Fixed Camera Lens

Attempts to repair my camera lens were futile, but I found out that I could order a new part directly from Nikon, which I did on Tuesday. I paid extra for two-day air delivery. Then I heard nothing, so today I called back. The woman whom I ordered from said they were behind, but they would ship today or tomorrow (then why did I pay for two-day shipping?). Then she said the part was back ordered. Great. Then she said the part had shipped on Tuesday. Then, within 15 minutes, the UPS guy showed up with a box from Nikon.

I wish Nikon made this part out of metal as it does on the other Nikkor lenses I have. I found a bunch of people on the Internet looking for this same part. Plus, two resellers on the Internet were back ordered, and it sounds like I may have gotten the last one Nikon USA had in its parts bin in El Segundo, California. It's a $10 part. Shipping two-day is about $15.

The lens has a bunch of tiny screws, so I thought it would be good to use my hobby tweezers. Note to self: don't put the tweezers in the drawer next to the uncovered Exacto knife.

I know you're dying to see how to repair a camera lens. Before last Saturday, I had never tackled a lens with all its tiny parts, so this was interesting to figure out. First I had to remove three screws from the inner ring and remove it.

I then removed two screws from the piece with the electrical terminals and four screws from the broken part. The broken part then wiggled free of the terminal piece. The metal plate also fell out, so I had to reposition that on assembly.

This wire broke off of the old ring, and I soldered it to the new one. I had to be quick so as not to melt the plastic it's attached to.

Each set of three screws is a different size, so it's important not to mix them up--or drop them on the floor. They immediately take cover under anything that will make finding them most difficult.

Without a magnetic screwdriver, I had to hold the screws on the end of the screwdriver with my fingernail. A set of mini-screwdrivers was essential.

Here's the assembled lens. Altogether the repair took about 30 minutes. I could probably do it in less than 10 minutes now.

The first picture with my repaired lens. All seems to be cool.