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I have an old manual-focus Vivitar 400mm lens I bought off eBay. Manually focusing is pretty slow & difficult, even with the live view on the Canon 70D, and as far as image quality goes, it seems to me that I'm much better off with my 70-200 f/4 IS + 1.4x TC. I don't regret the experiment, but I don't see myself using this lens.

So - is there any reason not to disassemble the lens to turn the glass into toys for the kids to play with? Yes, I could theoretically resell it, but I would honestly tell anyone they're better off with a 55-250mm instead.

Michael H.
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    I don't understand the motivation for your question. Are you asking if it's a waste of a decent lens, or if there is a safety issue of some kind? – MikeW Feb 26 '15 at 21:05
  • Mostly asking if there's a safety reason of any kind - not that I can imagine much of one (for example, if the glass had sharp edges, I could put electrical tape on the outside). But also asking in case anyone suggests a use for this big old lens intact that I hadn't thought of. – Michael H. Feb 26 '15 at 21:44
  • You can convert the lens to a coffee mug. You can tell people it is a real lens. – Nelson Feb 27 '15 at 02:33
  • @Nelson - I've seen those sold! This wouldn't be a mug, it'd be a thermos. ;-) – Michael H. Feb 27 '15 at 16:24
  • Disassembled! The lenses themselves are still solidly encased in their sections, which is a bit of a disappointment, but the manual aperture rings are a lot of fun to play with. – Michael H. Mar 04 '15 at 15:46

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The only danger I can see:

If the kids see you taking the lens apart then later, when you are not around, they might decide they want to be "just like daddy" and start taking apart the 70-200!

Michael C
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Nah just do it. Most lenses are cool to see all the internals and how complex they are. I tried to "fix" Nikon manual focus E-series and ended up flubbing it. Well, spring got stretched so now I got to chase down a spring to fix an otherwise perfect 50mm 1.8 manual focus. In other words, don't expect to put it together again perfectly. Or ever!!

Charles Lee Roberts
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