Will have a winter project that will be involving the same lenses for cleaning. Will be watching this video over again as I the same thing to my lenses. Thanks for the how to.
Cheers Krie88, winter projects are great things, I get far more done on projects like this in the winter - somehow there's no time in the summer months.
Cheers Sam - I've spent so many years assembling, disassembling and reassembling things over and over again until everything is just right, it's become normality. Mind you, I do sometimes get impatient and just want to have the thing built/repaired/assembled or whatever - at that point it's usually best to walk away for a while. Thanks for watching.
Cheers Sven, quite a lot of the Soviet built stuff like this is rather nice to work on, with relatively simple and rugged designs. Over the years I've spent so much time taking all sorts of stuff apart for repair that I've got used to looking at things and working out how they work, or at least should work. Sometimes I have to walk away for a bit and maybe sleep on the problem - it's amazing how often the answer comes to you when you're not thinking about it.
Cheers Benedict - I feel a bit guilty if you had to sit through probably the longest and most boring video I've ever made!!! After a while I was no longer surprised to find more things assembled incorrectly. It's a nice lens in the end though, I love how it looks and its pretty good optically too - I'll make next weeks part two video much shorter.
The TAIR 3 is really easy to work on - it's huge and also really basic in design, but the overall principle is the same, having an outer part attached to the camera and an inner part with the glass which moves to vary the focus. It's really satisfying bringing a wreck of a lens back to life.
@@GrumpyTim I sure have! I dressed in my safari hat and walked about a park with the gun stock, and I only received a few odd looks, ha-ha. By the way, thanks for the part two too! It was also quite informative. Thanks again!
Thanks to GrumpyTim, it helped the disassembly of my Tair 3 FS. Originally, I thought it was fungus, but it was in fact oil on the rear optical block only, so did not need to strip further than to get to that. Here are a few thoughts & tips..... Always disassemble on a tray lined with kitchen towel. This way any dropped screws will not bounce and be lost forever. When re-fitting the rear optical block, do not try to drop it in from the top, or have the lens horizontal and try to slide it in. You will fail and with such a convex lens, run the risk of seriously scratching it. Instead, hold the lens vertically, top up and using a lens cloth, put the optical block in from the bottom, gently pushing upwards, you will feel when it engages properly and slides in. Your hands will get covered in grease, wash them often to avoid contaminating the optics or lens body. Wipe off all of the old grease, mine was soft, so did not need a solvent. Use IPA sparingly if a solvent required. Dry fit the two parts before re-greasing. It takes some patience to get the rack aligned properly so the index markings stop at infinity. Remove the four screws holding the silver bar and remove it (makes life easier) set the aperture to 22 and turn the pre-set ring all the way round in the opposite direction to the arrow. Stand the optical assembly vertical, facing down and lower the outer part onto it, lining up the rack and gently turning the focusing ring until they engage. Wind all the way in and see if it stops at the infinity mark. If not, unwind and have another go. You will soon get the hang of it and once the correct engagement start point is found (mine was half way between 3 and infinity markings) you should be able to easily repeat it. Now re-grease the lens SPARINGLY, only the lightest application is needed. You will see two silver circles on the inner part, these are the mating surfaces. Lightly grease these, the rack and the gears on the focus knob. I used teflon grease, but silicone grease maybe better, as it is stickier so may stop focus creep. You can cheat with the rack infinity alignment and unscrew the focus knob index ring and realign, but I think it is better, if fiddlier, to assemble as above. Good luck :o)
Cheers Nige, thanks for the tips, on the whole the Tair was a pretty easy lens to service due to it's basic design and huge size. Some of the more newer lenses (I'm talking late 70s or early 80s here can be so fiddly - modern lenses I won't touch at all - actually, that's probably not true - if a modern lens turned up in a broken state and hadn't cost me lots of money, I'd be quite happy to work on it but I'd be less happy to open a lens that I'd paid loads of money for if there was still the option to send it back to the manufacturer/importer for repair).
Yeah, it's a really nice and simple solution. On more conventional lenses with a focusing helicoid, the grease sometimes dries out and the lens sticks solid - they can be a huge amount of work to strip, clean, re grease and reassemble. I have a couple of solid lenses in the "to do" pile waiting for a rainy day.......
Hi Ghosty, hopefully you won't find it too tricky - in lens terms the Tair 3 is pretty simple to work on. Are you using the lens on a genuine M42 mount film camera or a digital with an adapter? Many (most) of the mount adapters are made a little on the short side, so you can focus beyond infinity - this isn't that much of a hassle because you can just use all the lovely features of digital to get your focus bang on. If you correct your infinity using the lens on a digital using an adapter, and then want to use it on a film camera, your infinity probably won't be correct.
@@GrumpyTim I do have a zenit film camera but I haven't really been using it much as of now, I currently have a nikon dslr with a very cheap screw mount to nikon f mount adapter, it's bare metal, I noticed that the lens is quite dirty and has a mold spot in the center of the objective glass and the lens can't focus past 30 meters, the aperture wind up thing is a bit flimsy but it works good enough, I don't have the lever nor the gun handle to use it as intended anyway.
Hi Ghosty, if I remember correctly, the Nikon film plane to flange distance is one of the biggest of them all, making it difficult to fit other lenses to Nikon bodies without losing infinity (this doesn't apply to mirrorless cameras), so I don't think you'll achieve infinity using the Tair 3 on the Nikon DSLR. However, I believe there is an adapter for the Tair and a few other soviet lenses which replaces the M42 mount with a Nikon F mount - I quite fancied getting one of these but they weren't exactly giving them away, so I resisted the temptation. I think the thing you want to search for is a KP-A/N adapter but you might want to do a bit more research before splashing the cash. Also, does the focusing wheel on your lens not move any further than 30 metres? In which case it could either be that the lens is actually focusing to infinity and the wheel markings have been set incorrectly, or that something is physically stopping the lens from focusing all the way to infinity. Pop it on your Zenit and see if you can focus on a distant building, if you can, then it's the wheel markings that need to be adjusted, and if you can't something is stopping the lens from focusing to infinity.
