are an elgeet 3" f/2.9 cine - tel c mount, bell & howell angenieux 3" size 4.5, and bell & howell angenieux 10mm f/1.5 c mount

[ March 14, 2014, 02:34 PM: Message edited by: Greg Varner ]

Posted by Maurice Leakey (Member # 916) on March 14, 2014, 11:19 AM:

Greg

I regret that I cannot answer your query about cleaning the inside of camera lenses.
I would point out that the focal lengths of the lenses quoted are at far extremes.
The standard lens for the 16mm Bell & Howell triple turret camera is a 1". The wide-angle lens would be 1/2", and the telephoto would be 2.8".
Obviously, there was quite a large range of differing focal length lenses available.
Camera owners may be able to give you a more definite answer. There have been questions before on this Forum about the inside component cleaning.

Posted by Terry Sills (Member # 3309) on March 14, 2014, 01:28 PM:

Greg
I have a few vintage Leica 35mm cameras and have had lenses for these professionally cleaned/refurbished but it is obviously not cheap. I'm sure there will be specialist camera repairers in your vicinity that could do this for you or can recommend where to get it done.

Posted by Greg Varner (Member # 4197) on March 14, 2014, 01:39 PM:

Maurice- the lenses came off a six turret not a triple. But ya I don't think these were original to the camera. They are still decent lenses that I would like to do something with. And going into the lenses myself is kind of a last resort since I do not have any real experience with that.

Terry- that is the issue. I have contacted every camera repair place in my area and no one deals with what I have. Can I ask how much approximately it cost you per lens to have them cleaned?

Posted by Terry Sills (Member # 3309) on March 15, 2014, 02:18 PM:

Greg
I really can't remember but at least one arm and half a leg. But seriously it depends on what needs to be done. a simple clean will be a lot less expensive than removing scratches and re-coating. The lenses you are talking about are probably not coated anyway. There will be experts in the field that can do the work for you, it's just a case of finding them and getting a price. Why not try a Leica agent and enquire. If they can't help you they will probably have the contacts and point you in the right direction. Good luck

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