I had a hopeless and very beaten up Nikkor Ai 85mm f2 that I wanted to find some use for. The problem was that the front element had so many deep marks and scratches that it acted as a soft filter...
Some don't like this lens, but its small size and big aperture makes it perfect for candid shots at concerts.
Now, there is a workshop in Ukraine (araxfoto.com) that multi-coats and polishes any piece of glass, as long as you do the actual disassembly yourself. I wasn't sure if it was worth trying, but their price was way below buying a mint 85/2 on the used market and the one I had I got almost for free because of its condition.
Anyway, I got the front element back today, and it looked brand new. The glass had been polished and coated to a perfect surface in spite of all the scratches. Only drawback was that the focal length had changed slightly so during reassembly I had to adjust the back lens group to get infinity right. I suppose the reason for this was that my lens needed to be ground down quite a bit to remove the marks.
The end result however looks superb and there is no flare or softness anymore.
I am posting this as a sort of consumer report, if there are others like me who have less than perfect lenses on the shelf. The man in charge is Gevorg Vartanyan, and he was very polite and helpful.
Martin
Some don't like this lens, but its small size and big aperture makes it perfect for candid shots at concerts.
Now, there is a workshop in Ukraine (araxfoto.com) that multi-coats and polishes any piece of glass, as long as you do the actual disassembly yourself. I wasn't sure if it was worth trying, but their price was way below buying a mint 85/2 on the used market and the one I had I got almost for free because of its condition.
Anyway, I got the front element back today, and it looked brand new. The glass had been polished and coated to a perfect surface in spite of all the scratches. Only drawback was that the focal length had changed slightly so during reassembly I had to adjust the back lens group to get infinity right. I suppose the reason for this was that my lens needed to be ground down quite a bit to remove the marks.
The end result however looks superb and there is no flare or softness anymore.
I am posting this as a sort of consumer report, if there are others like me who have less than perfect lenses on the shelf. The man in charge is Gevorg Vartanyan, and he was very polite and helpful.
Martin
