Oil Inside My Lens?

[Alan Gales]

I don't think storage had anything to do with it. I recently sold my five Zeiss lenses from my Contax 139 camera. They were from the early 80's and were always stored the same way and never had any oil problems.

[E. von Hoegh]

The grease has not run all over the lens, fortunately, but might the way its stored cause the oil to leak? I leave my lens inside of its caseAttachment 55677 standing up with the front of the lens pointing up. I have also included a photo of the substance to see if possible some of you could possible help me any further, because I really really appreciate all the help the great people of this great forum have helped me with.

Storing the lens in a hot environment could cause the grease to deteriorate faster. The fact that oil is present means the lens must be disassembled, cleaned, and reassembled with new grease, not oil. Get it serviced, this is the only solution.

[Sirius Glass]

Guilty of oversimplification... Balsam is a resinous, saplike substance obtained from the Canadian balsam fir tree which has been filtered, purified or processed in some way to make it suitable for use as an optical cement.

I recently recemented a RR on an old folding Kodak that was my grandfather's. I used balsam collected from local trees, the only processing neccesary was to warm it, and let the particulate matter settle out. I figured it was worth a try.

Do not trust those Canadians! Especially the Canadiens! They are all living close to our northern boarder just waiting for an opportunity to attach and take us over! They even want to ship their tar sands to us!

[Sirius Glass]

Storing the lens in a hot environment could cause the grease to deteriorate faster. The fact that oil is present means the lens must be disassembled, cleaned, and reassembled with new grease, not oil. Get it serviced, this is the only solution.

All the siriusness aside from the previous post, this advice is spot on.

[E. von Hoegh]

Ummm, you do know that the Adirondaks are not in Canada, right?

Edit - And now that I've actually looked at the picture the OP posted, I must say that whatever is in the lens, next to that screw, it isn't oil. Looks like some sort of cement to prevent the screw loosening.

[Sirius Glass]

Ummm, you do know that the Adirondaks are not in Canada, right?

Edit - And now that I've actually looked at the picture the OP posted, I must say that whatever is in the lens, next to that screw, it isn't oil. Looks like some sort of cement to prevent the screw loosening.

Sure, that is why I said that using a local sap was better than the Canadian/Canadien saps.

[E. von Hoegh]

Sure, that is why I said that using a local sap was better than the Canadian/Canadien saps.

But it came from canada balsam trees..... I should have checked for green cards.

[Alan Gales]

Storing the lens in a hot environment could cause the grease to deteriorate faster. The fact that oil is present means the lens must be disassembled, cleaned, and reassembled with new grease, not oil. Get it serviced, this is the only solution.

I should have elaborated more. I meant storage position. You are of course right about storage in a hot environment.

It may be cheaper to buy another used one depending on how much it costs to service it.