@@GrumpyTim so I recently adjusted the infinity just like you did in your video, as well as fixed the mount adapter issue I had using a small flat head screw driver, the dslr I'll be using it with is the D3200, it's not a mirrorless so I don't think it would have the flange distance problem you mentioned (I may have misunderstood what you meant by it). As for the focus wheel it used to reach infinity but fall just short of it, so I just screwed the optic further out to get the infinity just that little amount closer, the only thing that I'd say is an issue from now on is the mold I got at the center of my objective, there also seems to be some dust or mold on the eyepiece (the smaller glass), however I'm not sure if it's wroth opening it up to clean (I'm going to need tto build some courage). Any ideas on how I can use the lens for astrophotography? My tripod doesn't have a mount with a 3/8 thread, it does have a fixed 3/8 located on the place where you can put the mount with the 1/4 thread
Hi Ghosty, if you've managed to make it focus to infinity on your Nikon then that's fine - there's probably more room for adjustment on the Tair 3 - the mirrorless cameras are usually the easier cameras to fit any old lenses to because they have a short flange distance - some lenses just can't reach infinity when fitted to a Nikon SLR body. Just make sure you confirm visually that infinity is working - don't just rely on the wheel markings - take a shot of something distant and zoom in to confirm focus - or use live view if your Nikon has that. If the mould or dust isn't too bad I wouldn't worry about it, see how you get on with the lens and decide whether you need to clean it at a later stage. You can buy 3/8" to 1/4" tripod adapters from ebay or Amazon and so on - they're not brilliant but they can work ok to fit your lens to a tripod. They're often too long and protrude beyond the bottom of the camera/lens that you fit them to - you can either file them shorter (not while fitted to the camera/lens otherwise you'll damage the bottom plate), or you can add a shim out of card/metal/cork/rubber so the camera/lens sits firmly.
Without trying it, I'd have wondered if magnetising the blades might make them stick together and drag a bit, or maybe I'm over thinking it. I was recently cleaning the blades on a 135mm lens, one where you have to re-assemble them deep inside the lens, and I happened to try to nudge one into place with a screwdriver that had gained some magnetism - the blade itself then became mildly magnetic, just enough to dislodge the others each time I attempted to position it. Since then I've steered clear of magnetic stuff, rightly or wrongly - I'm guessing that if you've had success in your method, then it can't be that much of a problem. I'll check out your channel later, you have old calculators and stuff - just what I like. Cheers for the comment.
Hi Stevie75, they've always been a bit of an iconic lens/camera combination so that's a cool thing to have - and not too hi tech inside, making DIY repairs less frightening than they would be on a modern lens.
Thanks ohjajohh, I had fun working on that intro. I suspect the intro will be as far as many people get because the rest of the video is a bit slow and boring, unless you happen to have the same lens and are planning to take it apart.
Hello very nice video. I just get my tair 3 phs. It is cheap, but optics are in good condition. But the problem is in its aperture mechanism. I just take out its outer aperture ring and sleeve. What i see is, broken screw in inner aperture control ring. Kind of headless screw is broken and i guess it is not get into inner portion of it. So ring works loosely. It perfectly control aperture leaves, but u know it hold its position loosely. I need to unscrew it and find new one, or just drill same location and open screw thread. So is there any specs for the screw used in tair? M1.6 or smaller but i dont know length of that screw. And could i find any blueprints of that mechanism, if i couldnt find screw i have to modify the one i have for new screw. Or just get new one and use parts as spare. What do u suggest?
Hi Hakan, I'm not sure what screw threads they used on the Soviet lenses, my guess is that they're not metric threads, but I've never checked. If I get a chance I'll try to look at my lens sometime, but I won't have time this week.
Hello, I want to do maintenance to my photosniper tair 300mm lens to accommodate the diaphragm leaves, but the screws are very tight and I have not been able to open it.
Hi Pensador, which screws are tight? Is it the tiny securing screws or the big threaded parts like the name ring on the front of the lens? If it's the tiny screws, be careful not to force them to the point that the head breaks or strips, because then you'd have even more of a problem. It's always possible that someone in the past has used a lacquer to stop the screws rattling out (many lens manufacturers do this as standard) - you can usually soften the lacquer with a drop of Acitone (or sometimes IPA works) on the thread before trying to unscrew it. Careful with Acitone, it can strip some paints off so try to only use a bit where needed. If it's the large threaded sections that won't unscrew, are you sure you've got all the tiny lock screws out first? Again, with the large threaded parts, it's possible that someone has used a lacquer to retain the part - the same process applies, a drop of acitone on the thread (you'd need a few drops for a large thread). Also, if you're struggling with the tiny screws, make sure the screwdriver you're using is a really good fit in the screw head - I often re grind a screwdriver for a specific screw just to make sure it's a perfect fit. Just use a normal oilstone to re grind screwdriver tips (the kind of thing you'd use to sharpen a chisel).
Awesome, you'll like that lens when you get it - if it does need cleaning you've picked a good lens to start off with because it's relatively simple to dismantle. There might be small differences between models so make notes or take pictures as you dismantle the lens - it can really help when it comes to putting it back together. Also, I can't remember if the Tair 3 has this, but some lenses have one or more optics that it's kind of hard to tell which side is which so try not to lose track of which way round they go. I just watched your video in the misty woods - I just love misty woods, some really ace shots in there :-)
Thankyou . I did love that trip but can you believe I shot the whole trip by accident in jpg only mode which on my Olympus isn’t much use! For the Tair-3 I plan to use for more woodland shots on my Sony A7ii and perhaps also with a tc for on my Olympus omd m1 mk2 to see if I can outdo my best moon pic to date with a lens I paid less than £100 on!!
I've done that "leaving the camera in jpeg only mode" a few times myself - it's a bit of a sinking feeling when you come to edit them and find out!!!!! I nearly always reset any camera to a default start position so I always know where I am when I pick it up, but there's always that odd occasion when, for some reason, I don't..... Looking forward to seeing results from your Tair 3.
@@GrumpyTim Well it's arrived and thanks to your video i;'ve figured out that my aperture ring was put together wrongly too. The Cocking Mech didn't allow me to get it wide open. .. however not as bad as yours.. mine was just that the cocking mechanism was the wrong side of the stopper so i didn't need to take the lens end apart. And i'm very pleased that the glass looks very clean as does the aperture itself... Interesting my model has a 72mm Lens hood made of rubber with a 75mm screw thread on the end of itallowing another filter to be mounted too... it came with a Gun Trigger mechanism too.. which might get me some interesting looks!!
Excellent, that sounds perfect, glad it was an easy fix on the aperture cocking mech. I think my version would also have had a rubber lens hood when it had it's original accessories - kind of handy to have that. I'm glad you got the gun trigger assembly, it's an iconic bit of equipment - I think I'd get wrestled to the ground by our local neighbourhood watch if I went around carrying one of those though!!!!!!
Hi Clash Ofclans, it's so long ago that I took this lens apart that I can't remember all the details, but I presume you've got the front locking ring and the two spacers out. After that I seem to recall the aperture assembly was held in with three grub screws plus the drive pin also has to come out. I can't remember if I had to gently press the assembly out from the rear of the lens or maybe it was that I had to support it from underneath when I re-assembled it - I certainly had to do something that involved working from the rear of the lens. Have you continued watching to 15:46 where I actually take the aperture assembly out?
