Disassembly – Fujinon XF 27mm F2.8 lens

I’ve disassembled Fujinon XF 27mm F2.8 lens first time for internal dust cleaning on May 9th 2016. Since then I had many other XF 27mm samples that required different work, so updating this article with more details.

General disassembly steps

First you need to accurately remove the naming plate plastic ring. It is flexible and sits on double-side adhesive tape, so disconnect it accurately using some slim tool and elevate, try not to bend it too much.

Next step is to unscrew 3 black and 4 silver screws from the rear side (carefully, they all sit in plastic thread).

First take out inner black plastic ring (around rear glass) – it holds lens contacts in the mount ring. After that carefully release contacts and lift up silver mount ring. Accurately remove mount ring.

Then memorize metal shim plate position and take it out.

Unscrew 3 black screws that hold rear body ring with “27” sign.

Now remove that ring with “27” sign. It is time now to deal with most risky part of lens disassembly – you need to accurately disconnect three ribbon cables from electronic board (all three are visible below). Do not disconnect cable with main lens contacts – it should stay there. I’m using precise tweezers for that operation.

Now unscrew three black bolts holding electronics board, pull it out and put aside.

Flip the lens and unscrew four black bolts that sit in deeper sockets. Do not lay down lens on a table because rear glass surface is protruding an may be scratched, keep it in hand or on the rear cap edge like on image below.

Separate focus ring frame and inner lens frame.

There are two bolts – one silver and one black holding lens focusing drive module on place. Unscrew them.

Take out autofocusing drive module.

Now unscrew three black bolts from the inner frame side.

Take out lens core, just look how tiny is the lens itself now.

Rear optics disassembly steps

Rear metal lens frame of Fuji XF 27mm F1.8 lens is secured with three small glue bars. You need to remove them first.

Rotate rear lens group 10 degrees CCW, pull it away.

Then rotate silver metal ring 5 degrees CCW, detach it. If you need to lubricate focusing mechanism – remember position of the plastic ring with gears and also unscrew it. There are tree metal pins on lens frame body that are moving inside geared ring.

Unscrew 1 black bolt holding focusing position sensor, and release it. Then accurately remove thin plastic film ring, and remove plastic frame around lens core.

You can see here tiny engine that controls lens aperture (in image center).

Rear glass group sits firm on it’s place, and I didn’t touch all other glass, so no optical calibration required after re-assembly. As for the mount calibration you just need to make sure if there are any mount shims to put them back into right place. I’ve checked few shots after assembly – all field is sharp on f2.8, no quality degradation.

Disassembly of the front optical area

Technically it is possible to access front inner optics without rear area disassembly, but main problem here is that front plastic circle plate sits very tight connected by adhesive tape.

If your lens is already disassembled, all you need is to to puncture a hole in the frame right behind the front plate closer to it’s edge, and use long pin to elevate it, and then remove.

UPDATE (2020-05-24) There is alternative and more simple way of removing front plastic plate generously shared by one of blog readers – Ben Chau ( thank you Ben!!! ).

“I was able to get the front plate off with almost no stress. I used a technique many car detailers use to remove car emblems and badges. This involved using a very thin piece of plastic to slowly push a long piece of floss just under the front plate until it was under a majority of the circumference. Then, I was able to pull the floss through and under.”

I think it’s very smart way of removing front plate, and I’ll use it for all my further disassembly of XF 27mm. Here are three related pictures also shared by Ben Chau:

UPDATE [Nov 14th 2020]: Tried this approach on another broken XF 27mm F2.8 sample, and it worked great.

NOTE: It is recommended to focus Fuji XF 27mm lens to minimal focus distance, then remove battery from camera (without powering it off first) to keep that focus position, then detach lens from camera. It will make front disassembly easier, because lens core will be protruding for better access.

After removing front plate, unscrew four black bolts holding plastic disc with filter thread, then remove it. You’ll have access to second plate with ribbon cable attached to it. Green arrow shows focusing position sensor. You need to unscrew four black bolts marked with red.

Pay attention to the ribbon cable, it has some extra movement areas which allows to disconnect it from the plate adhesive strips. NOTE: My lens sample has detached plastic bar in bottom ribbon area, after recent conversion, but there is also adhesive tape keeping ribbon cable, make sure you accurately separate it without damaging cable.

After detaching ribbon cable from adhesive tape and removing plastic plate, unscrew three black bolts. Then pull out front plastic frame holding front optics. Note – front glass is attached to the frame with very solid and hard glue, don’t touch or push the glass though.

Now you will have access to aperture chamber and will be able to clean the front glass.

If you flip lens the aperture module may fall out, so be careful because only ribbon cable will hold it. My lens aperture is closed on picture, but your lens will have it open by default, so you can also clean glass surface under it if needed.

Fuji designed all parts you just removed in the way they can be put back into exactly same position, so to assemble things just follow guide in a reverse order. Pay extra attention to ribbon cable – it should sit back properly and allow core to move back/forth when focusing.

Accessing Aperture module

Update (2019-01-13) – few more shots from recent disassembly of another lens sample with removing all digital components for adapting Fujinon XF 27mm F2.8 lens to fully manual mode.

More disassembly pictures

Fuji XF 27mm 2.8 – main lens frame with autofocus drive and focus ring

Fuji XF 27mm 2.8 – rear lens group removed