[Vendee]

I was wandering round a car-boot sale (fleamarket) yesteryday when I spotted a dirty old K1000 with a long lens attached. I was interested in the lens so I had a closer look. The K1000 shutter was locked solid. It wouldn't fire and it wouldn't cock. It really was in a dirty condition. The lens was a Vivitar 70-210 f/4.5 macro and was also a bit grubby. The guy only wanted 3 uk pounds ($4.95) for them so I had them. I already have an ME Super which I love but I quite liked the idea of taking the K1000 to bits.

When I got home, I cleaned the lens and found a bit of fungus on the inside of the last element but the biggest surprise was the K1000. After a quick Google I found that removing the baseplate (3 screws) and manually cocking the mirror tensioning lever, it was working perfectly. I then started cleaning it up and now I've got a fantastic new body for less than $5. My first SLR was a K1000 back in 1980 so I'm quite pleased to own one again.


I'll probably try and strip the lens down and clean the fungus. I've got nothing to lose.

[Lurch]

nice (my message is not too short )

[ChrisPlatt]

Very nice. Mild fungus can be eradicated with ammoniated glass cleaner.

Chris

[Ratmagiclady]

Good going: only helpful tip on disassembling the lens (that I can think of at this hour) is to index the forward tubes before you do that, with a line from a Sharpie pen or a little scratch with a scribe, anywhere you see a seam: that way you can line those marks up again later when you reassemble. (At least some of these zooms actually allow some room for adjustment there.)

It's also good to make sure you mark or keep track of which end of an element or group goes in which way: I've got a tendency to get so picky about cleaning I end up losing track. And it's good to have a decent sized magnet handy to avoid losing or recover any little screws.

[Wombat]

And it's good to have a decent sized magnet handy to avoid losing or recover any little screws.

Now that's a beauty! Sure beats scrabbling around under the desk with a torch.

Well scored, Vendee. It'll make a nice little project for a rainy afternoon.

[BirdDude007]

Wow! I have that exact same lens, I am the original owner of it, got it for my fifteenth birthday, I am now 46, will never let go of it, it has never let me down while attached to my ME Super.

[Vendee]

Wow! I have that exact same lens, I am the original owner of it, got it for my fifteenth birthday, I am now 46, will never let go of it, it has never let me down while attached to my ME Super.

I didn't realise it was over 30 years old. I've got the lens on my ME Super at the moment for a try out. The range is nice (my longest other lens is a Pentax M135mm f/3.5) but I find that focusing is on a bit of a knife edge. It will be interesting to see what the image quality is like when I develop the film and if the fungus is visible on the negs.

---

Last edited by Vendee; 05-02-2011 at 03:08 AM.

[vladimiroltean]

Hi, what kind of screwdriver did you use?

[Vendee]

Hi, what kind of screwdriver did you use?

I didn't. I've decided to see how good the image quality is before investing any time in stripping it down. I've just shot a roll of Delta 100 with it and have developed it this afternoon. I'm waiting for it to dry before checking out the results. If the fungus doesn't show up on the prints I may well decide not to strip it down. If the general image quality is poor, I might decide to bin the lens anyway.