Brilliant.!! Any thoughts of disassembly ( and reassembly ) of the Tair 300A ? Conventional focus helicoid.. Its the one that suffers from stiff focus all the time.. I know a lot of people would appreciate that one. Anyway great video, most informative and keep it up : )
Hi Mad Mechanic, I haven't seen a Tair 300A in the flesh, I would guess that it's not going to be the most complicated lens in the world to dismantle but the traditional focusing helicoids can be a bit tricky to take apart and put back together correctly!!! Some people will probably hate me for this but often when I've got sticky grease in the helicoid of an old lens, I've been able to add a very small amount of light oil which sort of gets the old grease working again - it doesn't want to be lots of oil otherwise it'll get on the aperture blades and optics. This method won't help if the lens is completely solid (I have one like that in the to do pile), if it's solid it's going to come apart fully. I'll keep an eye out for a bargain 300A - if I see one I might just get it for a strip down video - probably wouldn't be soon, there's quite a backlog on the repair table at the moment!!!
@@GrumpyTim Hiya matey, Apparantly the helicoid is not the problem on these its actually the felt between inner and outer casing gums up. A quick heads up: youve got to remove front element ( 3 grubs and unscrew) easy enough but Im not brave enough for next step... Remove blades ( 15/16) then special spanner, go through front and a lockring is recessed about 4" deep. This releases helicoid from rear allowing cleaning of surface felt runs against. Anyhow Im sub'd now so will keep an eye for your future vids Cheers
That sounds like a fun challenge - I'd probably have to make a tool to reach the lock ring - I always figured that I'd need to make or buy different lens wrenches before too long - I've got a 200mm lens strip down coming up soon ish - not even sure if my existing wrench will reach the lock ring in that lens. I'll keep my eyes peeled for one of these lenses. Cheers for the sub
Helicoids are easy once you understand them or (a) wreck a few lenses) or (b) watch a lot of tube videos. Unscrew the coarse helicoid VERY slowly, keeping controlled pressure to pull them apart, as soon as they seperate, make a witness mark, so you know where to align them when reassembling. For the fine thread, make a witness mark and then count how many turns it takes to fully screw all the way in (won't be many turns or may even be less than one). When reassembling, screw all the way in then back off the number of turns and then align the witness mark. What I would love to know, is how the lenses are aligned in the factory. alas the answer to this has eluded me, despite lengthy tube and t'interweb searches. Like Tim, I have been taking things apart and (sometimes) repairing them for years, in fact as far back as I can remember. Used to love jumble sales, would only buy broken stuff like clocks for example, for pennies and would spend many happy hours tinkering with them. Have gotten quite good repairing Zenit cameras & Helios lenses (have a soft spot for them as I had one as a boy) & now have a bit of a collection.
Hi Nige, I think you hit the nail on the head in your comment "Used to love jumble sales, would only buy broken stuff like clocks for example, for pennies and would spend many happy hours tinkering with them" - exactly the same with me - probably a bit of a one way trip when I first started, things would come apart and never go back together but it was all part of the learning process. It's thoroughly satisfying when an old bit of junk is brought back to life.
Fantástico, realmente me alegro de que haya ayudado, espero que te diviertas con él, son una gran lente. Fantastic, really glad it helped, hope you have fun with it, they're a great lens.
Hey there, I want to learn more about film camera and lens repair. Can anyone reccomend a good book, or kit or source to start learning about how to repair old cameras and lenses? also what is the best solution to clean lens glass?
Hi Garvan, I've been repairing all sorts of things for as long as I can remember, and progressing into repairing lenses was just a thing I did, so I don't particularly have any books to recommend, although I'm sure there must be some available. Depending on the type of camera and age of camera/lens you're trying to repair - there's a good UA-camr "Chris Sherlock" who mostly does Kodak Retina cameras - some of his methodology could be transferred to other types of camera, particularly older cameras with non interchangeable lenses. You could do worse than buying a battered old SLR with a lens specifically to take it apart a little at a time, then put it back together again, just to learn how it all works. For cleaning the glass I only use warm water and normal washing up liquid, making sure I wash away all traces of the washing up liquid, then dab the lens dry with kitchen roll (don't rub the lens with this stuff because it can be abrasive. for the final clean before reassembly, use distilled water sparingly and buff the glass dry again - you can use cotton buds for this (make sure they are genuine cotton and not a synthetic material. Make sure your working area is clean and only use a cotton bud once - if there's any debris on the bud, it can scratch the glass or the coating. You can use a lens clots for the final buffing, but if you're doing this I'd use a new lens cloth for every lens because you will contaminate the cloth with the oils from your fingers. Hope that helps a little.
Ooh yes, I meant to suggest some tools - a lens wrench like you say, and also some small screwdrivers like jewellers screwdrivers - I have a good set, a reasonable set and a bad set - I re grind the tips of the bad set if I ever need a special sized tip for something unusual. Fine tweezers are kind of handy too. Also, something that you don't need to buy are small containers, little trays or whatever to put parts in as you take things apart - if you have several containers, you can put the parts for each section in a separate tray, it's much less confusing when it comes to reassembly.
Wow the video and the work is amazing. I have a Tair 3s lens, almost the same as yours and it came with the aperture blades off its rail. I don't know how to explain it better. When I fired the opening mechanism and the trigger for the first time, they worked perfectly, then it was taut. So I'll have to work on that. I hope everything will be all right. Any advice?
Hi Ariel, is it the aperture trigger lever that's causing your problem (the part I take off 5 minutes into the video)? Or is it the actual aperture module (that I removed about 16 minutes into the video)? If one of the diaphragm blades has come out of it's track in the aperture module, the whole module will probably need to come out and the blades reinserted but only do that if you really need to. If the three screws that hold the aperture module in position were loose or missing, it's possible that the two halves of the module weren't pressed together enough to keep the blades in their slots. It's easy enough to remove the aperture trigger lever and then test to see if the aperture will open and close properly. If needed, it's again fairly easy to remove the lens barrel section (about 5 minutes 45 seconds into the video) to check the aperture operation without actually removing the aperture module itself. If any of the lever sections on the inner lens barrel section are damaged or incorrectly fitted (as they were on my lens), you should be able to spot them by removing just the trigger lever and barrel section.
Thank you very much for the work you took in answering you. I watched the video again and it became clearer how to solve my problem with the lens. Outside of this topic, I saw a video of you about the Industar 61 lens and the music blew my mind. Then I went into your bandcamp and listened to "Bright Lights" Excellent song! I'm a musician too, a bass player and a keyboard player, and I'm exploring that style. It reminds me very slightly of Chroma Key, if you don't know it, I recommend listening to Graveyard Mountain Home and You Go Now. But, im in love with your music, if you need a bass player, sing me in.
Hi Ariel, glad you've solved your lens issue. Thanks for the music comment, you're one of the very few people who've even realised that I write all the music that features on my channel - most people probably figure that it's just some random library music. I was very much influenced by the early synthesizer bands (Kraftwerk, Tangerine Dream, Jean Michel Jarre etc) when I was a kid and that has definitely left it's mark in the music I create. I'll check out your music tip later, cheers.
Cheers Hashem, glad you're enjoying it. Have you discovered "Vintage Optiks" channel, he does some good reviews of old lenses which you might like too.
Haha, it'll be a long time (or never) before I'm as good as either Techmoan or Matthieu, but it's really nice of you leave the comment. Thanks for watching Jordan.
