How to remove fungus from old lens?

3 years 4 months ago #705952 by JMunoz
Merry Christmas everyone!  My wife surprised me with a box full of old lenses and cameras for Christmas.  I have my photography/game room I have been slowly decorating.  One thing I have been doing is buying up old cameras and lenses to have on display.  Well my wife gift will be all I need to finish this!  There are a couple lenses in the box that have some bad fungus on them.  

Any idea how to remove the fungus that is tough (more stubborn)?  


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3 years 4 months ago #705965 by Ozzie_Traveller
G'day JM

Short answer ........... you can't

Longer answer ....... the fungus eats into the very fine anti-reflective coating upon the actual glass element - and the damage has been done. If you know / have the tools to do so - you 'might' be able to carefully disassemble the lens and very carefully clean (ethyl alcohol) each component - including all the metal bits too - and then the lens may not get any worse

However, it probably is simpler just to leave it as-is, and have it as a conversation piece ........ -or- use it if you can and enjoy its "slightly soft focus results"

Hope this helps
Phil from the great land Downunder
www.flickr.com/photos/ozzie_traveller/sets/

Phil from the great land Downunder
www.flickr.com/photos/ozzie_traveller/sets/

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3 years 4 months ago #705972 by JMunoz
Hmmmm, well first of all, thank you for taking the time and typing all that out. 

OK, well I'm going to take your advice and just leave as is.  After all, these lenses and camera gear will be just sitting on a shelf.  

Happy holidays!


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3 years 4 months ago #706035 by fmw
Fungus can be removed from lens elements with a solution of chemicals.  The lens must be disassembled to get to the elements with fungus and some special tools are required to disassemble and reassemble the lens.  I have restored several high end lenses in this manner.  Best to start on cheap lenses like you have before taking on any high end models.  If you run into trouble without knowing the way out, you will have destroyed the lens.


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3 years 3 months ago #706053 by Ira Weber

fmw wrote: Fungus can be removed from lens elements with a solution of chemicals.  The lens must be disassembled to get to the elements with fungus and some special tools are required to disassemble and reassemble the lens.  I have restored several high end lenses in this manner.  Best to start on cheap lenses like you have before taking on any high end models.  If you run into trouble without knowing the way out, you will have destroyed the lens.



:agree:  True, better off for the purpose just to clean it up from the outside and call it a day.  


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3 years 3 months ago #706058 by Nikon Shooter
This is one of the reasons to acquire IF lenses.

Light is free… capturing it is not!
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3 years 2 months ago #708534 by TCav
The simplest way to remove fungus from a lens is to leave it out in sunlight for a while. Eventually, it will kill the fungus. The bad news is that fungus eats the lens coatings, so the scars will persist.


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3 years 2 months ago - 3 years 2 months ago #708543 by Nikon Shooter

TCav wrote: The simplest way to remove fungus from a lens is to leave it out in sunlight for a while. Eventually, it will kill the fungus. The bad news is that fungus eats the lens coatings, so the scars will persist.


The fungus will still be there… though possibly dead.

Light is free… capturing it is not!
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3 years 2 months ago #708548 by Screamin Scott
The uncleaned fungus can spread to your other lenses so care is advised to separate them or simply remove the affected lenses.

Scott Ditzel Photography

www.flickr.com/photos/screaminscott/

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