F28 f/2.8 broken aperture mechanism

Paul_R_H wrote:

Hi

I banged this lens, and now the aperture blades flop about. The stop-down lever does nothing and they pivot randomly and individually across the circle rather than forming a nice neat iris.

This means in order of probability

1 Iris holder has split drifted apart allowing blade chaining to disengage - new Iris required (Blades + holder) or donor lens part - easy fix as can be changed as module

2 One Blade shaft has sheared - new Iris or donor lens part - difficult fix as re-aligning blades is fiddly and dexterity needed

3 Aperture leaver has come adrift - easy fix re connect leaver

Is it a hard job to fix?I'm not going to attempt it myself, but could a competent repair shop?

Yes it easy fix but a complex strip down and re-assembly required not something your average repair shop would even look at due to Lens value Vs repair time/cost.

Clearly parts supply will be unavailable, but do you think it's the sort of thing where a repairer could adapt existing generic linkage and spring parts?

No parts are mostly unique to lens/series.

After all this is not some complex electronic-heavy zoom.

Or will the expense and improbability of such a repair mean I should look for another one?There are none on eBay, though there are a few FA28s.

I don't need a full-frame lens – I have a K3ii and I don't want the weight of a K1, never mind the likely focussing errors from a thinner depth of field. But the 28mm FL really works for me and I like the small size versus wide aperture. A DA31 or would be too close to my FA50, and the FA31 is silly expensive, and the DA21 too close to my DA15.

Luckily I recently got a DFA16-85 so I'm covered for most purposes except low light.

Any thoughts?

Thanks

Paul