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A lens "without Fungus"
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PostPosted: Fri Aug 31, 2012 4:06 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
Thanks Jes, I haven't seen that link before but I'm glad I have now. Thank you. Very Happy


PostPosted: Fri Aug 31, 2012 4:39 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
Here's my method

1 remove element
2 with little finger gently rub a blob of PC into lens until PC gets almost transparent
3 leave overnight
4 remove PC with chamois leather dampened with lighter fluid
5 dry off with fresh dry chamois leather, no fibres to stick to lens!!


I would advise caution rinsing with warm water, it can react with coating to form haze.

get chamois from Poundland, 16 squares sewn together for £1, unpick the stitches and you get 16x lens cleaning cloths


PostPosted: Fri Aug 31, 2012 4:54 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
Gonna practice these methods next time I spot some fungus. Cool


PostPosted: Sat Sep 01, 2012 12:51 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
This lens might be a bargain at 43 Euros. If you set out looking for a lens with a spectacular fungus infection, how long would it take and how much would you have to pay for a lens like this? This one just fell right into your lap with almost no effort Smile


PostPosted: Mon Sep 17, 2012 12:32 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
In the meanwhile I send it back (about a week ago). The seller asked for my bank account data but I didn't get any refunds yet!

Aaand now the icing on the cake: The seller is selling the same lens again. Still "without fungus"!!!!
http://cgi.ebay.de/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=160882421332

So s58y, there's your chance Very Happy

PS: I made another pic of the fungus and posted it in the gallery:
http://forum.mflenses.com/fungus-in-lens-apo-rodagon-r-75-4-on-bellows-t52772,highlight,%2Bfungus.html


PostPosted: Mon Sep 17, 2012 2:46 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
ForenSeil wrote:

...
So s58y, there's your chance Very Happy
...


I guess I'll have to pass this time -- I never buy anything from non-US ebay sites, and even on US ebay I never import anything remotely expensive into the US. Besides, my knowledge of German is embrarassingly poor, and for all I know. "ohne ... fungus ..." means "textbook fungus". Smile


PostPosted: Fri Sep 21, 2012 9:20 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
s58y wrote:
ForenSeil wrote:

...
So s58y, there's your chance Very Happy
...


I guess I'll have to pass this time -- I never buy anything from non-US ebay sites, and even on US ebay I never import anything remotely expensive into the US. Besides, my knowledge of German is embrarassingly poor, and for all I know. "ohne ... fungus ..." means "textbook fungus". Smile


Hmmm Well I'm somewhat closer to western NY than eastern. Out nearer the Niagara frontier, "ohne" is German for "without".

I'm with you though, up to a point, on the matter of purchase outreach. I pretty much limit myself to North America ex Mexico.

I'm attracted to the Canadian lenses because Canada is a wonderfully chilly country and therefore, one hopes, less friendly to fungus growth. I always have concern about the FL and LA glass, for example. It's like a year-round fungus incubator down there!! That's simply not a problem or concern in, for example, Manitoba.


PostPosted: Fri Sep 21, 2012 9:58 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
LA is a former desert. It's lowest humidity climate imaginable.


PostPosted: Fri Sep 21, 2012 11:48 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
fermy wrote:
LA is a former desert. It's lowest humidity climate imaginable.


I assume that's Louisiana, not Los Angeles.


PostPosted: Fri Sep 21, 2012 11:53 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
Wow, I've purchased lenses advertised as clean that had fungus before, but nothing as obvious or defined as yours. This has to be a new record!


PostPosted: Sat Sep 22, 2012 1:59 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
s58y wrote:
fermy wrote:
LA is a former desert. It's lowest humidity climate imaginable.


I assume that's Louisiana, not Los Angeles.


My sister lives in Pasadena, CA. To her, also, LA would mean Los Angeles . . . even within the context of my earlier post and being used alongside FL, for Florida, and my reference to fungus. Anything east of the San Gabriel Mountains lies outside my sister's frame of reference. The Pacific Ocean defines the western border of that same frame.

So even though I laughed my butt off I understand that for some folks, regardless any and all evidence to the contrary, "LA" means Los Angeles.

But for the record, yes of course you are correct that when I typed "LA" I was using the USPS designation for Louisiana, just as my use of "FL" reflected the USPS designation for Florida. Both of those states strike me as fungus havens when compared with, for example, Manitoba's much colder climate. It's again only just MHO, but to me Canadian lenses in general are interesting and attractive for that reason, other things being equal. When I come across a southern lens being offered for sale, it does give pause . . . . especially if it's an oldie that appears to have been stored in a leather lens case, aka, fungal incubator!!


