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The intracies of modern camera lens repair (2024)
- CarVac 3mo agoThe author says PH screwdrivers may be used on JIS screws, but in my experience they strip every single time. This is incredible work, though.
- manoDev 3mo agoJIS screwdrivers are 100% necessary. It may seem PH fit at first, but it's _a tiny bit off_ enough to cause damage. The point of JIS is shorter and squared.
- salvagedcircuit 3mo agoThanks for the kind words! The ifixit screwdrivers I linked are JIS compatible.
- CarVac 3mo agoThe PH-0 and smaller screwdrivers from Good suppliers like iFixit or Wera are actually JIS because there's no downside. But if you happen upon a real PH-0 it will destroy the JIS screws.
- makeitdouble 3mo agoFor those who haven't followed the camera world for a while, at this point a lens for a mirrorless camera will have a USB-C port to receive firmware updates. Tamron lenses for instance will allow a wired control or a wireless dongle to communicate with an app/computer and change the lens behavior, switch what the physical buttons and rings do. Potentially you can manage stepping through settings for stop motion like effects, time lapses or stacking. We're far from the days a lens was just metal and glass※. There are obvious downsides, but in practice it's actually a huge stepup IMHO. Every photographer is different and does different things, being able to fully adjust your gear is a godsend, especially as we need speed and reactivity. ※ there are still plenty, and plenty more will be designed and produced anew, but I don't think it's the major trend.
- Kirby64 3mo ago> For those who haven't followed the camera world for a while, at this point a lens for a mirrorless camera will have a USB-C port to receive firmware updates. Besides the slightly interesting stuff Tamron is doing, why on earth would I want firmware updates for a lens? Also, this seems like it would be much more readily accomplished by the camera itself… if you’re doing weird stop motion racking and whatnot, why would you rely on the camera and lens being separate? Seems like kind of a pain to me.
- clnhlzmn 3mo agoBecause to control the autofocus motor and other features it makes sense to have a microcontroller in the lens. If you have a microcontroller in the lens you have software in the lens and if you have software in the lens you're going to need to update it. You could argue that the camera should do firmware updates but the manufacturers for (semi) open mounts like the ones Tamron is making lenses for don't want to have to design a protocol to do updates for third party lenses through the body when the lens manufacturer can just slap a USB port on the lens and call it a day. The port is also useful for customizing the lens functions. For third party lenses the camera can't be expected to manage those functions.
- kamranjon 3mo agoThere have been plenty of motorized lenses in the past that relied on the micro-contoller inside the camera body for control. What does having the controller live on the lens permit that the pattern we've used for years doesn't afford?
- Gigachad 3mo agoYou don’t _have_ to update lenses. The updates pretty much just fix edge case autofocus issues usually with specific cameras and settings. Before update mechanisms you just had to deal with it or buy a new lens.
- Kirby64 3mo ago
- exmadscientist 3mo agoThe TPS62140's 30ns propagation delay is not enough to blow a fuse. The first rule of fuses (which many modern engineers do not understand!), is that fuses are not there to save your parts, and they simply will not do that. Fuses exist to prevent fires. Even a fast fuse is very, very slow compared to semiconductors. I've seen transistors blow up to "protect" fuses. They're for stopping fires and preventing the slaughtering of batteries, nothing more, nothing less.
- servo_sausage 3mo agoIt's a scale problem; fuses can be set up protect components or machines in a car or factory context; and often this is what is taught (or what people have first hand familiarity with). It just doesn't scale down to semiconductor level.
- SoftTalker 3mo agoEven in a car, fuses are there for safety. A car battery will easily start a fire if there's a short anywhere in the wiring or accessory devices.
- quickthrowman 3mo ago> It's a scale problem; fuses can be set up protect components or machines in a car or factory context; Induction motors use overload relays to protect the motor, fuses are strictly for overcurrent protection to stop the wire from catching fire. A VFD will have a fused switch or circuit breaker on the line side for overcurrent protection and a set of overload relays after the contactor to protect the motor itself. Switchgear uses ground fault protection relays to protect the equipment, not fuses (or humans for that matter, GFP relays are set around 30mA IIRC) Some motors also have phase loss protection relays that will power down the motor if a utility phase is lost. A car is the same, fuses are to protect the wiring and prevent fires. Fuses do not act quickly enough to protect equipment, even fast-acting ones. Relays act fast enough and deterministically enough to protect equipment, fuses aren’t fast or accurate enough to do so.
