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<blockquote data-quote="D200freak" data-source="post: 514357" data-attributes="member: 41018">[ATTACH]190035[/ATTACH]Thanks to this adventure,&nbsp; and the others I've had lately with an AF-VR 80-400,&nbsp; I now really have a pretty good understanding of lens construction and how everything works. On this wide angle lens,&nbsp; since it had been dropped and some parts got slightly dented,&nbsp; I had to do some &quot;gunsmithing&quot; (maybe that's lens smithing?) to make some parts in the zoom system fit properly again.&nbsp; The guide rails have been flattened, stoned, and polished.&nbsp; &nbsp; If I were really of a mind to do it,&nbsp; I could open up any new lens and give it a lens smithing treatment to improve its operation if I really wanted to, but the problem with that is that in some cases you don't WANT to make operation too light and smooth.&nbsp; Anyone who's ever had zoom drift from the weight of the front lens dragging the zoom out knows that.Now that I've really had my hands into one of these 14-24s,&nbsp; I feel confident in saying that I should be able to repair any of them so long as I can get the parts.&nbsp; I understand them pretty well.&nbsp;&nbsp; But the electronic alignment process will be beyond my capacity unless I get one of Nikon's alignment systems.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="D200freak, post: 514357, member: 41018"] [ATTACH=CONFIG]190035._xfImport[/ATTACH] Thanks to this adventure, and the others I've had lately with an AF-VR 80-400, I now really have a pretty good understanding of lens construction and how everything works. On this wide angle lens, since it had been dropped and some parts got slightly dented, I had to do some "gunsmithing" (maybe that's lens smithing?) to make some parts in the zoom system fit properly again. The guide rails have been flattened, stoned, and polished. If I were really of a mind to do it, I could open up any new lens and give it a lens smithing treatment to improve its operation if I really wanted to, but the problem with that is that in some cases you don't WANT to make operation too light and smooth. Anyone who's ever had zoom drift from the weight of the front lens dragging the zoom out knows that. Now that I've really had my hands into one of these 14-24s, I feel confident in saying that I should be able to repair any of them so long as I can get the parts. I understand them pretty well. But the electronic alignment process will be beyond my capacity unless I get one of Nikon's alignment systems. [/QUOTE]

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