Clovishound
Senior Member
Well, I went ahead and did an initial disassembly today. I don't think it's the problem I thought it was. If I pull the focus ring off I can turn what I think is the focus motor assembly, and that obviously changes focus. The problem is that it doesn't turn smoothly, something is not quite right. Perhaps one of those tabs broke and is binding things, but the other one is hanging in there to turn the barrel. I turned it down to 1:1 mag focus and reassembled. It focused a little and then stopped. I'm thinking that there is just a friction connection with the focus ring, and too much resistance renders it ineffective.
From here, I would have to disassemble things more aggressively. As in, unsoldering a bunch of wiring to get the final focus barrel off. I'm not too bad with automotive work, but I'm a little out of my depth here. I could probably figure out a jury rigged work around such as figuring out how to reassemble it without the focus ring and directly turn the focus motor, or perhaps drill the focus ring and put a few screws into the focus mechanism. All of that seems a little extreme and I would probably rather spend a couple hundred on a used macro that would work with my camera.
I might try one more disassembly before giving up and see if I can figure out what exactly is wrong, now that I've had a little time to think about it, and know a little more about how to disassemble and reassemble. I had a devil of a time getting the spacer rings in their proper timing with the screw holes.
From here, I would have to disassemble things more aggressively. As in, unsoldering a bunch of wiring to get the final focus barrel off. I'm not too bad with automotive work, but I'm a little out of my depth here. I could probably figure out a jury rigged work around such as figuring out how to reassemble it without the focus ring and directly turn the focus motor, or perhaps drill the focus ring and put a few screws into the focus mechanism. All of that seems a little extreme and I would probably rather spend a couple hundred on a used macro that would work with my camera.
I might try one more disassembly before giving up and see if I can figure out what exactly is wrong, now that I've had a little time to think about it, and know a little more about how to disassemble and reassemble. I had a devil of a time getting the spacer rings in their proper timing with the screw holes.