Help for lens fungus?

[Brian]

Just to add- I use a wooden box for the UV lamp, also Lab grade. I line the lenses up, close them in. I also use the same lamp for bleaching the Yellow out of thorium glass optics. It works, UV-C does not. One of the Pentax lenses was badly Yellowed, unscrewed the rear group with the Thorium glass- cured within a day or so. Some people leave these types of lenses in Sunlight- but it is the UV end that cures them. The rest- just gets the lens hot, and I have seen ones with baked lubricants. I picked up a Hot-Glass Leica Summicron that had been sun-cured, and baked. Go it cheap as it needed a full clean and lube- helical was bound-up from the "Curing" process.

 

[Manzur Fahim]

You can use UV light to kill it and stop the spreading, but it won't remove the spots. You can take it to an engineer to send it to the manufacturer to clean it for you, for a charge. I wouldn't recommend opening the lens to clean the fungus unless it is just behind the front element or the rear element. Most technicians can disassemble a lens, but once you put it back, it will need a tuning / alignment check, which only the manufacturer can do. Without the tuning, it could lose its sharpness or behave strangely. If the spots are not showing in the photos, then leave it as it is, just kill it with a UV light.

 

[Brian]

You can use UV light to kill it and stop the spreading, but it won't remove the spots. You can take it to an engineer to send it to the manufacturer to clean it for you, for a charge. I wouldn't recommend opening the lens to clean the fungus unless it is just behind the front element or the rear element. Most technicians can disassemble a lens, but once you put it back, it will need a tuning / alignment check, which only the manufacturer can do. Without the tuning, it could lose its sharpness or behave strangely. If the spots are not showing in the photos, then leave it as it is, just kill it with a UV light.

This depends on the particular lens. Most classic lenses align properly when the retaining ring secures the elements in the barrel. The machining on some barrels is so good that it it is possible to align elements in a group that have come apart, the Canon 135/3.5 RF lens is an example. It is the only one that I've had the elements in a group come apart and have to fix.

SO- if the lens is not worth the price of a repair, which can be $100 and up easily, it is worth the attempt to repair. If the lens is of sentimental value, might also change the decision. If the lens is going to sit forever unused, and you have an interest in DIY repair, worth the effort of buying some junk lenses off Ebay to practice on. It's not that hard for classic lenses. I would not mess with internals of many AF lenses. Only did one of those, a AF-S Nikkor zoom that someone tried to repair and gave up. $25 for a $400 lens, took 10 minutes to put back together. Gave it to a friend setting up a photography business, after testing it. Lesson to be learned- practice on junk lenses first, and be setup for taking things apart. I use Ice Cube Trays to keep everything in order. Also learned to mark the outside surface of some optics before removing, so they go back with the correct orientation. Some optics are "almost" but not quite symmetrical.

1952 Jupiter-3 Rebuild

1952 Jupiter-3 Rebuild album hosted in ImgBB

ibb.co

Moved all the glass into a new barrel, above.

Anyone with manual focus nikon lenses-

Richard Haw's Classic Nikon Repair and Review

Classic Nikkors Repair and DIY maintenance

richardhaw.com

The best on the web.

 

[Barbie Heid]

Can you post come images of the lens? Lenses can also get dry condensation in spots that get mistaken for fungus. Fungus- will look like threads from a spider web coming from the center.

I treat these by getting to the glass surface, meaning using a Spanner. Cheap on Ebay.
I use Lens-Cleaner on a Q-Tip, lens cleaner having alcohol and ammonia mix. Use a very light touch with the Q-Tip, then follow up with lens cleaning paper.
Use a UV-Lamp, NOT UV-C as it will not penetrate through glass to the other sections of the lens. Run for a few hours.

I recently bought a small collection of Contax and Nikon gear- had been stored in a safe by the Widow of the owner. I spent weeks going through the gear, disassembling, cleaning, and treating with UV. The many pieces are Okay. I have been using this technique for decades, it works.

