I’ve had this old but very chunky Tamron 80-210mm Adaptall 2 telephoto zoom lens since the mid 1980s. Only I noticed that the overall image quality had become rather poor. I wanted to find out why. When I shone a small torch through it, I noticed what appeared to be a haze. Despite several cleans I could not remove it.
Transpired that the haze was inside of the lens. I suspect that oil/grease had evaporated from the zoom mechanism and had re-condensed on the inside of the glass. Anyway, I carefully dismantled it (which is actually pretty straightforward with the correct tools), cleaned it up with my trusty lens-cleaning solution (33% white vinegar; 33% isopropanol; 34% distilled water), cleaned and lubricated the mech with silicone grease and reassembled it….
Close-up repairing a Tamron 80-210mm lens. End glass removed using special lens tool, available on eBay for about £10.
I originally bought my Tamron 80-210mm second hand in the 1980s for use with my Pentax ME Supers. It fell into disuse when I went digital in the late 1990’s. Things changed again when I went mirrorless a couple of years back. These days I’m using it with an adaptall2 (clone) ->µ4/3 adaptor on my Lumix GX7 for photographing birds in the garden. It’s actually a really nice, easy-to-use lens, especially on a MILC with focus highlighting.
Greedy starlings from my studio window 2016-05-30, taken with rebuilt vintage Tamron 80-210mm MF lens.