> > From: Chan Yong Wei <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Date: 2005/05/03 Tue AM 10:43:09 GMT > To: [email protected] > Subject: Re: old lenses > > As far as I understand the spores in question are all around us and > part of the air that we breathe. They're as common as dust. So the > idea is to not give these spores any reason to alight on the lens > element and start developing into fungus; hence the usage of a dry > cabinet, etc.
They are there for sure. The only exceptions would those sealed optics (like Leica binoculars) that have normal air replaced with clean, dry nitrogen. It's the environmental conditions that cause the spores to start growing. > > Disclaimer: this is just my 2-cents of layman's understanding. Would > welcome anyone butting in to correct me. > > YW > > On 5/3/05, David Oswald <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > It does sound like the spider-web looking marks are probably fungus. > > Whether or not this can be cleaned depends on how bad it is. At worst, > > it can actually etch the optics in an irreversable way. If that's > > happened, some of the optics would have to be replaced, and if the lens > > is long out of production, you're not going to find replacement glass. > > > > However, if the fungus hasn't had time to do its evil work on the glass, > > it may be cleanable. > > > > I don't know exactly how lens fungus spreads, but I'm very paranoid > > about it, and the one time I bought a lens on eBay that appeared to have > > fungus, I immediately quaranteened it, keeping it far away from my other > > camera equipment. Eventually I was able to work it out with the seller, > > and I sent it back to him. I didn't even want to mount it on my camera. > > Fungus spreads with spores, right? That being the case, it can spread > > to other lenses stored nearby (that's 100% pure theory; I'm not sure at > > all). > > > > > > Ian Lind wrote: > > > I came across several old Pentax lenses which have probably been in > > > storage for at least 20 years. > > > Nothing fancy. There's an 85 mm, a 35 mm, and a standard 50 mm. > > > > > > They aren't beat up, but when I hold them up and look through them, > > > there appears to be fine bits of dust on inside surfaces, and other very > > > fine "stuff" that almost looks like mini-spider webs. > > > > > > Is there any way to do interior cleaning of such lenses or should I just > > > dump them? > > > > > > If it's pretty hopeless, I'll offer them to someone who might want to > > > experiment... > > > > > > > > > ----------------------------------------- Email sent from www.ntlworld.com virus-checked using mcAfee(R) Software visit www.ntlworld.com/security for more information
