Best approach to sand in lens assembly

[Alex Bird]

Hi,

I don't normally repair any sort of camera, but this is my own, and my
gosh it's depreciated since I bought it, so I thought it worth the
risk.

Canon Powershot A40

The camera isn't actually dead, failing, etc. A grain or two of sand
have got into the retracting/zoom lens assembly and it makes a clicking
sound in operation.
Ironically I keep a filter adapter and UV filter on it all the time to
prevent this sort of thing, but I took it off yesterday to show someone
what it was, whilst at a fantastic beach party - whoops.

I have some lovely cleaners/brushes/lubricants for plastic gears, so
I'm very tempted to disassemble the lens and totally clean it.
However, now I'm in the camera I'm not so sure, perhaps a blast of
compressed air ? I'm out of air, but wouldn't it push the sand further
in ?

Has anyone experience of these Canon lens assemblies ? Probably
identical to the A30 too.

Thanks in advance,

Alex

 

[Alex Bird]

Well, that worked. Fiddly though, at least three hours...

 

[Steve]

Hi,

I don't normally repair any sort of camera, but this is my own, and my
gosh it's depreciated since I bought it, so I thought it worth the
risk.

Canon Powershot A40

The camera isn't actually dead, failing, etc. A grain or two of sand
have got into the retracting/zoom lens assembly and it makes a clicking
sound in operation.
Ironically I keep a filter adapter and UV filter on it all the time to
prevent this sort of thing, but I took it off yesterday to show someone
what it was, whilst at a fantastic beach party - whoops.

I have some lovely cleaners/brushes/lubricants for plastic gears, so
I'm very tempted to disassemble the lens and totally clean it.
However, now I'm in the camera I'm not so sure, perhaps a blast of
compressed air ? I'm out of air, but wouldn't it push the sand further
in ?

Has anyone experience of these Canon lens assemblies ? Probably
identical to the A30 too.

Thanks in advance,

Alex

Sand = write off

(always)

 

[spudnuty]

I have repaired digital cameras with the problem. If you've ever taken
one of these apart you'd understand how they're so sensitive to sand
getting in the works. The retrofocus converter moves in these very
complicated tracks as does the focus module. Sand can easily get into
the interior of the lens through seams at the front and side of the
lens. I worked at a pro camera rental place and I could tell you
exactly where any lens had been after stripping it down and finding
fine grit, beach sand, salt corrosion etc.
Richard

 

[Alex Bird]

Sand = write off

(always)

Sorry Steve, but my crunch-free smoothly functioning camera must be the
exception...

Alex

 

[Alex Bird]

I worked at a pro camera rental place and I could tell you
exactly where any lens had been after stripping it down and finding
fine grit, beach sand, salt corrosion etc.

You're not joking. I was quite surprised by the amount of grit and
sand inside, it certainly wasn't all from it's most recent outing.

A bit of a shock when I first tested it - no picture - panic. I hadn't
plugged the ccd ribbon back in. What surprised me was that the camera
functioned normally in every other way, no error message or anything,
it's easy to forget the ccd is just another analogue sensor.

Alex

 

[spudnuty]

Alex,
I bought one camera on eBay and after taking it apart and repairing it
I asked the guy that I bought it from if he lived near the ocean since
a lot of the parts had this characteristic oxide on them. He said not
really but the Pacific was about 7 blocks down the street!
Yah it's easy to forget one of those little plug in flex cables. It is
funny that the camera operated normally, you'd expect it to at least
generate a "focus error".
I use a lot of toothpicks, tweezers and very fine needle nose pliers
working on these things.
Another tip is to make copious notes when you're going in and keep the
screws in order using an ice cube tray. Nice and white and you can mark
on it with fine markers the location of the screws you take out.
Richard

 

[Ken Weitzel]

Alex,
I bought one camera on eBay and after taking it apart and repairing it
I asked the guy that I bought it from if he lived near the ocean since
a lot of the parts had this characteristic oxide on them. He said not
really but the Pacific was about 7 blocks down the street!
Yah it's easy to forget one of those little plug in flex cables. It is
funny that the camera operated normally, you'd expect it to at least
generate a "focus error".
I use a lot of toothpicks, tweezers and very fine needle nose pliers
working on these things.
Another tip is to make copious notes when you're going in and keep the
screws in order using an ice cube tray. Nice and white and you can mark
on it with fine markers the location of the screws you take out.
Richard

Hi...

Making notes is good; but don't forget our hobby

Take lots and lots of pictures as you disassemble it, they'll
be worth their weight in gold as you re-assemble.

Take care.

Ken

 

[Alex Bird]

Ah, I usually make some lines of blu-tak (fun-tak? I don't know what
you guys call it) on the tray or in an old cassette box, which keeps
them secure and in order but doesn't really allow labelling. I do get
mixed up sometimes!

Take lots and lots of pictures as you disassemble it, they'll
be worth their weight in gold as you re-assemble.