Hi Mahmoud, you can email me if you like - you should find my email address in the "about" tab on my channel. I can't promise to know the answer but I'll give it a try.
I find it with lots of old stuff like this - the old grease and oil has a fantastic smell, it was particularly good in the case of this lens.......or maybe I'm just weird!!!!!
Hi dallatorretdu I don't think IPA/Isopropyl alcohol is necessarily the best fungicide in the world but it can have some effect, and on the basis that all the lenses I've worked on have had fairly minor fungus and not any visible traces on the actual body of the lenses, the use of IPA to clean the body of the lens is more of a belt and braces approach that shouldn't do any harm to the body or the black finish. If I had a lens that was seriously mouldy inside, including over the metal body of the lens, I might look at using something a bit more aggressive to make sure any fungus spores were definitely dead - I'd do more research at that time to decide exactly what I was going to use - you could probably do worse than making a UV sterilisation chamber to put the lens parts in.
@@GrumpyTim I got some 6% hydrogen peroxide from Boots, it is really cheap. You have to ask for it at the pharmacy counter. Peeps on the tube seem to recommend it. Can't be too bad as it is used for wounds & gargling. Thanks for the vid, I have the later FS lens, with the electronic coupling, pulling it apart now. The bit that connects to the camera is interchangeable, one can get Nikon F & Canon. So it can be mounted to a modern camera & get infinity focus. The adaptors are quite pricey, compared to the common T mount. Works for the Tair 11 also.
@@wibbley1 Cheers Nige T, I will try some Hydrogen Peroxide next time I have a fungus infested lens to clean - as you say, it does seem to be the preferred method. Someone else had told me about the interchangeable adapters - I quite fancy getting one so I can use the Tair on my Nikons but they are kind of expensive so I'll maybe wait until I have an actual project in mind. I did consider 3D printing a mount adapter but with a big heavy lens like the Tair, the lugs on the bayonet could potentially tear off, leaving the lens to fall to the floor - it would probably be fine so long as I was careful and didn't walk around with the lens attached to the camera.
@@GrumpyTim I paid £30 for the Tair to Nikon F connector (KP-A/N). Not arrived yet, coming from USA. Very expensive considering the T2 mount can be a few £ from China. My Tair 11 just arrived and although not listed in the sale, it came with the M42 mount, a Nikon F mount connector (KP-A/N) and a Canon adaptor! The lens looks new, unmarked, travel pouch looks new & even had original instructions (In Russian) and cardboard box. Ebay is a dangerous thing :o) Cannot find my Nikon T2 adaptor, when I do, will measure it and see if it can be modified to fit the Tair lenses. If so, will open up a world of vintage Tair and Jupiter lenses. I fitted the Nikon F connector to the Tair 3 FS yesterday & tried photoing the nesting blue tits. The lens has a 3/8 mount, so used this to mount the lens to the tripod, camera hangs on the mount unsupported. The different connectors make the lens native, so should ensure the lens focuses to infinity. Forgot to try a infinity focus, will do so today. The flange difference between M42 and Nikon F is 1.04mm. Which is what stops M42 lenses with Nikon F adaptor focusing to infinity. Looking at your video, your lens had infinity set wrongly, it maybe possible to adjust the focus stop ring on the Tair 3 FS forward by 1.04mm and then use a cheap M42 to Nikon F mount adaptor. The rear optics do not protrude past the rear mount, so no fear of hitting the camera mirror. Your (and my) Tair 3 FS is designed to work with the Zent Photosniper kit, which is why the pre-set aperture has such a heavy spring loading. Whilst I don't like modifying vintage stuff, ruining its authenticity, (horrible tube video of someone cutting off the electrical cord!) it seems possible to remove the springs and either locking arm or metal plate (that was on backwards in your video) which would then allow the lens to act like a standard pre-set lens. Of course put the removed parts in a safe place to be reunited with the lens. I have two Zenit Photosniper kits in my collection, with all parts. Might keep an eye on Ebay for just the 3 FS lens, to modify. Also looking for the standard Tair 3, which has normal helicoid focusing.
Hi Nige, your Tair 11 sounds great - Ebay has a lot to answer for!!!! I will get a Nikon adapter at some point - I think the Tair will be fantastic shooting full frame. I made a little adapter plate with a 3/8 to 1/4 thread adapter so I can fir it to any tripod without thinking about it - it works perfectly. The infinity was incorrectly set when I got the lens - I set it up correctly on an old M42 body rather than setting it for Micro 4/3 as these adapters are almost always short so you need to focus for infinity on the Micro 4/3 cameras - not really a problem. I did try to see if I could go further to compensate for a standard M42 to Nikon adapter but I came across an end stop within the lens so I couldn't reach infinity on the Nikon. Good idea about modifying the aperture so it acts like a standard pre set lens - for my purposes I'll leave mine original and just trigger the aperture before I shoot. I'd always liked the Photosniper kits when I was a kid but I'd only ever seen them in Black - when I saw my Grey lens on Ebay I just fell in love with it and had to have it!!!!
Will have a winter project that will be involving the same lenses for cleaning. Will be watching this video over again as I the same thing to my lenses. Thanks for the how to.
Cheers Krie88, winter projects are great things, I get far more done on projects like this in the winter - somehow there's no time in the summer months.
I admire your patience and perfectionism that never stops you to open and reopen to get it right.
Cheers Sam - I've spent so many years assembling, disassembling and reassembling things over and over again until everything is just right, it's become normality. Mind you, I do sometimes get impatient and just want to have the thing built/repaired/assembled or whatever - at that point it's usually best to walk away for a while.
Thanks for watching.
@@GrumpyTim 🙏🌸
Great job. I can imagine how tricky this work can get
Cheers Sven, quite a lot of the Soviet built stuff like this is rather nice to work on, with relatively simple and rugged designs. Over the years I've spent so much time taking all sorts of stuff apart for repair that I've got used to looking at things and working out how they work, or at least should work. Sometimes I have to walk away for a bit and maybe sleep on the problem - it's amazing how often the answer comes to you when you're not thinking about it.
Nice work Tim. It's always interesting to see how people put things back together wrong!
Cheers Benedict - I feel a bit guilty if you had to sit through probably the longest and most boring video I've ever made!!! After a while I was no longer surprised to find more things assembled incorrectly.
It's a nice lens in the end though, I love how it looks and its pretty good optically too - I'll make next weeks part two video much shorter.
@@GrumpyTim It's always useful to get an idea of how these things are put together just in case I decide to repair one.
The TAIR 3 is really easy to work on - it's huge and also really basic in design, but the overall principle is the same, having an outer part attached to the camera and an inner part with the glass which moves to vary the focus. It's really satisfying bringing a wreck of a lens back to life.
This video has helped me greatly! Thank you for posting this super in-depth guide!
Excellent, hope you have fun using the lens No. 7054
@@GrumpyTim I sure have! I dressed in my safari hat and walked about a park with the gun stock, and I only received a few odd looks, ha-ha. By the way, thanks for the part two too! It was also quite informative. Thanks again!