- blagie 3mo ago
- esafak 3mo agoThis is the kind of thing I'd love to see robots take over. Companies don't want to service these things much; the labor is too costly. They could just distribute the repair manuals and we could get robots to do it.
- salvagedcircuit 3mo agoIf companies could just distribute the repair manuals I'd be happy as a clam :D I'm all for automated repair!
- twoWhlsGud 3mo agoThat seems like a small thing that I as a users of lenses would see as a benefit (more folks who could fix my lenses) even if I don't have the inclination to do it myself. Wonder why manufacturers don't do this? (The majors seem pretty hostile to their user base, but smaller companies like Sigma you would think might care more?)
- Gigachad 3mo agoHow it currently works is if your stuff breaks, you don’t pay someone to fix it, you just sell it as is on Facebook marketplace and people who love fixing stuff as a side hustle buy it off you, fix, and then resell as a working item. That way someone can specialise in just fixing Xboxes for example and make a nice profit. Getting robots to do this would be incredibly difficult because it’s too custom and too fiddly. They don’t even use robots for most of the work originally manufacturing these lenses.
- omoikane 3mo agoPlacing disassembled screws on double sided tape is such a great idea, I am going to try that next time I disassemble my electronics (as opposed dropping everything in a container and spend time finding the original size screws during reassembly).
- salvagedcircuit 3mo agoThanks! After many lens teardowns with screws of varying lengths and magnetism, tape is truly king!
- doubled112 3mo agoI don't use anything sticky, but if it's my first time opening basically anything, one side of my working space becomes a map of the screws. Roughly in the layout of the way they came out. Top to bottom, in layers, as it comes apart. A habit from working on laptops in a warranty center. I might have to try some tape.
- amelius 3mo agoMaybe the best idea is to make a video of the disassembly process, so you know exactly where what part went and in what order and orientation.
- salvagedcircuit 3mo agoI occasionally take this approach, but it's a chore to scrub through a few hours' long video to find the right frame. It can save your bacon though! I filmed some teardown shots when I repaired an alexa mini. That is a true masterpiece of a camera :D
- jazzyjackson 3mo agoThere’s a very useful putty for watchmakers called Rodico, it can serve this purpose well and can also be stuck to a screwdriver to hold onto the screw while placing it, instead of relying on magnetism (no good in watchmaking to magnetize your screws, I figure cameras are similar, you can increase resistance to movement if magnetism pulls things together…) I’ve also seen a clever technique of drawing a diagram of whatever you’re working on on cardboard, and stabbing the screw into the cardboard to keep track of where everything lives
- nla 3mo agoOne of the better teardowns I've seen in some time.
- salvagedcircuit 3mo agoThanks for the kind words!
- bananaflag 3mo ago"Someone" should correct the typo in the submission.
- defrost 3mo agoIf you mean dang or tomhow the fastest way to have that actually done would be to email hn@ycombinator.com (which _anybody_ could do). If you mean the submitter, they only get a short interval of time to make such changes ... shorter than the six hours it has been up already.
- cryo32 3mo agoGlad I only fix old manual lenses. The Nikon AI/AI-S era ones are less scary :)
- salvagedcircuit 3mo agoThe Nikon AI/AI-S era lenses are fun to repair, but this sigma was not too bad. I've repaired some very intricate panasonic / olympus consumer lenses that were far more complex.
- Prcmaker 3mo agoI did some work recently while I was between jobs, designing and assembling camera lenses. It was so fascinating, and satisfying. Strongly disappointed they couldn't afford to pay me to stay.
- salvagedcircuit 3mo agoThat sounds like fun. I took a few courses in optics because I wanted to explore the art of lens making. Hats off to you sir!
- summa_tech 3mo agoThat was a fun site to browse. I really enjoy fixing / hacking on non-disposable equipment (lab, test, optics, etc.) and there are some well-done write-ups in there.
- salvagedcircuit 3mo agoThanks for stopping by! :D
- itvision 3mo agoHow did the intricacies become "intracies"? ;-) That's the question.