Restoring Helios 40 – 85mm f/1.5 – CLA tutorial by Tomas Glavina
Disclaimer!
Publisher – Verybiglobo.com and the author – Tomas Glavina are not taking responsibility for any damage of your equipment – lenses, tools or other material property, that might happen as a result of the instructions or suggestions in this tutorial. We are also not taking any responsibility for the potential injuries or other health risks that might occur.
The results are highly dependent on the user ability and skills, on the type and quality of the used tools and on the condition of the particular item in question.
We strongly suggest that you take all possible precautions in order to protect your health. Use-wear protection – glasses, gloves, mask. Whenever using chemicals, iron wool or other potentially dangerous substances for inhalation, do it outdoor in the well-ventilated conditions.
If you are not sure about your skills, we strongly advise you not to follow those instructions!
Take the above disclaimer into considerations before you try to follow this tutorial.
Do it at your own risk!
Written by Tomas Glavina
This tutorial is sponsored by Tea! Tea is our most loyal supporter for over 2 years and we can hardly find the words to express our gratitude! She is a dear member of Verybiglobo family!
Introduction:
In my first tutorial, I showed how to CLA one of the most popular legacy lenses – Russian Helios 44. In this tutorial, you will see how to CLA its bigger cousin the Helios 40. The two lenses are very similar in their construction, so I warmly recommend to take a look at the Helios 44 tutorial first, the one that is a reference to the upcoming legacy lens CLA series. Ideally, you should first try to restore Helios 44, a cheaper lens, to get a grip on how it works. This tutorial will have similar steps to the reference one.
In order to write the tutorial, I have to perform full restoration in advance, to double-check that everything works as described. This includes aluminum housing polishing procedure so don’t be surprised that lens looks neat from the start.
There is one big important difference between the two lenses, the big part with the mount of the Helios 40 is made of brass and should NOT be polished with the iron wool.
A short legend of the terms and abbreviations used in the tutorial:
CW – clock wise,
CCW – counter clock wise,
MDF – minimum focusing distance,
Outer or external ring – the ring that you use to focus for example,
Inner ring – usually covered by the outer ring – the actual focusing ring.
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Hi Víktor,
First of all thanks so much for this CLA tutorial.
I’ve just bought one and everything went perfect.
The lens had a minor detail i’ve noticed when i made the purchase and after the CLA it’s exactly the exactly same problem remains.
When i tight the lower and upper part of the lens in the final procedure of the CLA, the red marking on the aperture preset selector won’t match the center marking on my focusing markings. It always stays a 1/4 turn to the left out of place. I think that the the ring of shim has been changed in the past by someone and i wont get it aligned when joining both parts of the lens in the end. Anyway, i’ve mande my measurements and focusing measure is spot on, really spot on.
Would you be able to tell me the size (height of ring) so i can compare to the one i have? Maybe i have a wrong one and need to get one with the right size, maybe fabricating one myself.
Your help ia much appreciated! Million thanks from Portugal.
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