Ha ha, I'm sure people would pay to see you in your safari hat!!!
Thanks to GrumpyTim, it helped the disassembly of my Tair 3 FS. Originally, I thought it was fungus, but it was in fact oil on the rear optical block only, so did not need to strip further than to get to that. Here are a few thoughts & tips.....
Always disassemble on a tray lined with kitchen towel. This way any dropped screws will not bounce and be lost forever.
When re-fitting the rear optical block, do not try to drop it in from the top, or have the lens horizontal and try to slide it in. You will fail and with such a convex lens, run the risk of seriously scratching it. Instead, hold the lens vertically, top up and using a lens cloth, put the optical block in from the bottom, gently pushing upwards, you will feel when it engages properly and slides in.
Your hands will get covered in grease, wash them often to avoid contaminating the optics or lens body. Wipe off all of the old grease, mine was soft, so did not need a solvent. Use IPA sparingly if a solvent required.
Dry fit the two parts before re-greasing. It takes some patience to get the rack aligned properly so the index markings stop at infinity. Remove the four screws holding the silver bar and remove it (makes life easier) set the aperture to 22 and turn the pre-set ring all the way round in the opposite direction to the arrow.
Stand the optical assembly vertical, facing down and lower the outer part onto it, lining up the rack and gently turning the focusing ring until they engage. Wind all the way in and see if it stops at the infinity mark. If not, unwind and have another go. You will soon get the hang of it and once the correct engagement start point is found (mine was half way between 3 and infinity markings) you should be able to easily repeat it.
Now re-grease the lens SPARINGLY, only the lightest application is needed. You will see two silver circles on the inner part, these are the mating surfaces. Lightly grease these, the rack and the gears on the focus knob. I used teflon grease, but silicone grease maybe better, as it is stickier so may stop focus creep.
You can cheat with the rack infinity alignment and unscrew the focus knob index ring and realign, but I think it is better, if fiddlier, to assemble as above.
Good luck :o)
Cheers Nige, thanks for the tips, on the whole the Tair was a pretty easy lens to service due to it's basic design and huge size. Some of the more newer lenses (I'm talking late 70s or early 80s here can be so fiddly - modern lenses I won't touch at all - actually, that's probably not true - if a modern lens turned up in a broken state and hadn't cost me lots of money, I'd be quite happy to work on it but I'd be less happy to open a lens that I'd paid loads of money for if there was still the option to send it back to the manufacturer/importer for repair).
Lovely video! I'm getting my Photosniper soon, so I hope it will be in great shape.
Excellent, you should have fun with that Gray - I'd always liked the look of them since I was a kid.
I like that focusing rack setup.
Yeah, it's a really nice and simple solution. On more conventional lenses with a focusing helicoid, the grease sometimes dries out and the lens sticks solid - they can be a huge amount of work to strip, clean, re grease and reassemble. I have a couple of solid lenses in the "to do" pile waiting for a rainy day.......
I had problems with the infinity of my lens, thanks to this vid I might attempt to fix it, I just got to build the courage to do it
Hi Ghosty, hopefully you won't find it too tricky - in lens terms the Tair 3 is pretty simple to work on. Are you using the lens on a genuine M42 mount film camera or a digital with an adapter? Many (most) of the mount adapters are made a little on the short side, so you can focus beyond infinity - this isn't that much of a hassle because you can just use all the lovely features of digital to get your focus bang on. If you correct your infinity using the lens on a digital using an adapter, and then want to use it on a film camera, your infinity probably won't be correct.
@@GrumpyTim I do have a zenit film camera but I haven't really been using it much as of now, I currently have a nikon dslr with a very cheap screw mount to nikon f mount adapter, it's bare metal, I noticed that the lens is quite dirty and has a mold spot in the center of the objective glass and the lens can't focus past 30 meters, the aperture wind up thing is a bit flimsy but it works good enough, I don't have the lever nor the gun handle to use it as intended anyway.
Hi Ghosty, if I remember correctly, the Nikon film plane to flange distance is one of the biggest of them all, making it difficult to fit other lenses to Nikon bodies without losing infinity (this doesn't apply to mirrorless cameras), so I don't think you'll achieve infinity using the Tair 3 on the Nikon DSLR. However, I believe there is an adapter for the Tair and a few other soviet lenses which replaces the M42 mount with a Nikon F mount - I quite fancied getting one of these but they weren't exactly giving them away, so I resisted the temptation. I think the thing you want to search for is a KP-A/N adapter but you might want to do a bit more research before splashing the cash.
Also, does the focusing wheel on your lens not move any further than 30 metres? In which case it could either be that the lens is actually focusing to infinity and the wheel markings have been set incorrectly, or that something is physically stopping the lens from focusing all the way to infinity. Pop it on your Zenit and see if you can focus on a distant building, if you can, then it's the wheel markings that need to be adjusted, and if you can't something is stopping the lens from focusing to infinity.
@@GrumpyTim so I recently adjusted the infinity just like you did in your video, as well as fixed the mount adapter issue I had using a small flat head screw driver, the dslr I'll be using it with is the D3200, it's not a mirrorless so I don't think it would have the flange distance problem you mentioned (I may have misunderstood what you meant by it).
As for the focus wheel it used to reach infinity but fall just short of it, so I just screwed the optic further out to get the infinity just that little amount closer, the only thing that I'd say is an issue from now on is the mold I got at the center of my objective, there also seems to be some dust or mold on the eyepiece (the smaller glass), however I'm not sure if it's wroth opening it up to clean (I'm going to need tto build some courage).
Any ideas on how I can use the lens for astrophotography?
My tripod doesn't have a mount with a 3/8 thread, it does have a fixed 3/8 located on the place where you can put the mount with the 1/4 thread
Hi Ghosty, if you've managed to make it focus to infinity on your Nikon then that's fine - there's probably more room for adjustment on the Tair 3 - the mirrorless cameras are usually the easier cameras to fit any old lenses to because they have a short flange distance - some lenses just can't reach infinity when fitted to a Nikon SLR body. Just make sure you confirm visually that infinity is working - don't just rely on the wheel markings - take a shot of something distant and zoom in to confirm focus - or use live view if your Nikon has that.
If the mould or dust isn't too bad I wouldn't worry about it, see how you get on with the lens and decide whether you need to clean it at a later stage.
You can buy 3/8" to 1/4" tripod adapters from ebay or Amazon and so on - they're not brilliant but they can work ok to fit your lens to a tripod. They're often too long and protrude beyond the bottom of the camera/lens that you fit them to - you can either file them shorter (not while fitted to the camera/lens otherwise you'll damage the bottom plate), or you can add a shim out of card/metal/cork/rubber so the camera/lens sits firmly.
thanks for the video, it helped a lot in the repair
Hi Геннадий Covacs, really glad it helped with your repair, hope you have lots of fun with a great lens.
