[ChopperCharles]

I was preparing to photograph a motorcycle, and my camera strap was hanging from my camera. Hand was below waist. Camera strap caught on the bottom of the fork, and as I walked away the camera was pulled from my hand. It landed solidly on the lens.

The good news is the Kx body is unharmed.

The bad news is my Tokina 35-70 f3.5-4.6 is damaged.

Externally, it doesn't look like it took a hit at all.
The lens mounts, zooms, and focuses... with one exception. There's a problem with AF.
The AF works from infinity to 1 meter (or vice-versa), but once it hits the one meter mark it gets stuck and will not turn either direction. In manual focus mode, I can easily turn it down to .08 meters (the minimum on the focus scale), although I do feel a little extra resistance.

I removed the lens and used a small precision screwdriver to turn the screw on the lens... it rotates easily until it gets to the 1 meter mark. I can turn it still, but it requires a lot more force to turn that little screw once it gets to that point.

Can I have the lens repaired? Can I fix it myself?

I mean, in the grand scheme of things, it was a $45 ebay find. But I bought it nearly brand new and I really do like it.

Charles.

[jatrax]

I would expect professional repair to cost more than the lens. Repairing yourself is always possible but not for the faint of heart or inexperienced. But if you are going to learn lens repair better on a $45 lens than a $1,000 one. It might just be a plastic chip or something stuck in the helicoid or it could be something bent. Trouble is you might be able to get it apart but if something is bent it is likely you will not be able to repair it and parts are I assume unavailable.

Try running it back and forth manually to see if the stiffness goes away. Beyond that, it is worth opening up to see but I am not sure I would have a high level of confidence. But you never know, I once opened up a 150mm Takumar that would not focus properly and found a piece of black plastic stuck inside. No idea from what, but removing it fixed the problem 100%.

[ChopperCharles]

Well, I did completely disassemble and clean a fungus-ed Pentax 35-70 (which is the lens I normally use, becuase it has better CA and bokeh, and can focus closer), but I thought I'd take this out today. Pentax lenses are much easier to find disassembly instructions on, this tokina is a rare bird, I don't see them online often. They can go anywhere from $50 to $100, but I snagged my copy for $45 with a SF-10 body attached.

I've been working it, but it doesn't seem to be getting better. I may take the front element off and see if I can see anything obvious... but after taking apart the pentax 35-70, I'd really rather not take a bayonet off again.

Charles.

[jatrax]

Well on the bright side it could have been the F 35-70 that took the hit.........

[Chaos_Realm]

Well, I did completely disassemble and clean a fungus-ed Pentax 35-70 (which is the lens I normally use, becuase it has better CA and bokeh, and can focus closer), but I thought I'd take this out today. Pentax lenses are much easier to find disassembly instructions on, this tokina is a rare bird, I don't see them online often. They can go anywhere from $50 to $100, but I snagged my copy for $45 with a SF-10 body attached.

I've been working it, but it doesn't seem to be getting better. I may take the front element off and see if I can see anything obvious... but after taking apart the pentax 35-70, I'd really rather not take a bayonet off again.

Charles.

Primes are generally a piece of cake, Zooms not so much. I highly recommend taking lots of photos and or a video as you dis-assemble it. I tried to repair an F 70-210 (and clean some dust out at the same time) and there was about 4-5 barrels inside the lens with guide slots for focus and zoom mechanisms. You need to make sure you get them aligned correctly otherwise you'll be there for hours undoing it and putting it back together trying to get everything to line up as the bits the rely on them being correctly aligned only become apparent toward the end of reassembly.

You should be ok with out instructions, just think about things before you go forcing it. I have a database that I am working on for Pentax lenses (unfortunately not tokina) which might provided a little bit of insight for you. FIND IT HERE

PS if you come across any guides (For Pentax Lenses) not on this list let me know and I will add them on.

[amoringello]

You're a brave soul than I for taking apart a lens:-)
But if that fails, try

criscam.com

They seem to do quality work at reasonable rates... not many choices for pentax repair, so I've only dealt with two other companies. (absolutely horrendous experiences)
My DA*16-50 was dropped. The entire back end popped off in about six bent and broken pieces. They fixed the AF motor and all the parts for about $250.

[ChopperCharles]

Well, I was bored and put on some star trek (DS9, my fav), and for two hours I worked the barrel back and forth, back and forth, back and forth, and it started to loosen up after about an hour and a half. By two hours my film camera (SF10) can now focus through the entire zoom range. The Kx will still get stuck right at .8 meters, but I'll watch some more star trek tonight

Good news is I don't have to take it apart. The Tokina seems to have more CA than I remember now though... although I haven't shot a lot with it, so I'm not sure. Argh.Still not sure if this has affected my camera either... I may just have camera hypochondria right now. (but I *was* having a hard time photographing a shiny motorcycle with a wide aperture in mixed shadow/sunlight. Wanted bike in focus, background not).

Charles.