PostPosted: Sat Sep 22, 2012 2:10 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
Having lived for 5 years in Pasadena, CA, I am just like your sister Laughing


PostPosted: Sat Sep 22, 2012 3:04 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
I'll have to admit that when I saw "LA", I first thought of "Los Angeles" (but not for long).

For the record, I used to live in CA until 1956, and spent months in the L.A. area from 1955-1957. I've never even been to LA (or TX, OK, AR, MS, AL, AK, and HI).


PostPosted: Sat Sep 22, 2012 9:26 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
fermy wrote:
Having lived for 5 years in Pasadena, CA, I am just like your sister Laughing
steady on Wink


PostPosted: Sat Sep 22, 2012 12:43 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
maxcastle wrote:
fermy wrote:
Having lived for 5 years in Pasadena, CA, I am just like your sister Laughing
steady on Wink

Quite.
Mind you, perhaps the bracing ocean air has something to do with it.


PostPosted: Sat Sep 22, 2012 1:58 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
At the risk of ending too abruptly this thread's excursion into geographic orgasmia, I'd like to return (at least temporarily) to the OP's original, though perhaps less titillating, topic: fungus in lenses.

I am curious to know the opinions of other posters regarding the contribution, if any, to fungal enhancement of lens storage within leather cases. Goodness knows, after a period of time, the cases themselves smell like fungal factories. It is easy, perhaps too easy, to jump to conclusions based alone upon that odor.

But manual focus lenses, speaking in general, oftentimes are older. And years ago leather lens cases were ubiquitous. So what are we fungus-phobes to do with those old cases? Do we cast them unceremoniously into the trash? Is there, instead, a way to rehabilitate those old lens cases, a way to kill whatever fungus they might harbor, a process which will make them safe?

If it's not already clear, I rather fancy the old leather lens cases. They were at one time, perhaps at moment of original sale, part of our lenses, at least in a manner of speaking. They were part of the original "package". I think they are quite neat.


PostPosted: Sat Sep 22, 2012 3:30 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
Leather, cloth, cushion etc. are not easy to clean well enough to kill the fungus, so you can forget decontaminating lens cases unless you're throwing them into a jar with holes in top into a pressure cooker for 30min etc.. That might of course destroy some cases.
(Pressure cookers a somewhat more effective and if you do it correctly less harmful for the cases than a oven)

You can put a air dehumidifier into your cabinet to prevent any fungus groth. But that won't kill any fungus.

I never store lenses in old lens cases until I'm selling them. My lenses are living in cabinet and the old lens cases in a box.
Not only because of fungus/risk of infection and smell but because I also simply don't like to use them.

Anyway I won't care much about lens cases. Lens cases can be easily replaced and very most people don't care much about if it's original or not.


PostPosted: Sat Sep 22, 2012 4:51 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
I'm wondering about using a UV lamp to kill fungus. UV is used to kill bacteria in water treatment, and although fungus is different, I wonder if it wouldn't like UV. Even the cases interior could be treated.


PostPosted: Sat Sep 22, 2012 6:17 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
woodrim wrote:
I'm wondering about using a UV lamp to kill fungus. UV is used to kill bacteria in water treatment, and although fungus is different, I wonder if it wouldn't like UV. Even the cases interior could be treated.


It's my opinion exposure to ultraviolet is a splendid potential remedy.

It's important never to look at a UV light, though . . one powerful enough to kill fungus, I mean. It can damage human eyes.

As an extension of the ultraviolet idea, I think exposure of the leather cases to high energy radiation might also work. I'm thinking of the kind of devices used to irradiate food in order to kill pathogens.

I have an old Kodak Aero Ektar 24" (610mm) f/6.0 telephoto lens that might work. The gamma rays emitted by the large thorium rear element of that lens should kill off some fungus. I knew if I waited long enough I'd find a use for this lens.

I wonder if there exist services for this purpose. You would send in your leather cases, they would irradiate them and return them sans fungus, then you store the cases in a manner which excludes moisture . . . . like you should have done in the first place! Smile

If I started such a business I would name it: "Second Chance Irradiation" Smile

Last edited by guardian on Sat Sep 22, 2012 6:33 pm; edited 1 time in total


PostPosted: Sat Sep 22, 2012 6:20 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
Good solution is only story it properly, even if cleaned, killed etc fungus will come back in humid , dark environment. Proper storage stop growing all cleaning risk lens safety and coating.


PostPosted: Sat Sep 22, 2012 6:40 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
Attila wrote:
Good solution is only story it properly, even if cleaned, killed etc fungus will come back in humid , dark environment. Proper storage stop growing all cleaning risk lens safety and coating.


Agreed good comment. No question proper follow-on care is pivotal. Otherwise fungus returns.

Most of my leather was not cared for properly early on. But if I could just kill the fungus one time, then going forward I would be much more careful.
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