I often used HDD magnets aka niodium magnets to hold the blades down when reassembling them. Otherwise they like to fall apart right at the end.
Without trying it, I'd have wondered if magnetising the blades might make them stick together and drag a bit, or maybe I'm over thinking it. I was recently cleaning the blades on a 135mm lens, one where you have to re-assemble them deep inside the lens, and I happened to try to nudge one into place with a screwdriver that had gained some magnetism - the blade itself then became mildly magnetic, just enough to dislodge the others each time I attempted to position it. Since then I've steered clear of magnetic stuff, rightly or wrongly - I'm guessing that if you've had success in your method, then it can't be that much of a problem.
I'll check out your channel later, you have old calculators and stuff - just what I like.
Cheers for the comment.
I have the original Zenit Photosniper (the two screwdrivers included) and i remember my andventures with fixing the aperture blades in mine.
Hi Stevie75, they've always been a bit of an iconic lens/camera combination so that's a cool thing to have - and not too hi tech inside, making DIY repairs less frightening than they would be on a modern lens.
That focusing mechanism is so interesting. Just a gear rack.
Yeah, utter simplicity, really nice for a change, and big too, making it really easy to work on.
Superb video, really helpful, thanks!
Thanks DIVIIK, hope it helped.
The intro is brilliant!
Thanks ohjajohh, I had fun working on that intro. I suspect the intro will be as far as many people get because the rest of the video is a bit slow and boring, unless you happen to have the same lens and are planning to take it apart.
@@GrumpyTim Well, I have to admit I didn't watch all of it, but looking forward to the test shots in part 2.
I promise I'll make part two much shorter!!! :-)
Hello very nice video. I just get my tair 3 phs. It is cheap, but optics are in good condition. But the problem is in its aperture mechanism. I just take out its outer aperture ring and sleeve. What i see is, broken screw in inner aperture control ring. Kind of headless screw is broken and i guess it is not get into inner portion of it. So ring works loosely. It perfectly control aperture leaves, but u know it hold its position loosely. I need to unscrew it and find new one, or just drill same location and open screw thread. So is there any specs for the screw used in tair? M1.6 or smaller but i dont know length of that screw. And could i find any blueprints of that mechanism, if i couldnt find screw i have to modify the one i have for new screw. Or just get new one and use parts as spare. What do u suggest?
Hi Hakan, I'm not sure what screw threads they used on the Soviet lenses, my guess is that they're not metric threads, but I've never checked. If I get a chance I'll try to look at my lens sometime, but I won't have time this week.
explained perfectly super video
Cheers Eddy, glad you liked it.
Hello, I want to do maintenance to my photosniper tair 300mm lens to accommodate the diaphragm leaves, but the screws are very tight and I have not been able to open it.
Hi Pensador, which screws are tight? Is it the tiny securing screws or the big threaded parts like the name ring on the front of the lens? If it's the tiny screws, be careful not to force them to the point that the head breaks or strips, because then you'd have even more of a problem. It's always possible that someone in the past has used a lacquer to stop the screws rattling out (many lens manufacturers do this as standard) - you can usually soften the lacquer with a drop of Acitone (or sometimes IPA works) on the thread before trying to unscrew it. Careful with Acitone, it can strip some paints off so try to only use a bit where needed.
If it's the large threaded sections that won't unscrew, are you sure you've got all the tiny lock screws out first? Again, with the large threaded parts, it's possible that someone has used a lacquer to retain the part - the same process applies, a drop of acitone on the thread (you'd need a few drops for a large thread).
Also, if you're struggling with the tiny screws, make sure the screwdriver you're using is a really good fit in the screw head - I often re grind a screwdriver for a specific screw just to make sure it's a perfect fit. Just use a normal oilstone to re grind screwdriver tips (the kind of thing you'd use to sharpen a chisel).
Thankyou so much for doing this video so well... my Tair-3s is on it's way to me... and i'm afraid i might need to clean it up. Thanks again.
Awesome, you'll like that lens when you get it - if it does need cleaning you've picked a good lens to start off with because it's relatively simple to dismantle. There might be small differences between models so make notes or take pictures as you dismantle the lens - it can really help when it comes to putting it back together. Also, I can't remember if the Tair 3 has this, but some lenses have one or more optics that it's kind of hard to tell which side is which so try not to lose track of which way round they go.
I just watched your video in the misty woods - I just love misty woods, some really ace shots in there :-)
Thankyou . I did love that trip but can you believe I shot the whole trip by accident in jpg only mode which on my Olympus isn’t much use! For the Tair-3 I plan to use for more woodland shots on my Sony A7ii and perhaps also with a tc for on my Olympus omd m1 mk2 to see if I can outdo my best moon pic to date with a lens I paid less than £100 on!!
I've done that "leaving the camera in jpeg only mode" a few times myself - it's a bit of a sinking feeling when you come to edit them and find out!!!!! I nearly always reset any camera to a default start position so I always know where I am when I pick it up, but there's always that odd occasion when, for some reason, I don't.....
Looking forward to seeing results from your Tair 3.
@@GrumpyTim Well it's arrived and thanks to your video i;'ve figured out that my aperture ring was put together wrongly too. The Cocking Mech didn't allow me to get it wide open. .. however not as bad as yours.. mine was just that the cocking mechanism was the wrong side of the stopper so i didn't need to take the lens end apart. And i'm very pleased that the glass looks very clean as does the aperture itself... Interesting my model has a 72mm Lens hood made of rubber with a 75mm screw thread on the end of itallowing another filter to be mounted too... it came with a Gun Trigger mechanism too.. which might get me some interesting looks!!
Excellent, that sounds perfect, glad it was an easy fix on the aperture cocking mech. I think my version would also have had a rubber lens hood when it had it's original accessories - kind of handy to have that.
I'm glad you got the gun trigger assembly, it's an iconic bit of equipment - I think I'd get wrestled to the ground by our local neighbourhood watch if I went around carrying one of those though!!!!!!
Очень хорошая инструкция по ремонту, большое спасибо.
Спасибо, Алексей, рад, что статья оказалась полезной. Спасибо за просмотр.
Thanks Алексей, glad you found it helpful. Cheers for watching.
Broh can u help me plz I am on 12.49 video part I can't take out the aperture module
Hi Clash Ofclans, it's so long ago that I took this lens apart that I can't remember all the details, but I presume you've got the front locking ring and the two spacers out. After that I seem to recall the aperture assembly was held in with three grub screws plus the drive pin also has to come out. I can't remember if I had to gently press the assembly out from the rear of the lens or maybe it was that I had to support it from underneath when I re-assembled it - I certainly had to do something that involved working from the rear of the lens. Have you continued watching to 15:46 where I actually take the aperture assembly out?
