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Does a fungus afflicted enlarger lens have any value to anyone?

Julie McLeod

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I have an El-Nikkor 1:56 80mm enlarger lens that came with my enlarger. Sadly, it has fungus that I didn't see before buying. I'm just wondering if this is the kind of thing that a handy person would be able to use for parts. If so, I'd probably offer it for the cost of shipping since I'm not going to be able to use it.
 
It might make a decent anchor for a small boat.

Put it in a plastic ziplock bag, seal the bag without expelling air, and get it out of your house.

Fungus is contagious. The spores spread through the air and will land on any lens.
It eats the magnesium fluoride coating on lens elements and excretes hydrofluoric acid, which etches glass.

- Leigh
 
I cleaned an enlarger lens of fungus once and I am not the sort of person to tackle such things. Give it a try. What's the worst that can happen?
 
Hatchetman said:
I cleaned an enlarger lens of fungus once and I am not the sort of person to tackle such things. Give it a try. What's the worst that can happen?
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It can infect every other lens you own.

Bad enough?

- Leigh
 
Depends who you want to believe. Everything you read online must be true, right?
The fungus can be killed by setting it in sunlight or by using a UV light.
If it hasn't etched the glass, you should be fine. Before I got rid of the lens I'd give it a shot.

glenbarrington.blogspot.com
 

julie

john k. mentioned one way of killing lens fungus
https://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=killing+lens+fungus&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8
mr gooooogle is a chatterbox

if you can take the lens apart ... and soak the glass bits in peroxide and water
that might be useful. with fungus it all depends on how bad it is .. sometimes fungus
etchess itself into the glass and screws it up ...
bad fungus is not good.

if the lens didn't cost much get another to use as your real-lens, and fool around trying to remedy this one
leave it in the sun, take it apart, soak and wipe it down with "stuff" see if it stays clean
keep it in a ziplock bag if you want so it doesn't cause a lens pandemic at your house !
but fiddle around with it, and see what happens and put that knowledge to use when you see
some other lens for sale you might be interested in
and print with it. screwy stuff sometimes gives a look/signature that can't be "mimic'd" by ... "other stuff" ...
i know someone ( kind of famous ) who asked a mutual friend to ask me if i knew of any wrecked lenses on my radar he could buy ....
i think sally mann is using screwy lenses too ..

your lens.. it might be fun, who knows ....

enjoy yourself, and don't let the schelprocks of the world get you down

john
 
Cold cream cleans off fungus, I've done several that have gone from totally spider-webbed to pristine. Not everything cleans up that well, depends on the quality of the coating and type of fungus but it could be a fine piece after proper cleaning.
 
Fixcinater said:
I've done several that have gone from totally spider-webbed to pristine.
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You're violating some laws of physics and chemistry here.

As I mentioned earlier, fungus excretes hydrofluoric acid, which etches glass.

If you catch it early enough you might clean it before it eats through the coating.
But those wouldn't be "totally spider-webbed".

- Leigh
 
I would clean it, try to kill the fungus, and then let it sit somewhere far away from your other lenses for a few weeks, to see if the fungus comes back. If it doesn't, then maybe you can assume it's gone and you're clear to use the lens?
 
I was also given one of these, as fungused as any lens I've ever seen, and I sold it on eBay, correctly described as "thick with fungus" for about £40
Presumably the purchaser thought it worth buying to clean, so these things do have value.
 
keenmaster486 said:
I would clean it, try to kill the fungus, and then let it sit somewhere far away from your other lenses for a few weeks, to see if the fungus comes back. If it doesn't, then maybe you can assume it's gone and you're clear to use the lens?
Click to expand...
or just ditch it
 
Thanks, everyone. This is helpful information to have. In the meantime, an APUG member has contacted me to say they would like to have a go with it.
 
Do you have a link concerning fungus excreting hydtofluoric acid from a biological website rather than a website of photographic old wives' tales. It seems highly improbàble.
 
Fungal spores are ubiquitous but not all lens fungi etch lenses. There are probably millions of spores in the room you're in right now, so its fairly futile to try and keep them out. If they don't have the proper environment in which to grow, they will remain dormant and won't threaten lenses, if they are even of the etching type. Keep lenses dry and fungus won't grow, unless maybe they were already between elements when they cemented. I'm not sure how possible it is to control humidity between elements.
 
Leigh B said:
Fungus is contagious. The spores spread through the air and will land on any lens.
It eats the magnesium fluoride coating on lens elements and excretes hydrofluoric acid, which etches glass.
Click to expand...

Ever thought where these spores come from?
We live in a world full of spores. Not in a artificial habitat.
 
It's the effing space aliens... friggin' EXTRATERRESTRIALS!! They're trying to destroy our telescopes so we can't see their invasion!! SUMBEECHES!!!!!!!
 
+1 Once it's etched it's done. It looks like a tunnel as the fungi consume the balsam and glass. A lot of time what looks like fungi is really dirt on the outside of the lens.

This is what happens in humid, damp, dark, places.

You may still get a halfway decent image, but it will soft, low contrast. Heck maybe this is the new "Holga Enlarging Lens"

Egon Spengler from Ghostbusters
 
Fungus wipes off with just about any simple cleaning solution. However, in many cases there is a defect where the body of the fungus had been attached to the lens surface. The only way to know is to wipe off the fungus and inspect the glass.

 
Looks like someone took it off her hands. #13
 
Julie McLeod said:
Yes, that's right. I sent it to another member who wanted to have a go with it.
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Yes and sorry. I need to review all posts before asking the question. I remain curious about what success that member had with the lens however, if he/she would care to share it with us

pentaxuser
 
Just out of curiosity, what's the point of coatings on enlarger lenses? On a taking lens, I can understand due to lens flare and all of that fun stuff. But on an enlarging lens (outside of macrophotography, in which case it becomes a taking lens) , you're really only using it in a dark room with a single, on axis light source, so I wouldn't imagine flare would be much of an issue. Maybe it has something to do with color correction. But it would seem to me, based on the nothingness that I know, that an enlarging lens with a damaged coating, but pristine glass, should work fine enough for B&W work. Obviously, if you're obsessive enough to the point where you're only using APO lenses for B&W work, then it wouldn't cut your mustard, but I would think a 7 element enlarging lens with some minor coating damage would still out perform one of the older 4 element tessar type lenses, correct?
 

EL's have coatings to improve transmission and improve contrast which are equally important as enlarging or as taking lenses.
 
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