KoWa Six lens disassembly and repair of the 150mm f/3.5

In this video i am disassembling the KoWa 150mm f/3.5 lens up to the point, where the shutter is as free, as necessary (for me) to clean and relubricate it.
I am obviously not a professional lens repair man, therefore I do not provide any garantues, if your approach fails. But as I did not find a for me suffisticating enough tutorial video about the KoWa lens, i made one myself.
So for all 2 people, who want to repair their lens: I hope that helps. :-)
#Kowa #mediumformat #lensrepair #repair #tutorial #disassembly #workshop #camera #lens #6x6 #mechanic #shutter #apperture

[@etusuku8848]

Thanks for the video, I am one of the several two persons with a Kowa :) And the lenses are stuck. Maybe some day I will fix them.

[@manugeee]

Your welcome. Nice to hear that the video may help you at some point. :-)

[@ucokucok1268]

Thank you for the video bro, next I request to dismantle the 1:16 IR 6-22mm varifocal lens, because no one has made a video yet, and there are definitely many out there who are waiting for the video

[@manugeee]

Thanks for your comment. :-)
I am pretty sure that I will not do this video, because on the one hand, I dont own it and on the other hand, I do not plan to make more of these kind of videos, because I have to reduce some of my project. Just takes too much time and of that I dont have too much. :-(

[@jp3576]

Thank you for the this and thank you for the English translation. That one device you used to remove one of the rings with the two slots is called a spanner wrench in English. Thanks again for taking the time to walk us through the process.

[@manugeee]

You’re welcome. 😁 This is a very special topic, and only the once who need this manual will most probably find it. But hopefully they will get an idea of how to fix these lenses. I just repaired 3 different lenses and next week my roll will come back from the lab. Really looking forward. 😄

[@dominikbednarz]

My 85mm couldn't be cocked. A very small pin of a very small lever of the shutter mechanism was fallen out. That pin is holding one end of a spring and so the lever lost its function. Found the pin, set it in place with some additional glue and the shutter is working again. Your disassembly video has been very helpful to get out te shutter, thank you!

[@manugeee]

That´s for why i made this video. :) Thanks for telling me.
I was in the same, that I could not find any manual or any good video and then started to dig into it by myself. Fortunately all the Kowa lenses seem to have the same construction principle. and the same shutter mechanism.

[@LScott97]

Great video. This lens insides are identical to the 85mm version. Only difference, I believe, is the front lens group.

[@manugeee]

Thanks for the compliment. 😄
In the meantime I also opened my 85 and a „broken“ 55mm KoWa lens, and they are indeed all build with the same design. The shutter assembly seems to be identical for all lenses. Only glas and housing are different.

[@duratorque]

Thanks for the video. I noticed the aperture blades are already in position when you cocked the shutter at 48:02. They should be fully open when cocked and only stop down when you fire the shutter. It will be very dark looking through the viewfinder. Have you used the lens yet?

[@manugeee]

Hi there, :)
unfortunately I am not sure about this anymore. It could maybe be connected to the V M X settings. After the video I tested this lens and two others with a couple of films and I had no problems with black viewfinders. But I am not shure anymore about what i did.
The system is also already sold, because I needed to reduce my collection drastically, so i cannot check it anymore.

[@psychosaif]

Thanks for the video. I just picked up a kowa that was sitting for a while. I shot a roll thru it and getting out of focus images. Could this mean that I need to clean and lube the lens? It is rather difficult to cock the lens and I feel some resistance. Also what kinda lube did you use? Many thanks.

[@manugeee]

When you have out of focus images, then I think your viewfinder screen is not aligned propably. You are setting focus on base of this image, and here the Distance from mirror to screen has to be exactly the same as from mirror to film plane. If they are different, you focus is off.
Clean and lube the lens is only nescessary, if the speeds are of or the shutter stuck or the focus stiff.
For lube: I have some machine oil, dont know the brand, but it is very viscous and i need only tiny drops on important positions.