Brilliant.!! Any thoughts of disassembly ( and reassembly ) of the Tair 300A ? Conventional focus helicoid.. Its the one that suffers from stiff focus all the time.. I know a lot of people would appreciate that one. Anyway great video, most informative and keep it up : )
Hi Mad Mechanic, I haven't seen a Tair 300A in the flesh, I would guess that it's not going to be the most complicated lens in the world to dismantle but the traditional focusing helicoids can be a bit tricky to take apart and put back together correctly!!! Some people will probably hate me for this but often when I've got sticky grease in the helicoid of an old lens, I've been able to add a very small amount of light oil which sort of gets the old grease working again - it doesn't want to be lots of oil otherwise it'll get on the aperture blades and optics. This method won't help if the lens is completely solid (I have one like that in the to do pile), if it's solid it's going to come apart fully.
I'll keep an eye out for a bargain 300A - if I see one I might just get it for a strip down video - probably wouldn't be soon, there's quite a backlog on the repair table at the moment!!!
@@GrumpyTim Hiya matey, Apparantly the helicoid is not the problem on these its actually the felt between inner and outer casing gums up. A quick heads up: youve got to remove front element ( 3 grubs and unscrew) easy enough but Im not brave enough for next step... Remove blades ( 15/16) then special spanner, go through front and a lockring is recessed about 4" deep. This releases helicoid from rear allowing cleaning of surface felt runs against. Anyhow Im sub'd now so will keep an eye for your future vids Cheers
That sounds like a fun challenge - I'd probably have to make a tool to reach the lock ring - I always figured that I'd need to make or buy different lens wrenches before too long - I've got a 200mm lens strip down coming up soon ish - not even sure if my existing wrench will reach the lock ring in that lens.
I'll keep my eyes peeled for one of these lenses. Cheers for the sub
Helicoids are easy once you understand them or (a) wreck a few lenses) or (b) watch a lot of tube videos.
Unscrew the coarse helicoid VERY slowly, keeping controlled pressure to pull them apart, as soon as they seperate, make a witness mark, so you know where to align them when reassembling.
For the fine thread, make a witness mark and then count how many turns it takes to fully screw all the way in (won't be many turns or may even be less than one). When reassembling, screw all the way in then back off the number of turns and then align the witness mark.
What I would love to know, is how the lenses are aligned in the factory. alas the answer to this has eluded me, despite lengthy tube and t'interweb searches.
Like Tim, I have been taking things apart and (sometimes) repairing them for years, in fact as far back as I can remember. Used to love jumble sales, would only buy broken stuff like clocks for example, for pennies and would spend many happy hours tinkering with them. Have gotten quite good repairing Zenit cameras & Helios lenses (have a soft spot for them as I had one as a boy) & now have a bit of a collection.
Hi Nige, I think you hit the nail on the head in your comment "Used to love jumble sales, would only buy broken stuff like clocks for example, for pennies and would spend many happy hours tinkering with them" - exactly the same with me - probably a bit of a one way trip when I first started, things would come apart and never go back together but it was all part of the learning process. It's thoroughly satisfying when an old bit of junk is brought back to life.
Gracias!!! Pude reparar perfectamente el mío gracias a éste video! thanks!!!
Fantástico, realmente me alegro de que haya ayudado, espero que te diviertas con él, son una gran lente.
Fantastic, really glad it helped, hope you have fun with it, they're a great lens.
Hey there, I want to learn more about film camera and lens repair. Can anyone reccomend a good book, or kit or source to start learning about how to repair old cameras and lenses? also what is the best solution to clean lens glass?
Hi Garvan, I've been repairing all sorts of things for as long as I can remember, and progressing into repairing lenses was just a thing I did, so I don't particularly have any books to recommend, although I'm sure there must be some available. Depending on the type of camera and age of camera/lens you're trying to repair - there's a good UA-camr "Chris Sherlock" who mostly does Kodak Retina cameras - some of his methodology could be transferred to other types of camera, particularly older cameras with non interchangeable lenses. You could do worse than buying a battered old SLR with a lens specifically to take it apart a little at a time, then put it back together again, just to learn how it all works.
For cleaning the glass I only use warm water and normal washing up liquid, making sure I wash away all traces of the washing up liquid, then dab the lens dry with kitchen roll (don't rub the lens with this stuff because it can be abrasive. for the final clean before reassembly, use distilled water sparingly and buff the glass dry again - you can use cotton buds for this (make sure they are genuine cotton and not a synthetic material. Make sure your working area is clean and only use a cotton bud once - if there's any debris on the bud, it can scratch the glass or the coating. You can use a lens clots for the final buffing, but if you're doing this I'd use a new lens cloth for every lens because you will contaminate the cloth with the oils from your fingers.
Hope that helps a little.
@@GrumpyTim yes very helpful. Was thinking of buying a battered something to tinker with. Might need to invest in a lens wrench too, thanks again
Ooh yes, I meant to suggest some tools - a lens wrench like you say, and also some small screwdrivers like jewellers screwdrivers - I have a good set, a reasonable set and a bad set - I re grind the tips of the bad set if I ever need a special sized tip for something unusual. Fine tweezers are kind of handy too. Also, something that you don't need to buy are small containers, little trays or whatever to put parts in as you take things apart - if you have several containers, you can put the parts for each section in a separate tray, it's much less confusing when it comes to reassembly.
Thanks i have infinity focus now! 8:38
Cheers John, glad you got your infinity working. If only all lenses were built like this Tair, life would be so much simpler!!!
@@GrumpyTim If only all tutorial is like this tutorial, life would be so much exciting!!!
"Tutorial" sounds so grand - I think of it more along the lines of - "this is how I did it, maybe it'll help someone else a little bit". :-)
this comment is supposed to reinforce the algorithem, may you be blessed by the gods.
Cheers Otschie :-)
Good job! 😁👍👏
Cheers, glad you liked it :-)
Wow the video and the work is amazing. I have a Tair 3s lens, almost the same as yours and it came with the aperture blades off its rail. I don't know how to explain it better. When I fired the opening mechanism and the trigger for the first time, they worked perfectly, then it was taut. So I'll have to work on that. I hope everything will be all right. Any advice?
Hi Ariel, is it the aperture trigger lever that's causing your problem (the part I take off 5 minutes into the video)? Or is it the actual aperture module (that I removed about 16 minutes into the video)? If one of the diaphragm blades has come out of it's track in the aperture module, the whole module will probably need to come out and the blades reinserted but only do that if you really need to. If the three screws that hold the aperture module in position were loose or missing, it's possible that the two halves of the module weren't pressed together enough to keep the blades in their slots.
It's easy enough to remove the aperture trigger lever and then test to see if the aperture will open and close properly. If needed, it's again fairly easy to remove the lens barrel section (about 5 minutes 45 seconds into the video) to check the aperture operation without actually removing the aperture module itself.
If any of the lever sections on the inner lens barrel section are damaged or incorrectly fitted (as they were on my lens), you should be able to spot them by removing just the trigger lever and barrel section.
Thank you very much for the work you took in answering you. I watched the video again and it became clearer how to solve my problem with the lens.
Outside of this topic, I saw a video of you about the Industar 61 lens and the music blew my mind.
