Iris sticking...

[ElectronicsNerd]

Anyone else have this issue ever? It works fine and moves fine in manual mode but when in automatic mode it moves very "jerky" and sometimes won't move at all unless you put the slightest amount of pressure on the gear in the direction it should be moving. I'm not sure if it's a sticking iris or a weak servo. Is there a way to lubricate these?

 

[wannabeapilot]

Anyone else have this issue ever? It works fine and moves fine in manual mode but when in automatic mode it moves very "jerky" and sometimes won't move at all unless you put the slightest amount of pressure on the gear in the direction it should be moving. I'm not sure if it's a sticking iris or a weak servo. Is there a way to lubricate these?

you should never attempt to change the iris manually when its in automatic mode

 

[ElectronicsNerd]

you should never attempt to change the iris manually when its in automatic mode

In all fairness, the only concern with moving the iris in auto mode is in damaging the servo motor but in this case the servo motor isn't able to move the iris so that's arguably much more stress than my trying to help it along. That's not my problem nor am I exerting any force the gear when it's in automatic mode. It's attempting to move the iris (unsuccessfully) and thus the extremely light amount of pressure helps it move. In other words, I'm helping it do what it wants to do.

The iris feels notchy even in manual mode, similar to how it would feel if the grease had broken down which is what I suspect I'm dealing with here. So I'm going pull it apart and grease it. I'll report back after I've broken it!

 

[ElectronicsNerd]

An update for anyone that cares... The good news: I am able to a pull an EX1 apart down to just the bare lens assembly and put it back together. I've never seen a camera built like this. The lens/ prism is essentially the frame and everything attaches to that. It basically means that any kind of lens work you need in the future will result in a hefty repair bill as the camera needs to be completely disassembled and when I say completely I mean just that... about 95% of it's "bits" come off. Conversely, you can yank the lens out of just about any other camera by removing a side cover. The DVX and HVX are both like this as are Sony's old VX/ PD cameras. Still not easy but easier.

The bad news: the lens itself is not something you can take apart without proper tools to align it when putting it back together. This is seriously the worst design I've ever seen on any camera. They have a panel over the lens servos and you can take the front of this off, presumably to lubricate the gears but you can't actually get access to the lens servos without disassembling the lens. It's as non-servicable a component as I've ever seen and that's pretty sad because there's no reason for it to be. All they had to do was allow you to remove the side panel and you'd have full access to all of that.

In the meantime I've just shot some white lithium grease onto a Qtip and tried forcing it into the opening through the side of the lens housing. I figured it was the plastic of the Iris ring that was binding and not the iris itself. I think I might have been right as it's working a lot better. Still, frustrating to see them design something so averse to being serviced. I'd rather take apart 10 HVX's that one of these. It's not for the faint of heart.