A defective Wirgin Wiesbaden Edixa 85mm 1:1.9 lens needs repair!

I bought this lens cause it seems interesting, a big leaf shaped spot in the lens front.



This lens seems to be a bit rare, I found nearly no information about it. It seems different to other 85mm lenses, like the Vivitar 85mm f/1.9.

Here one of the test images, one could see the effect of this defect in the unsharp area - for example very good in the big light spot right at the bottom:

Further images with visible image decline:



I opened the lens for this repair. The leaf was inside the second element - as supposed a group of the glued lenses.
Its apperance change when the lens is different illuminatet, on the left image one could see very good this lens separation / delamination:



I took the lens out of the lens housing. And controlled wheter I could use the lens housing part to realign the two lens part after glueing. It is crucial to get the correct alignment (centering) for the elements. I took the lens inside the baking oven, and with 150°C (not measured!) it took about half an hour to heat up the Canada Balm enough to open this lens group.

With newer lenses with UV cured glue instead Canada Balm complete lens group delamination is harder to get. With high temperature I startet lens separation in a test lens, but not as much that I could open the lens group. A test with a test lens and a hot-air gun results in destroying the lens because it cracks - even with working only on 1/2 power and turing the lens upside down every ~30 seconds.

Here again the Wirgin Edixa 85mm/1.9 lens in the oven:

Here short view inside the well build Wirgin lens - an nice 15 bladed iris:

Now the completely separated lens element: In this case the glued lens surfaces are to plane surfaces, I cleaned the Canada Balm away with isopropanol.



One can press the cleaned surfaces together, and could see the interference pattern:

Interference pattern lens

For tinkeres who want to DIY repair a separated lens there are to date two ways:
To buy expensive UV curing glue from Norland, Summers Optical or such. They are expensive, and most have a short shelf life as soon as soon as opened. Furthermore there are not many suppliers for such specialized glue for amateures.
The other way is the classic approach: Canada Balm, I got mine from a internet supplier from Asia - another source could be a artist supplier. I don´t loved the handling.

I found UHU glass glue, which is a UV curing glue for glass, it seems like it has a good refraction index. It is easy to work with. Go inside the house in a room with only artifical light with no or not much UV radiation - I worked under energy saving lamps, and had no problem with the glue. I have much time to prepare the lens emelent, and as soon as it was ready I go under sun light with it.
I dropped some "UHU glas" glue on one surface, pressed the surfaces together. WIth moving the two lenses I dispere the glue on the whole surface. I allignet the two lenses roughly, cleaned the lens rim from excess glue, and put the assembly inside the lens tube.
Theis assembly I took to the sun.

Lens delamination repair with UHU glas glue

Reassembly was easy. First tests are promissing!



Blätter und Bäume aufgenommen mit Edixar 85mm Objektiv

Flower and Bokeh photographed with rare Edixar 85


Please visit my other photo Do It Yourself work, or my photo repair and modifiaction directory with ~1700 DIY links to other photo tinkering sites.