Repair Stuck Lens on Panasonic FZ5

Step 6 Fixify Lens

It's safe to gently bend the lens motor away from the barrel, but be careful.

The meeting point of the two cogs is highlighted in the first image below, though I didn't photograph it so well.

If you move the motor to disconnect the cogs from each other as shown in image two, you'll be able to carefully wind the lens barrel in and out. You may need to (carefully!) use a flat bladed screwdriver between two teeth of the large cog to move it at first.

Inspect the cogs to see if there are any flaws, broken teeth, obstructions, etc. In this case, I found the cog on the motor had jumped, and one of the teeth on the barrel cog was slightly worn. The damage was quite superficial, so I used the jewellers screwdriver to scrape it back into a more workable shape and get rid of some chaff that had come off the surfaces.

Do whatever it takes with you own... I'm bloody glad I didn't have to superglue any teeth back in place.

Next, wind the barrel back down, let the motor drop into its natural position and check that the motor cog and the barrel cog are meshing correctly. If so, you're ready to reassemble your camera.

Comments

[liamconnolly]

You are a life saver! My FZ8 packed up on holiday in Ireland and its lens would not retract from the 12x position. A national photographic retailer relieved me of £25 to tell that my camera was broken and would need a completely new lens assembly unit at a cost (minimum) of £240 - they had not even been inside the camera since the the seven screws that hold the body together had never seen a screwdriver! This repair cost I was not prepared to pay. Working with my son, we dismantled the camera as per your instructions and checked the gearing on the inner barrel of the lens, all teeth were present and correct. Next we checked the gearing attached to the motor and again everything was fine although some of the cogs were very dirty and needed cleaning.

We noticed however that the transmission of the inner barrel of the lens through the outer barrel was not smooth and became stuck in a number of positions. Working at gently moving the parts, we finally dislodged some small particles of black plastic. With the application of a little WD40 to the guides, we then reassembled the camera and everything seems fine apart from the flash unit not working - we do not even get the flash drop down options on pressing the RHS menu button. We noticed that on disassembly that a spurious red coloured connector had become detached from its partner, which we assumed to be a spare connector under the flash unit - but oviously not. Does anyone have any thoughts?

I love the FZ8 but have been dismayed at the poor quality of the lens transmission system - is this just a Panasonic problem or are all cameras like this today?

Many thanks

[GraGra]

On my first attempt the lens was still jambed although now in a fully retracted state so into it again, this time I opened the gear box and could find nothing wrong so I opened the lens (for goodness sake mark everything before finally pulling it apart completely). A small plastic post 2mm dia x 3.5 long and chamfered one end appeared on the workbench. I could not see where it had broken off. The three plastic pins others have mentioned were intact. Encouraged by the success of others, I put it back together. Now everything works except the viewfinder which is just white.

[leannes1234]

With mine, I couldn't fine anything major wrong with any of the teeth around the outside,so tried removing the barrel, which was also fine.  On my sixth attempt (yes, I am a stubborn person!), I had a go at opening up the motor, which is done by unlinking from the lens teeth and removing 4 screws( and leaving the ribbons alone).  I found a grain of sand inside the cogs in the motor.  It is all working now!

[pavmax]

all three of the  plastic guides were snapped off and jamming the lens,i removed them and reassembled,everythings working sweet,just alittle more  float in the outer lens...

[ArkAdmin]

In my case the cog and teeth were fine. The motor slides the lens barrel up and down on two parallel tracks. The barrel can be completely removed if you wind the barrel to the end of the track and then pull it gently off. Fixed to the inside of the barrel you will see three short pointed metal studs that move along the first track. Near each metal stud is a short black plastic guide that slides along the parallel track. In my case one of these black plastic studs had sheared off and caused the barrel to jam. I am hoping that I won't need to buy a replacement barrel as there are still 3 metal studs and 2 plastic guides remaining.

[anorthosite]

My barrel would not fully retract, as I confirmed when I first tried to reassemble - it was left sticking out beyond the outer case. So like ArkAdmin I went the next step and disassembled the barrel. The secondary, movable lens is in a mount that tracks along two "long" pins. The lens mount has an arm with a pin that tracks a spiral groove INSIDE the inner barrel. After I reinserted that and realigned the two long pins, I was able to twist the assembly back together and the barrel retracted completely with no further interruption. Now to the rest !

[clind]

Thanks for this tutorial that made me able to properly open my camera :P In my case, the motor wasn't held hard enough against the lens block, so I just put a small piece of carton under the extremity of the biggest plastic guide and put the screw back again, so the motor cog is now pushed harder against the lens cog and it just work fine :D A relieve, I'll not have to buy a new one yet!

[ericmei]

My case was similar to ArkAdmin, except nothing was broken, just jammed. It took a lot of effort to get the lens apart, but once I did, I was able to reassemble everything and it worked fine.