Arri Master Prime focus ring stuck

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nomana

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Hi
our Zeiss 32mm Arri Master Prime has focus ring stuck actually it feel like loose gear inside (lens works but with loud clicking noise when turning focus ring)
the cost of repair is about $500 just for adjust gear a bit
So we plan to tear it down but have no guide line or service manual for it.
We used to fix canon or nikon lens many times but never done with big lens like this.

If you guys have suggestions or any guide line like similar lens structures, we appreciate

Thank you
 
Wow, you are brave!

You have a $22K lens and rather than have a lens tech do a freshen up & adjustment for $500 you would rather attempt to repair the lens yourself with advice off an internet forum?

Good luck with that!

Dave
 
Send that sucker to Duclose. It is not an expensive fix but a hell of a mistake if you get in there and mess up.
 
Go ahead. Why don't you open one of the world's most expensive lenses with arguably the highest optical precision tolerances in the non-military/scientific realm, and tinker with it. I'm sure all that past experience with a totally different type of lens will serve you really well. I'm sure you can find whatever replacement part you need on eBay or something. Just type in Master Primes Cinema lens parts...


In all seriousness, stop trolling. Nobody in their right mind would pay $22,000- $25,000 for a lens and not have it properly repaired by a trained lens technician for a mere $500. Plus, a one day rental for a Master Prime set is around 1,800/day! Can you not spare $500 to ensure your next client will have a reliable and usable product? I'm sorry, but your mentality shows a real disparity to what I'd expect from someone who owns professional lenses.

I sent out six of my cine lenses to have their annual cleaning and service earlier this year, mind you they were all working fine and had zero operational or optical issues, and it cost around 300 per lens for cleaning. The total was about $2,000 for cleaning and general maintenance but it was worth it for my customers, for myself, and for piece of mind. I've already made multiples more than that, and they are still working like the 1st day I got them!

You sir, have no idea what you are doing. Listen to the internets and put down the screw driver. Even if you could fix it, why do it? Give me one good reason. If anything, get a good cleaning and check-up out of it. Have the lens technician throw it up on a projector and make sure everything's dandy inside. Obviously the lens has had a rough life or a very tramatic incident, and who knows what else is wrong inside! When you open a lens yourself, you risk screwing things up worse, accidental misalignment of elements, exposing inner optical groupings or elements to dust and other foreign contaminents, and etc. These things may not be obvious at the time but will show up upon later inspection, perhaps through a lens projector or etc. And to ask DVXuser for advice?! I love this place, but perhaps only .0001% of people on this site have ever even used a Master Prime. That said, at least the good people at DVXuser have the intelligence and common sense to send their $1,000 Zeiss ZF or $4,000 CP2 to Duclos for service when they need to. And you are here asking about a MP?!

I'll probably get some flack for being a little too direct, but I'd say you're either a very rich, yet cheap, individual who bought these lenses as a luxury without truly recognizing or respecting the amount of amazing and complicated optical and mechanical engineering that goes into cinema optics... or you are trolling. I also never like to get aggressive because you never know who you are offending. You could be Seamus McGarvey, ASC, BSC for all I know, and I could burn a professional bridge with a great cinematographer... but I was so dumbfounded by this inquiry that I'm taking that risk.

Also, please let me know if you rent these lenses out under a rental company of yours. I'd love to avoid them, considering I now know what wonderful lengths the owner takes to keep them maintained! Every production that pays 1,500/day for lenses must love the fact you'd rather open it up and try to fix it yourself, than to have it professionally done.

And I wrote this totally sober. You're lucky I didn't have a couple pints of Guinness in me.
 
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The Master Prime lenses are very special in their precision design, and there are some custom tools that need to be used in order to service them. You may get it apart and back together again, but it will not function at nearly the level it did when leaving the factory. The precision alignment necessary for achieving optimal MTF both at the center and the edges can only be done with the correct instrumentation and by a Zeiss factory training technician.

AbelCine is the warranty service center for the Americas for Zeiss cine lenses. There are only a handful of the proprietary tools in existence for properly servicing these lenses. We service lenses for a number of other companies. To have a Master Prime serviced correctly, it either goes to AbelCine in the US or goes to Zeiss in Germany.
 
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