I am trying to clean and relube my recently acquired Tair 3 300A. This is the later version of the Tair 3 without the photosniper focus - it has a normal style focus (and is structurally quite different I think).
So far:
1. Front end off. 3 grub screws (NB all these screws are engaging in indentations so almost complete unscrewing is needed), unscrew.
2. Tripod mount off: 3 grub screws to take off screw collar, remove collar and TM.
2a. The light baffle at the rear end might need a lens spanner, mine unscrewed out of the mount easily.
3. Sleeve covering helicoid is held in place by another 3 grub screws. Once these have been loosened the sleeve screws away from the mount exposing the helicoid.
Results in pic1.
Pic 2 shows the famous 19 blade iris
(bit smudgy but OK, the stickiness is in the ring and connections not the blades).
Pic 4 is close up of mount end. Like other Russian lenses this is a T-mount fitting. Just take the inner sleeve out of your T-mount and the lens adapts to pentax K, Nikon, Canon etc.
Pic 3 is looking down the mount end.
Turns out the sticky focus is due to the felt on the sleeve, helicoid is smoooooth.
This post on manual focus lenses is a bit helpful but doesn't have pics any more. His description of how to proceed I think confuses a later poster who I suspect was trying to lever the helicoid guide rails. I
think that in order to proceed I need to loosen the outer ring at the bottom of the tube. Anyone been this far or know different? Grateful for any contributions.
Last edited by marcusBMG; 01-03-2014 at 07:38 AM.
Reason: #2a