Over the last few weeks I had been trying to break down and rebuild my Vivitar lens, and had nearly given up at the point that I thought I would need to use a heated screwdriver to break loose the last screws holding the zoom barrel on the lens. One of my brothers had looked at the lens the other day and noted that there is most likely an alignment key in the zoom barrel, and he was correct. Just in time too, I might be shooting a wedding soon this month and needed the Vivitar to work. I was able to realign the focus track just about completely, aside from continuing to verify if the infinity and macro stops are working as they were though they are off to the left about an inch and a half since the distance index ring first spun loose (I am still figuring out what its going to take to correct that- maybe oil or a drill...). It took a fair amount of torque to force the lens back up to 70mm but once there I noted that it needs to be re-lubed; it may be possible to lubricate it without tearing it down. In other goings-on, I have found an online vendor of refurbished apple computers: macofalltrades.com, and will be getting a Power Mac G5 from them and components from otherworldcomputing.com when I can afford to. The question remains though, do I need just a barebones G5 or a dual processor nice machine? Is the quad for people that over-do it? It's a difference of $350-600 for what was the best of the best just five years ago. Any advice on what G5 is best or any offers on a barebones build is greatly appreciated, just send advice to my email, thanks! |