Stuck iris - ML 35-70mm f/3.5

Thanks, Graham...

I did a bit of investigating beyond the initial once over, and it looks like there's more than meets the eye. Fitting the lense on half dozen bodies as well as several digital adapters has brought out more clues. The lens doesn't attach as easily as it should and feels like its mounting plate isn't exactly flat. It take a bit of persuasion to get it turned and locked, and once in place, the DoF preview on C/Y camera bodies does get the iris to move a bit more... but it still doesn't spring back into place like it should. Everything has my gut thinking that it's been dismantled before by someone unfamiliar with how lenses work and it's been quickly reassembled without as much care as it needs. That's not to say that a simple rebuild might fix it - only that it's probably been mistreated during some previous fix attempt.

At the right price it might be worth a trip in for repair anyway, so I might try contacting Midwest Camera and see what they'd be able to do. They have a long history with the big 3, and with the newer digital players as well, so it might be worth asking. They have several techs on staff, and the last time I checked, wait times seem reasonable too.

My last email and response to/from Mark Hama didn't leave me with warm fuzzies as he'd seemingly glossed over a lot of the specifics of the request and left key questions unanswered. It may be that the repair market has been pounding him with more work than ever. I may be reading too much into it, but I think it would be better to send only TLR stuff to him and find others for 35mm gear... especially considering the prices he'd likely ask.