Disassembly – 7Artisans 55mm F1.4 lens Fuji X mount

 7Artisans 55mm F1.4 is quite interesting lens. It has no bolts on the body except the mount ring, and looks nicely built. Focusing is smooth, though I often feel some slight change of rotation effort at some focus distance. Disassembly should unveil more details on focus mechanics and help to understand how it works.

First I’ve tried to unscrew the metal ring around the front lens. Don’t do it unless you want to get access to glass elements – the front ring with letters is holding the glass inside.

For this disassembly you will only need small flat and cross screwdrivers. Initial step is to unscrew three silver bolts and remove the mount ring. Remember ring position, the white dot on Fuji X mount is near the focus distance indicating point.

Pull out light metal shim to get access to the next three silver bolts. Unscrew them and pull out the ring with aperture range indicator.

Three tiny silver bolts will become accessible around the focusing ring. Just unscrew that three silver bolts.

Then gently pull out the focus ring.

You’ll notice how focus is working by turning the outer metal cylinder.

Well, I like this design : ) You can’t go wrong with the disassembly – each removed part is unveiling only next required set of bolts to be unscrewed. Thought this time in additional to three silver bolts you will see one Torx bolt near the aperture value indicator – ignore it. Just unscrew that three silver bolts (did I say that before?)

Now you can pull out the lens core assembly with all the glass.

Note – there are small silver rails on the internal side of focusing frame. It is connected to the aperture ring, so make sure aperture transmission bolt will be located inside that rails during assembly.

You can also pull out outer cylinder of focusing frame.

I’ve checked all cylinders and remove excessive lubricant from the top borders and from the ring with aperture range indicator.

Here is closer look to the lens core frame. It’s solidly built an nicely polished. There are few more small bolts which most likely serve to hold aperture on place and also hold front filter thread ring. I didn’t touch them this time.

there is only one visible hole in that frame accessible for the dust – aperture transmission area.

To assemble lens back, simply follow the guide in the reverse order. Just make sure you properly allocate aperture bolt inside rails, and also attach the focus ring with scale facing the aperture indicator area.

After the assembly I’ve realized that removing some grease significantly helped. Now focus is rotating with even effort on all range, and for both directions. Great!