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How to remove a stuck Pentax SMC Takumar from a Zenit

Now... what is wrong with the picture on the left? You guessed it right. Newer SMC Takumars SHOULD NOT be mounted on Zenits. Why? The extra pin that controls the Auto/Manual switch gets stuck on the screw holes on the mount. If you did this mistake -like i did - then you have two options. a) You force the  lens to unscrew bending the pin and damaging the lens or b) unscrew the whole thing and reach the pin from the inside. In my case, the lens is a Super Takumar 35mm f/2. Other lenses will of course be different to dismantle.
Now....

 ************************* Please read ********************
Since in this bad world, there are people who try to make a living out of suing others, please read this carefully. I am not a technician and neither do I claim to be one. If you decide to follow the guide below, you do it at your own risk and I will assume no responsibility if you damage your lens. You are a big boy/girl to decide for your self. If you think you cannot do it, then don't!
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1) Now, taking a lens apart is a 3D jigsaw and you'll need loads of patience and organisational skills. You will need empty film canisters to store the screws and a set of screw drivers. Also you'll need the rear cup of the lens, a cotton pad and Ronsonol to clean the mess afterwards.





2) Put the cotton pad on the lens and use the rear cup to unscrew the name plate ring.







3) Underneath it you will find three screws. Unscrew them and put the screws in a canister.







 4) Remove the metal bit and you will find three more screws under it. Now those screws hold the focusing ring on the helicoid. Focus
the lens on infinity and take a picture of it. This will help you in case your lens gets uncalibrated. Then remove them.





5) The brass ring on the top is the focusing helicoid. Don't touch that or you risk to uncalibrate your lens ( I did that and it was a pain in the ass to calibrate it again.)
Now, there are three tiny headless screws around the lens barrel. They are tiny (see picture below). Try not to loose them!!

6) Lift the aperture ring carefully and make sure you don't lose the tiny ball bearing that rests underneath it







7) Do not remove this screw. This is for the infinity focus.








8) Remove the three screws that keep the lens barrel to its base.








9) Pull it up to lift it.








10) Now, here is where all the problem is. In this picture i have removed the pin already (sorry). Just lift it and unscrew the base from the camera mount! Voila !!!






11) Here is the pin and it's holding base. I got rid of my pin since it was damaged already but I put the base back to the lens.




12) See those two screws? Make sure they are well screwed otherwise the aperture will not close.







13) At this point, this is how your table should look like. Make sure that you place each part of the lens that you remove next to the previous one otherwise you'll find it difficult to put it together.







Now, as you probably have guessed it already, to put the lens together you need to follow the steps from No13 to No1. At the end of it, you need to check to see if your lens focuses properly or not. Mine didn't so I had to go to step No5 and try to turn the focusing helicoid while looking through the viewfinder until it focused on infinity. The problem was that the point where screw A screws on the helicoid was right under screw B which made it very difficult to access. What i eventually did was turn the helicoid a bit so that A is not right below B and lightly screw the focusing ring. Then with a screwdriver push the helicoid until A is under B. Tight a screw well and rotate the focus ring. Now you will be able to screw all screws.  I focused on infinity and looked good, then i focused on 1 metre... look good too and i continued with steps No4 to No1.


I hope you're lucky with your 3D jigsaw. I cannot say that I enjoyed mine, it took me 2 whole days to figure out what each little bit is doing. If you really are not into these kind of things, then maybe sending it to a qualified technician will be your better bet. Needles to say, having removed the pin, the lens works fine now on the Zenit.
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Comments

  1. Anonymous31 October 2023 at 11:49

    Hi! I hope you are doing well a decade after making this and I want to thank you for having done so because otherwise I may still have been wondering what the issue was, but I read on a forum thread from as long ago as 2005 that there is a third possibility for remediating this problem: wedging a very thin feeler gauge (someone else in the thread used shim brass and sadly I have no idea what else to suggest myself) between the lens pin and the camera body, pushing the pin up, and then twisting the lens off while the pin is under tension. According to the post I read, it may take about 5 minutes in tries and only work incrementally at first, but overall it seems like a safer and cheaper solution, for anyone who might experience the same issue in the future, as I just did yesterday in 2023.

    Here's the thread for reference: https://www.photo.net/forums/topic/198502-super-tak-stuck-on-a-zenit/

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous31 October 2023 at 14:59

      I tried that too but unfortunately it didn't work. If you have a SMC tak you can try to push that pin and you'll see that it is not very easy to push in.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous16 November 2023 at 19:33

      You are doing the hard way. Set the camera to bulb. Then turn the button while pushing down so the curtain stays open. Reach in with your finger on the flange that controls the pin and squeeze. It may take a couple of tries but it will come free.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous5 December 2023 at 13:48

      I am not sure which flange you are referring to. The pin that gets stuck is not the pin that operates the aperture. It is a tiny pin on the lens where it sits aflush to the mount. I cannot see something that operates that pin when looking from the inside of the camera with the shutter set on B

      Delete

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