Taking it apart is the easy bit..

A first foray into home lens dismantling. Actually taking it apart was quite complicated, even with a 50mm prime lens with few moving parts.

It needed taking apart because this lens fell in the river during the summer - actually it slipped out of my hand, and rolled down the bank in what seemed like horrible slow motion before bouncing off the bank, and down into the river where it floated for a few seconds and then sank slowly with a trail of bubbles. I waded in and after finding an empty bottle first managed to locate and retrieve it. It was full of river water and I assumed was done for, and bought a replacement. However after leaving it to dry out I was surprised and impressed to find it still worked but the inner lens elements were coated in a layer of muck from the river, hence the need to take it to bits.

I did manage to put it back together, almost completely successfully except that the auto focus doesn't work at all and the manual focus is very reluctant, so whatever I did with the tiny lever arm obviously wasn't quite right. Further technical meddling will have happen..