I used another digital camera to photograph small gears etc before I
pulled them out. It was actually quite a nice design and I didn't need
to refer to the photos. Gears of alternating colours for example.
I didn't relish unsoldering the ribbons on the lens, to get it apart,
but it was actually quite straightforward.

Alex

 

[spudnuty]

I recently worked on a Toshiba laptop and it was quite nice. There were
letter-number codes next to each screw so you could never get them
mixed up.
That fun-tak idea sounds great. I use the ice cube trays because it's
like what we used to do at Helix. It also allows you to make notes on
the trays and dedicate a tray to a particular camera since it might sit
there for weeks waiting on parts.( now I'm thinking that I could use
those dry wipe markers). This is quite helpful since there are many
places where there are similar screws but of slightly different lengths
and putting the wrong screw in the wrong place would result in a
cracked or shorted something.

Take lots and lots of pictures as you disassemble it, they'll
be worth their weight in gold as you re-assemble.

Yes Ken, I do that particularly where say like a lens needs to be
reassembled in a particular way or as above a tiny gear train.

I didn't relish unsoldering the ribbons on the lens, to get it apart,

Wow that was a Canon? I've also had to do that a lot on Kodaks and
really don't like working on them. Sonys, Fujis and Olympus have been
much more logical to work on.

Richard

 

[none]

Sorry Steve, but my crunch-free smoothly functioning camera must be the
exception...

Alex

Correct, Sand is easy to clean out of a lens.
Try getting advanced fungal growth off a lens without completely
destroying the coatings, now that's hard.

 

[none]

Hi,

I don't normally repair any sort of camera, but this is my own, and my
gosh it's depreciated since I bought it, so I thought it worth the
risk.

Canon Powershot A40

The camera isn't actually dead, failing, etc. A grain or two of sand
have got into the retracting/zoom lens assembly and it makes a clicking
sound in operation.
Ironically I keep a filter adapter and UV filter on it all the time to
prevent this sort of thing, but I took it off yesterday to show someone
what it was, whilst at a fantastic beach party - whoops.

I have some lovely cleaners/brushes/lubricants for plastic gears, so
I'm very tempted to disassemble the lens and totally clean it.
However, now I'm in the camera I'm not so sure, perhaps a blast of
compressed air ? I'm out of air, but wouldn't it push the sand further
in ?

Has anyone experience of these Canon lens assemblies ? Probably
identical to the A30 too.

Thanks in advance,

Alex

Is the sand in the optics or just the zoom/ focus ring assembly?
It' just requires a very careful, methodical disassembly and cleaning.
The safest cleaning solvent to use would be denatured alchohol as most
of the gears will be nylon plastic.(You'll most liekly need to strip
off the old lube as the sand will be in it and won't come out
completely untill all the gears and surfaces are clean and dry.)
Compressed air is good as well, try and avoid using the dust-off stuff
as it has a dry propellant that leaves a residue.
You'll need a good grade of lithium grease to relube the gears and
lens barrel, a thin grade of silicone grease will work as well.
Use of a stiff nylon brush during cleaning is good as well, like a
tooth brush or perhaps acid brushes which can be gotten at your local
hardware store.(If you want to spend the bucks a local art store will
have a variety of nylon in small sizes and stiffnesses.)
Take photos or video tape the disassembly in detail to aid in
reassembly and work in a clean breeze free work space to avoid dust
contamination.

 

[Alex Bird]

You'll need a good grade of lithium grease to relube the gears and
lens barrel, a thin grade of silicone grease will work as well.

I actually used something that calls itself ceramic grease, which I'm
pretty sure is the same stuff cd mechs and so on are greased with.
It's white and light. Whenever I order some promising looking lithium
or silicone grease it turns out not to be what I was expecting at all.

Use of a stiff nylon brush during cleaning is good as well, like a
tooth brush or perhaps acid brushes which can be gotten at your local
hardware store.

I actually used a sable brush, which I normally use for shifting dust,
it's very soft.

This talk of brushes has reminded me of a brush I had years ago, but
lost, never seen one since. It was like a toothbrush, a little bigger,
with quite fine and stiff nylon bristles. It was fantastic for
cleaning out fine threads. Where can I get another ?

Alex

 

[none]

I actually used something that calls itself ceramic grease, which I'm
pretty sure is the same stuff cd mechs and so on are greased with.
It's white and light. Whenever I order some promising looking lithium
or silicone grease it turns out not to be what I was expecting at all.


I actually used a sable brush, which I normally use for shifting dust,
it's very soft.

Well the sable is good for brushing off the lens surfaces, that's what
I've always used.( been a professional photographer for well over 40
years now.)

This talk of brushes has reminded me of a brush I had years ago, but
lost, never seen one since. It was like a toothbrush, a little bigger,
with quite fine and stiff nylon bristles. It was fantastic for
cleaning out fine threads. Where can I get another ?

Sounds like a brush my old man had as well, he was an electrical
engineer and used his for cleaning off armatures and relay contacts
when washing them down with contact cleaner or whatever.
You should be able to get one at a better stocked hardware store or an
industrial hardware shop. Think I've seen them at industrial
electrical supply shops as well.