Any novel ways to get rid of a lens with haze or fungus?

What is your experience with getting rid of lens that develops a haze or fungus problem while in your care? I'm not interested in guidance on cleaning or repairing a lens. I'm also not interested in how to sell to ebays, KEH, or some other used camera store. That's a lot of time and energy for little return in this situation, in my opinion.

How do you get rid of the lens itself, besides the above, throwing it away, or giving it to a thrift store? What are the alternatives? Do people even want a lens with this type of problem? Is there a place where a lens can be donated so folks can learn to repair?

The lens that made me ask this is, unfortunatelly, a pentax 6x7 SMC 105mm f2.4. Looked clean on the ebays, looked great when it arrived. A few weeks later a haze developed between the glued lenses in the rear element. There's no chance of a return/exchange, so I have to take this as a lesson on buying stuff off ebays. Other lenses that I bought from a legit store at the same time are fine, so it's this lens. I want to move it on to a new home before it spreads to my other lenses and I am curious about choices other than sale.
I guess I'm looking for a way to move this lens along and convince myself that it's OK. And, please, don't just say "Send it to me for free."

Send it to someone else for free. That's the answer your question is asking for. If you're not going to fix it, get it fixed, clean it, sell it, or give it to a thrift store, then throw it away or send it to someone for free.

Lots of people would want it.

Direct message me if you like. I've been interested in this lens for some time.

To me, since it was brought up in a photography forum if you really don't want it and are not overly concerned about recouping expenses
"free for cost of shipping." is about the best thing you can do.

Leave it on top of a book in the photography section of the local public library.

It'll be treasure to someone, or the librarian will toss it.

Either way a win if it's trash to you.

Soak it in citric acid and alcohol, see what happens

Use the lens as a paper weight.

@RandomViews I'm not sure what you're trying to figure out. You have a lens that suffers from haze, which appears to be a condition it developed after you purchased it. Hence, it's apparently something that evaporated and condensed back onto a lens element; this could be moisture/water or it might be a volatile compound in e.g. the helicoid grease. Either way, it doesn't sound like fungus and hence it's not something that might spread to other equipment. Besides, fungal spores are everywhere on the planet, so it doesn't really matter much whether you would have a fungus affected lens in your home to begin with. If it's condensation on a lens element, it does pose questions about storage conditions this lens was subject to. Avoid high heat, and, obviously, high humidity.

As to the question - again, I'm not sure where you want to go with this. You mention you want to get rid of the lens. But at the same time, you seem to limit your options from the get-go.

You could sell it, but you don't want to sell it via eBay, KH or second hand stores. Would selling it to a private individual be OK? Evidently, the haze will affect the price point. Is the asking price something you'd like to have more information on? You could offer the lens for sale here on Photrio or another forum. With an honest description, clear photos and a reasonable asking price, it might move fairly quickly.

You could indeed give the lens away, but you don't want people to ask for it (which puzzles me, frankly), and you already know you can drop it off at a drift store etc. So those options are there for you as well. Expanding on the "sell it on a forum", you could of course set the asking price to zero and basically give it away. We have an arrangement for this on Photrio that doesn't take a paid subscriber account.

RandomViews said:

I guess I'm looking for a way to move this lens along and convince myself that it's OK.

Click to expand...

I suspect the latter is the critical bit. I can't put your mind at ease. The question for you is whether you can forget about whatever you paid for the lens and just dump it in whatever way you see fit. It's logical that you regret its purchase given the limited/zero utility you get from it. At the same time, given the limited utility, there are only two ways to deal with the situation:
1: Fix the lens so you can use it
2: Get rid of it
For 1, you could disassemble it and try to clean the lens elements. Plenty of guides, videos etc. on how to approach this. It may or may not work. It's worth a shot I think if you consider the real value of the lens nearly zero, currently.
As to (2): if the lens has no utility to you right now, why would you limit yourself in the ways to get rid of it? If it's burning a hole in your hands, just toss it. If you want to make someone else happy with it, give it away for free. If you want to recoup some of the cost, sell it on and see how much you can get for it. Use whatever platform that will generate the best result.

To me, this is a "Zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance" situation: it's not about the motorcycle. This is not about the lens. This is about letting go in the face of attachment. That's not a technical or a commercial question; it's a psychological one.

To re-iterate: this lens will not contaminate others. So whatever you end up doing, there's no rush. Take your time and feel around what works best for you.

Good luck!

Thank you to everyone that replied here. Especially you, koraks. You took time to spell out some interesting observations that I'll think about for some time. For now, I'll put this lens on the shelf.

Thanks again!

Thanks for your kind response @RandomViews and my apologies if my post might have come across as somewhat skeptical/critical. I understand the situation and I guess we all run into something like this sooner or later. Sorry about the disappointing purchase and I hope something good comes of it somehow!

Thanks, koraks! I appreciated your thought provoking post, so no need to apologize.

Have you shot some pictures with the lens? Maybe it has an interesting look with the haze issue. Some people have gone to great lengths the "fuzz up" or otherwise degrade the resolution of a normally sharp lens...

It might make a good loupe - even with the haze.

High school physics class.

The 105 mm f2.4 Pentax 67 lens is a quite valuable lens. As far as I know, there may be some repair companies who are able to open the cemented elements, clean the elements and re-cement them. Of course, this will cost some money. But the lens may be worth to invest it.