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The intracies of modern camera lens repair (2024)

salvagedcircuitry.com

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Re: The intracies of modern camera lens repair (2024)

#21

Post by josephg »

FireBeyond wrote: post #17
entropie wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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. Iam not sure if this is a general truth. I recently bought a canon rf 24-70 f/2.8 which is pretty SOTA and it does not have an USBC port.

First party lenses will be handled by either camera firmware or by the camera - for your lens (I'm in the Canon RF system heavily) you can do the "download to SD from canon.com" and the firmware update on the camera will recognize it as a lens firmware, not a camera firmware. And sometimes camera firmware will also bundle lens firmwares that get updated when you attach the lens (usually these are reserved for issues…

Yep. Sony lenses are the same. You can update the firmware on a sony lens by attaching it to a sony camera.

Re: The intracies of modern camera lens repair (2024)

#22

Post by salvagedcircuit »

omoikane wrote: post #20

Placing 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).

Thanks! After many lens teardowns with screws of varying lengths and magnetism, tape is truly king!

Re: The intracies of modern camera lens repair (2024)

#23

Post by CarVac »

salvagedcircuit wrote: post #18
CarVac wrote: post #2

The author says PH screwdrivers may be used on JIS screws, but in my experience they strip every single time . This is incredible work, though.

Thanks for the kind words! The ifixit screwdrivers I linked are JIS compatible.

The 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.

Re: The intracies of modern camera lens repair (2024)

#24

Post by josephg »

makeitdouble wrote: post #3

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. 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…

This is only true for photography.

For some reason, cinema lenses are still - for the most part - purely mechanical. For film and TV, most camera operators still focus manually - often via gears attached externally to the lens.

Coming from modern photography, manual focusing is inconvenient and difficult to learn. But there's something very old-school cool about cine lenses. They feel great.

Re: The intracies of modern camera lens repair (2024)

#25

Post by jeswin »

makeitdouble wrote: post #3

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. 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…

> at this point a lens for a mirrorless camera will have a USB-C port

Ideally, camera bodies should support firmware updates via the body in a non-discriminatory way, but until then I wish manufacturers support firmware updates via USB-C.

Looking at you Samyang Lens Station. I think users have been sufficiently upset, and they're adding USB-C to newer lenses.

Re: The intracies of modern camera lens repair (2024)

#26

Post by FireBeyond »

Kirby64 wrote: post #4
makeitdouble wrote: post #3

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. 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…

> 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 wou…

> Besides the slightly interesting stuff Tamron is doing, why on earth would I want firmware updates for a lens?

Improved algorithms for focus hunting, diminishing chromatic aberration (most of it is in the glass but some positioning can tweak it).

I get it, there's not a lot that will happen there, but some of that stuff will be useful on an investment that can easily be several thousand (I don't get into the wildlife telephotos, but two of my lenses were $3,300 or so - RF 85/1.2 and RF 28-70/2).

Re: The intracies of modern camera lens repair (2024)

#27

Post by jeswin »

Kirby64 wrote: post #4
makeitdouble wrote: post #3

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. 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…

> 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 wou…

Lenses are only tested on bodies which are available at the time of manufacture. They might focus hunt on newer bodies, because of tweaks to AF algorithms (for example, the speed at which instructions are transmitted). Sometimes in ways that can potentially cause damage long term.

Re: The intracies of modern camera lens repair (2024)

#28

Post by pastel8739 »

josephg wrote: post #24
makeitdouble wrote: post #3

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. 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…

This is only true for photography. For some reason, cinema lenses are still - for the most part - purely mechanical. For film and TV, most camera operators still focus manually - often via gears attached externally to the lens. Coming from modern photography, manual focusing is inconvenient and difficult to learn. But there's something very old-school cool about cine lenses. They feel great.

I think in cine it’s a lot more important to have smooth focus and to be able to control the focus speed, hence the MF lenses

Re: The intracies of modern camera lens repair (2024)

#29

Post by doubled112 »

omoikane wrote: post #20

Placing 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).

I 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.

Re: The intracies of modern camera lens repair (2024)

#30

Post by aeturnum »

pastel8739 wrote: post #28
josephg wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is only true for photography. For some reason, cinema lenses are still - for the most part - purely mechanical. For film and TV, most camera operators still focus manually - often via gears attached externally to the lens. Coming from modern photography, manual focusing is inconvenient and difficult to learn. But there's something very old-school cool about cine lenses. They feel great.

I think in cine it’s a lot more important to have smooth focus and to be able to control the focus speed, hence the MF lenses

I also think cine lenses have the budget to continue making high quality mechanical interfaces. Consumer lenses must have AF and so are incentivized to reuse that functionality if it would reduce the BoM.
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