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Spent 11 hours across 3 weekends trying to get a scratched lens ring off a flea market find, and I still don't know if I won or lost
I picked up a beat up 50mm at a flea market in Tacoma for $15 because the glass looked clean, but the filter ring had a dent right at the threads. I figured it would be a 20 minute job with a rubber jar opener and some patience. Three weekends later I had tried heat, cold, WD40 on a q tip, a lens wrench I borrowed from a guy named Ron, and at one point I almost put the whole thing in the freezer next to my ice trays. Ron kept telling me to just send it out, but the cheapest quote I got was $85 which is more than I paid for the lens plus the adapter I already ordered for it. I finally got it loose by cutting a strip of an old bike inner tube and wrapping it with a hose clamp, which took 11 hours total counting all the failed tries. The weird part is the lens works fine now and I kind of miss having it as a project. So here is my question for you all: is it smarter to walk away from a cheap find when a fix turns into a whole thing, or do you keep grinding because the story is half the fun? I want to hear which side you land on.
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parkerh386d ago
Watched my buddy go through almost the same thing with a $20 Helios, except he gave up after weekend two and the lens is still sitting on his shelf with the ring chewed to hell. Every time he walks past it he says the $85 quote was worth it just to stop thinking about it. Feels like the real win is just knowing when the project stops being fun and starts being a chore.
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