Fixing a SAMYANG 500mm f8 mirror lens with plenty of fungus

cooltouch · Joined: 15 Jan 2009 Posts: 9096 Location: Houston, Texas

A popular cement for gluing together lens elements is one called Canadian balsam. I've never used it. It is popular because of its transparency. But for the type of mirror design where you're re-attaching a secondary element's rear surface to the front corrector plate, it doesn't matter whether the cement is clear or opaque. So other substances will work, such as cyanoacrylate (super glue) or that adhesive you can buy at auto parts stores for reattaching your car's rear view mirror to the windscreen. Super glue is clear anyway, and I think the rear view mirror adhesive is also, but its degree of clarity won't matter with some mirror designs. The clarity will matter if the mirror's construction is like that of the Tamron 55B, where the front surface of the secondary element is glued to the corrector plate, with the rear surface being the silvered surface. The front surface/corrector plate joint is in the light path with that type of design.