Then I went into your bandcamp and listened to "Bright Lights" Excellent song! I'm a musician too, a bass player and a keyboard player, and I'm exploring that style. It reminds me very slightly of Chroma Key, if you don't know it, I recommend listening to Graveyard Mountain Home and You Go Now.
But, im in love with your music, if you need a bass player, sing me in.
Hi Ariel, glad you've solved your lens issue.
Thanks for the music comment, you're one of the very few people who've even realised that I write all the music that features on my channel - most people probably figure that it's just some random library music. I was very much influenced by the early synthesizer bands (Kraftwerk, Tangerine Dream, Jean Michel Jarre etc) when I was a kid and that has definitely left it's mark in the music I create. I'll check out your music tip later, cheers.
I love this channel!
Cheers Hashem, glad you're enjoying it. Have you discovered "Vintage Optiks" channel, he does some good reviews of old lenses which you might like too.
@@GrumpyTim heading there immediately! Thanks for the recommendation :)
astonishing
Cheers WNNO, it's a cool lens.
Your channel is 🔥
Cheers Edd, and thanks for the sub too :-)
I love your content. You are techmoan X matthieu Stern!
Haha, it'll be a long time (or never) before I'm as good as either Techmoan or Matthieu, but it's really nice of you leave the comment. Thanks for watching Jordan.
Hello , I am from Egypt and I really do need help regarding a weird problem in my Tair 3S lense , How can I communicate with you ?
Hi Mahmoud, you can email me if you like - you should find my email address in the "about" tab on my channel. I can't promise to know the answer but I'll give it a try.
@@GrumpyTim
Is there is an easier way of communication, Like messenger, WhatsApp, or something like that
Hi Mahmoud, there's also a link on the "about" page of my channel to my facebook page, you should be able to use messenger from there if you prefer.
@@GrumpyTim
I have sent voice note on messenger to your page , Thanks you.
thank you sir for this video i can get the lenses out of mine and get rid of fungus
Awesome, hope it all goes smoothly.
"this lens smells like a Russian tank" what a wonderful smells comrade
I find it with lots of old stuff like this - the old grease and oil has a fantastic smell, it was particularly good in the case of this lens.......or maybe I'm just weird!!!!!
@@GrumpyTim perhaps it just someting unique about old lens
isopropyl kills the fungi?
Hi dallatorretdu I don't think IPA/Isopropyl alcohol is necessarily the best fungicide in the world but it can have some effect, and on the basis that all the lenses I've worked on have had fairly minor fungus and not any visible traces on the actual body of the lenses, the use of IPA to clean the body of the lens is more of a belt and braces approach that shouldn't do any harm to the body or the black finish. If I had a lens that was seriously mouldy inside, including over the metal body of the lens, I might look at using something a bit more aggressive to make sure any fungus spores were definitely dead - I'd do more research at that time to decide exactly what I was going to use - you could probably do worse than making a UV sterilisation chamber to put the lens parts in.
@@GrumpyTim I got some 6% hydrogen peroxide from Boots, it is really cheap. You have to ask for it at the pharmacy counter. Peeps on the tube seem to recommend it. Can't be too bad as it is used for wounds & gargling. Thanks for the vid, I have the later FS lens, with the electronic coupling, pulling it apart now.
The bit that connects to the camera is interchangeable, one can get Nikon F & Canon. So it can be mounted to a modern camera & get infinity focus. The adaptors are quite pricey, compared to the common T mount. Works for the Tair 11 also.
@@wibbley1 Cheers Nige T, I will try some Hydrogen Peroxide next time I have a fungus infested lens to clean - as you say, it does seem to be the preferred method.
Someone else had told me about the interchangeable adapters - I quite fancy getting one so I can use the Tair on my Nikons but they are kind of expensive so I'll maybe wait until I have an actual project in mind. I did consider 3D printing a mount adapter but with a big heavy lens like the Tair, the lugs on the bayonet could potentially tear off, leaving the lens to fall to the floor - it would probably be fine so long as I was careful and didn't walk around with the lens attached to the camera.
@@GrumpyTim I paid £30 for the Tair to Nikon F connector (KP-A/N). Not arrived yet, coming from USA. Very expensive considering the T2 mount can be a few £ from China.
My Tair 11 just arrived and although not listed in the sale, it came with the M42 mount, a Nikon F mount connector (KP-A/N) and a Canon adaptor! The lens looks new, unmarked, travel pouch looks new & even had original instructions (In Russian) and cardboard box. Ebay is a dangerous thing :o)
Cannot find my Nikon T2 adaptor, when I do, will measure it and see if it can be modified to fit the Tair lenses. If so, will open up a world of vintage Tair and Jupiter lenses.
I fitted the Nikon F connector to the Tair 3 FS yesterday & tried photoing the nesting blue tits. The lens has a 3/8 mount, so used this to mount the lens to the tripod, camera hangs on the mount unsupported. The different connectors make the lens native, so should ensure the lens focuses to infinity. Forgot to try a infinity focus, will do so today.
The flange difference between M42 and Nikon F is 1.04mm. Which is what stops M42 lenses with Nikon F adaptor focusing to infinity. Looking at your video, your lens had infinity set wrongly, it maybe possible to adjust the focus stop ring on the Tair 3 FS forward by 1.04mm and then use a cheap M42 to Nikon F mount adaptor. The rear optics do not protrude past the rear mount, so no fear of hitting the camera mirror.
Your (and my) Tair 3 FS is designed to work with the Zent Photosniper kit, which is why the pre-set aperture has such a heavy spring loading. Whilst I don't like modifying vintage stuff, ruining its authenticity, (horrible tube video of someone cutting off the electrical cord!) it seems possible to remove the springs and either locking arm or metal plate (that was on backwards in your video) which would then allow the lens to act like a standard pre-set lens. Of course put the removed parts in a safe place to be reunited with the lens.
I have two Zenit Photosniper kits in my collection, with all parts. Might keep an eye on Ebay for just the 3 FS lens, to modify. Also looking for the standard Tair 3, which has normal helicoid focusing.
Hi Nige, your Tair 11 sounds great - Ebay has a lot to answer for!!!!
I will get a Nikon adapter at some point - I think the Tair will be fantastic shooting full frame.
I made a little adapter plate with a 3/8 to 1/4 thread adapter so I can fir it to any tripod without thinking about it - it works perfectly.
The infinity was incorrectly set when I got the lens - I set it up correctly on an old M42 body rather than setting it for Micro 4/3 as these adapters are almost always short so you need to focus for infinity on the Micro 4/3 cameras - not really a problem. I did try to see if I could go further to compensate for a standard M42 to Nikon adapter but I came across an end stop within the lens so I couldn't reach infinity on the Nikon.
Good idea about modifying the aperture so it acts like a standard pre set lens - for my purposes I'll leave mine original and just trigger the aperture before I shoot. I'd always liked the Photosniper kits when I was a kid but I'd only ever seen them in Black - when I saw my Grey lens on Ebay I just fell in love with it and had to have it!!!!