It has been a week or so of surprises on the photographic front for me, what with the kingfisher and seascape shots, but nothing has surprised me more than the maintenance I performed on one of my lenses. The internal elements of my 85mm f/1.4D Nikkor lens had cultivated a fungal growth, and although not affecting image quality it wasn't going to get better by itself.
This sort of thing can be expected with older optics - and if left unchecked is usually the kiss of death to a lens - but it can be restored to good working order if not left too long... at a price. As a rule I send optics in need of such attention away to have them professionally cleaned, but having throughly absorbed a video on YouTube demonstrating how to dismantle the lens I decided that it might be worth the risk to have a go myself.
Delving into the works of a £1000 lens with no prior experience can be a bit unnerving - and not for the faint hearted - but since I wasn't going anywhere the autofocus mechanism it was really just a case of unscrewing the affected elements; giving them a clean, and reassembling. Comparatively easy, really - and you do need the right tools for the job - but test shots in the field today proved the operation was a success.
This has nothing to do with today's photograph, which was shot yesterday and shows two trees reflected in a still backwater of the Dorset Stour. I just thought I'd publish it, anyway.
300mm f/4 AF-S Nikkor. 1/200 second at f/6.3. - 0.33 EV compensation. ISO 250. Tripod. Mirror lockup and remote release.
© 2014
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