Seawater-damaged Nikon lens fixed by boiling at Taiwan service center

At least they didn't say, "it's too broke to fix, you need to buy new lens". Can one presume that the end cost to do this was lower than the cost of a new lens? Great effort by the repair shop!

Perhaps Nikon's DX product manager could be fixed by boling in water!

As long as they fix my lens, boil on

well actually its not uncommon to do the hydro bath / hot bath treatment on mechanical assemblies. This being my experience for more than a decade as field service engineer. It might sound radical or even rash, but broken parts needing repair need to be cleaned, treated and so, and a good hot hydro bath or oil bath to cleanse out the corrosion is pretty standard approach. This is, unless one can go off and sandblast the parts ( actually today we don't use talc sand anymore ). The other options are chemical treatment which usually obly work on light duty jobs or very large scale one ( say stripping the primer and paint off a frame assembly )

I like stories like this boiled lens tale. Share more cool news like this, instead of putting out so much instagarbage and bloody iturd ads on here, and you just might regain some of your old mojo from the last decade!

Yeah right. First it was multi-coating, now boiling. What more will they invent?
And - how will Canon react? Will they stew a 70-200 EF found in a landfill?

oh, we all know that «official» nikon repair policy is «come on, just buy a new one»
so if a repair center actually fixes something, they can't be official® Nikon™, don't get fooled by the name folks!

I'm so glad I come to dpreview to read the "news."

Maybe this procedure would work to clean the D600 sensors of all those nasty oil spots! :) lol

Where are the noodles?

I always suspected that the Chinese cook everything, but I didn't know they would go that far... :-)

The photo where the lens is being boiled caption "a camera service center in taiwan,,,"

Nikon Camera service centres look like a chinese kitchen to me.

I live in China and I use local camera repair shops. They are not authorized and their repair quality varies wildly from thieves with a store front to honest, brilliant and friendly folks. I have found a shop that works for me and they have fixed things which in Germany were a clear case for the trash bin. The one I am using is very skillful and has no problem in tearing lenses apart, which clearly happened in this example. Each lens element would need to be cleaned, some parts replaced and it is certainly a good thing to passivate the surface of the metal parts again. I would not be surprised if consequently they even coated it as well. The shop I am using is in a network of shops and friends which help each other in difficult repairs. The collective knowledge of such a repair shop network can not be underestimated. There is a photo shop center in Guangzhou where you have approximately 100 shops and repair centers all in two buildings. It is a lively and active photography community.

The lens was done anyway so why not give it a try?

Taiwan is a great place to visit if you like to eat. You can get anything you want at any hour of the day. I wouldn't want to try thins though...I read through the original thread and he just mentions adding "flavorings" to the soup but doesn't reveal what they were....

I prefer my lenses fried in olive oil, with a dash of garlic.

If you look at their photos you'll see they disassembled and cleaned the entire lens and only boiled a few metal parts to get rid of the rust. It isn't as if they threw the whole lens into boiling water miraculously fixing it. The title and first sentence of this article is very misleading.

FRESH LENSES! GET EM WHILE THEY'RE HOT!

What ever works.

An old trick...good to see it dusted off so that more photographers will become aware of it. I have been boiling my photo equipment for decades. Throwing your camera gear in a pot of boiling water is a great idea.

Imagine that it would be your lens. For example 200/2 VR.

Would you rather have repaired lens, no matter "how"? Or dead lens which regular Nikon service center wouldnt be able to repair (or not for less than price of new one, we all know how it goes).

Im pretty sure what I would choose..

Other than that, re-baking circuits is something similar to this, insane way to repair for example graphic card, but it works. In case of repair, important is if its successful repair or not.

They probably used something like oxalic acid (standard rust remover). The heating was probably to allow for enough expansion to allow the liquid to get into the tight spaces. Then rinse with distilled water and maybe finish with an isopropanol rinse. Sounds like a clever approach to me especially since there was little to lose.
'Oxalic acid marine cleaner' is widely used on boats--just add water.

Try roasted. Massively better.

Could anyone try this with a CANON please, and keep us informed about the result?

Are you serious??

Is this what dpr has become?

A prostitute to rumor sites.

Maybe better to shutter the site now..

If it works, it works.

People have been boiling lenses (lentils) for millenia.

Why no curiousity about how the lens got into the sea, or why the owner thought it worth $X to half-rescue an old lens perhaps worth less than $X? The story must be a bit soft-boiled.

Ahhh... A fresh take on Nail Soup. Anyone have some carrots?

Well? What else is there to say to a boiling lens? I guess we could critique the photo of the pot. I wonder if this shot was taken with a boiled lens... I'll say this: I'm glad I don't live and work in a salt-spray environment. Watching a thousand dollar lens turn into a rotting Model T Ford would drive me nuts.

Reminds me of something from way back during the '90s. A friend went diving with a Nikonos III and forgot to screw in the flash socket plug. The whole camera and 15-mm lens ($1400.-!) was flooded. My diving buddy and me took it all apart and washed every part in 50% alcohol - 50% water.
The camera was easy, but there is about a million tiny parts that need careful handling, especially hair-thick springs.
Taking the lens apart is a weird feeling, partly because of the price, but we managed to do it as well.
Alcohol and water make a better solvent than either of them alone, and the evaporation of alcohol helps bring out the water too. We managed to remove all traces of the brine and dissolved film emulsion, and put the camera and lens together again. We used a toothpick to oil all moving parts with WD-40. Everything worked okay.
If your camera ever drops into the sea, wash it thoroughly as described, wrap it up to keep it wet, and send it immediately to the service.

It's journalism, and they never let the truth get in the way of a good story. ;-)

Nikon flavoured 擔仔麵 Danzai noodles!

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The only reason anyone could object to something like this, so far as I can see, is if the lens is then sold without revealing that it has been rebuilt. It is relatively easy to establish whether a lens is working properly or not, and if it is working properly, this is a commendable rescue IMO.

Being practical minded means doing whatever works, not just whatever people's preconceptions are comfortable with.

As for these internal parts of the lens being subject to corrosion in the future - they already were vulnerable to corrosion in the first place. Metal is metal. That is why it is such bad news to drop your lens into seawater (grin).

I bet its taste is better than Canon or Sigma.

The lens should be available for purchase on eBay shortly

Original post here... (Traditional Chinese)

http://www.mobile01.com/topicdetail.php?f=248&t=3256808&p=1

It's no service center. I think it's his nickname "Nikon Reapir" causing the misunderstanding. He seems to know Nikon lens very well.

The barrels stuck and boiling fixed only this problem. Other problems require soldering to fix. And silent wave motor is replaced. Boiling is only a small (but entertaining) part. OP mentioned that it took him 3 days to repair the lens. No magic.

Desperate times; desperate measures. It might be unorthodox but if it works then why not? After all; it would have been an expensive paperweight otherwise.

have to agree with other people here. they brought back the lens from it's death. What they did to it doesn matter as long as it works now.

Well... Dropped into seawater - that's 100% death of a lens. They RESURRECTED it! Resurrection is... well... magic :) If boiling is needed for this magic, what's wrong about it? They've done it, right? The lens is working after this magic. So why complain?

Tiawanese are awesome!

Whatever it takes. I applaud them for using a somewhat unconventional solution.

Take what Nikon Rumors say with a large pinch of salt.

Insert "I boiled my D600 to clean the dust" comment here.