Usually on a lens- the Fungus is long dead, and etches the coatings and glass, it is like an acid. If you get to it quickly, leaves no damage. I was able to completely clean up all but one of the lenses in the collection, about a Dozen Nikon S-mount, F-Mount, and Contax RF Mount including a 21mm F4.5. The widow would have had to pay $150~$300 per piece to have a professional shop do the work.

Thank you!, and I will post some pics, because that is NOT what I have going on: I had just assumed it was fungus. It's tiny, iridescent squares, mostly around the sides but NOT in the middle. But I will post some pics of it tomorrow, thanks. Getting to the surface to manually clean though, not so sure I'm that brave (it's on the inside, below the 1A filter).

 

[Barbie Heid]

Wouldn't have it in the house, frankly. The mould spores will spread to your other gear - transferred by you (your hands, clothes) and via the air. And by the time you see it, its way too late.

Prevention is better than mitigation.

I have it in 'quarantine' in a zip lock bag, in another room (with a silica gel packet in the bag). It's a great and useful lens, but if I can't save it, I'm not going to risk the rest of my collection. Thanks!

 

[Barbie Heid]

This depends on the particular lens. Most classic lenses align properly when the retaining ring secures the elements in the barrel. The machining on some barrels is so good that it it is possible to align elements in a group that have come apart, the Canon 135/3.5 RF lens is an example. It is the only one that I've had the elements in a group come apart and have to fix.

SO- if the lens is not worth the price of a repair, which can be $100 and up easily, it is worth the attempt to repair. If the lens is of sentimental value, might also change the decision. If the lens is going to sit forever unused, and you have an interest in DIY repair, worth the effort of buying some junk lenses off Ebay to practice on. It's not that hard for classic lenses. I would not mess with internals of many AF lenses. Only did one of those, a AF-S Nikkor zoom that someone tried to repair and gave up. $25 for a $400 lens, took 10 minutes to put back together. Gave it to a friend setting up a photography business, after testing it. Lesson to be learned- practice on junk lenses first, and be setup for taking things apart. I use Ice Cube Trays to keep everything in order. Also learned to mark the outside surface of some optics before removing, so they go back with the correct orientation. Some optics are "almost" but not quite symmetrical.

1952 Jupiter-3 Rebuild

1952 Jupiter-3 Rebuild album hosted in ImgBB

ibb.co

Moved all the glass into a new barrel, above.

Anyone with manual focus nikon lenses-

Richard Haw's Classic Nikon Repair and Review

Classic Nikkors Repair and DIY maintenance

richardhaw.com

The best on the web.

Actually, it is an AF lens, so I can say already I'm not feeling that brave. It can't hurt to ask, I'll call our family Nikon guru and see if I can at least get an estimate.

 

[Barbie Heid]

You can use UV light to kill it and stop the spreading, but it won't remove the spots. You can take it to an engineer to send it to the manufacturer to clean it for you, for a charge. I wouldn't recommend opening the lens to clean the fungus unless it is just behind the front element or the rear element. Most technicians can disassemble a lens, but once you put it back, it will need a tuning / alignment check, which only the manufacturer can do. Without the tuning, it could lose its sharpness or behave strangely. If the spots are not showing in the photos, then leave it as it is, just kill it with a UV light.

Thanks, and I will track down the light to try it. At the moment, it is not apparent in the images, and it has not spread to the center (it's on the outskirts of the lens). But another member suggested I may not be dealing with an actual fungus, so I'll be posting a c couple of shots of it.

 

[Barbie Heid]

DIY and Photo Experiments

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dprforum.com

The Do-it-Yourself forum here might be a good place for such projects. Post some pictures of the lens, and the problem description.
On the original DPReview, a lot of repair threads and custom image processing were thrown together. I never posted on it.

I'll do that, thanks. And I am getting A LOT more help on here!

 

[Downunder]

Finding another one without the fungus is most likely quicker and cheaper than all of the above.

 

[Barbie Heid]

Finding another one without the fungus is most likely quicker and cheaper than all of the above.

Sigh, you're right. It's not showing up in images (yet), so I'm just going to ride it out until I need to replace it. it is NOT allowed in the house though, lol.