As I have no friends who are into photography I just had to brag about this to somebody! ;-) About 9 months ago I bought a Vivitar Series 1 24-48mm F:3.8 VMC on eBay in "needs repair" condition. They didn't lie! It had 4 flat spots in the helix from being dropped, all the helix and focus screws and nylon bushings were bent, broken or missing. The aperture blades were oily enough to make a Texan see dollar signs, it only went from 24-35mm and didn't focus at all! Pretty sad. Well after 9 months, and almost tossing it out 50 times, I decided it was time to sink or swim. Totally dis-assemble, grind the helix flat spots out, clean everything, make new screws and bushings out of old lense parts, relube, re-assemble, adjust infinity focus, clean the outside, replace the rubber. It's Alive!!!!!!!!!! It's still not beautiful to look at but it's sharp enough to "snap" into focus on a soda can at 24mm and 15 feet! Still have to straighten the filter ring to put on (77mm!!) filters, but if it performs as well as it looks thru the viewfinder it's a dandy! Never tried to save one this bad before. Let's see, about 20 hours work at oh, $35 per hour.......... wow, only about $700.00!
Think it's worth it? (It is a cool FL range!) Don (blowing own horn, gloat, brag, etc) ;-)
