Warning: spent $120 on a Russian lens adapter that binds up in cold weather

Bought this Fed adapter off ebay thinking it'd be fine for winter street shooting. First time out below 20F the helicoid seized up solid. Tried hitting it with some lighter fluid and it helped a bit but now it's got that gritty feel. Anyone else run into cheap adapters that can't handle the cold?

3 comments

3 Comments

thomas27526d ago

Man I dunno, calling it a "big lesson" feels a little dramatic for a $120 adapter. Yeah it sucks when gear doesn't work perfect, but it's not like your camera exploded or you missed a once in a lifetime shot. Just sounds like normal old surplus stuff doing old surplus stuff in the cold, not some grand failure of budget gear everywhere.

hayden_butler2729d ago

Is it really a budget gear problem though? @david_rivera4 I've had the opposite luck where cheap stuff sometimes holds up better than the expensive junk. That Fed adapter is old Soviet surplus, not some new budget brand. Those things were built for a different era and a different climate. Lighter fluid might have stripped some factory grease that was actually supposed to be in there. Could be the cold just made the metal contract tighter than it was designed for. I'd try a proper lithium grease on the helicoid before writing off the whole adapter.

david_rivera429d ago

Yo have you ever noticed how a LOT of "budget" gear just totally falls apart when things get real? Like it's fine in your living room but you take it outside and it's a whole different story. I've seen this with everything from cheap tripod legs that wobble in wind to camera straps that snap when it's freezing. These companies test stuff in perfect conditions and call it good. But real life is full of cold, heat, dust, and wet. The big lesson is that sometimes you gotta pay extra for the stuff that's built for actual use, not just looking nice on a shelf. That gritty feeling after the lighter fluid trick is probably gonna get worse over time too.