Haze Fungus

[Marvin]

How much does haze or fungus affect a lens. Does it affect at small apertures or large or both? There seems to be a lot of RB lenses that are advertised with this or separation of elements. These are advertised at bargain prices just wonder if they would be worth looking at.

 

[E. von Hoegh]

The effects will be anything from unnoticeable to rendering the lens useless, depending upon the degree of haze, separation, or fungus. Haze and (if not far advanced) fungus are simple cleaning jobs. Separation is more difficult and there fore more expensive to cure.

 

[naeroscatu]

Unless you plan to service the lens yourself it won't be a bargain to buy a lens with fungus and pay for a CLA.
Give it time and fungus can contaminate nearby equipment, why would you take such chance? Think how fungus got on the lens in the first place (spores).

 

[Tom1956]

If you can get them for 25 bucks, buy them. Then open them up and get to work.

 

[Dr Croubie]

I've got no problem with a bit of fungus, depending on where it is.
On my Sonnar 180/2.8 (6x6) and my Cyclop 85/1.5 (135),they've both got tiny little strands of fungus around the edge of the rear of the first element (maybe 10% of the radius in from the edge).
a) it's dead (just put it in the sun for a few days should kill anything), b) it's generally easy to clean off (lenspen ftw), plus most front elements come off easily, and c) even if you can't clean it all off, they're both mildly-long lenses so the edge of the front element doesn't do much to the picture, especially if you stop down a bit (or put a step-down-ring on the front element as a waterhouse stop as I do for the Cyclop), if it does anything the fungus might make the bokeh a tiny bit softer.
On wide-angle lenses, especially on the rear element, forget about it, that'll more than likely show up on the photos. I've got a 50mm 6x6 Flektogon, the rear element got etched from the fungus a bit, it's a nice paperweight now.

Haze (if it covers the whole element) normally just reduces the contrast of the photo, easily recoverable in digital but probably not if you wet-print in colour.
Separation is going to change the formula of the lens entirely, depending on how bad it is. If you're asking here I'll presume you don't know how to fix it yourself, so either learn how or just stay away from them...

 

[clayne]

Unless you plan to service the lens yourself it won't be a bargain to buy a lens with fungus and pay for a CLA.
Give it time and fungus can contaminate nearby equipment, why would you take such chance? Think how fungus got on the lens in the first place (spores).

Completely false.

 

[Ian Grant]

You need to really see the equipment, I bought a Dagor with a 10x8 camera that ws described as having separation/fungus, it was just 60+ years of accumulated dirt due to the ways it had been cleaned, in fact the lens was in great shape and coated

How would you describe this lens which I paid £20 ($31.50) for last year:

Oh and at least 3 spiders lived inside.

Reality:

The lens elements just needed a good clean which began with a wash in warm soapy water.

Ian

 

[hdeyong]

I recently bought another OM-1 with a fifty as a backup on ebay. The lens was described as being perfect, and when it arrived, it took about 15 seconds to see that the inside of the rear element was covered in fungus. I notified the seller in a not-too-happy way, and he credited my paypal account for enough to cover the lens's value. It sat for a while, too bad, because otherwise, it really was mint.
One day, I bought a set of tiny screwdrivers and went to work. In about half an hour, the lens was apart, cleaned, back together and working perfectly.
Give it a go.

 

[Marvin]

Thanks for all the info I may try one of these since they are relatively inexpensive and would be nice to have extra lenses for the RB. I will check my old Minolta MD lenses and see if they are still OK.
Marvin

 

[Mark Feldstein]

Image quality affected by fungus or anything else growing on a lens is probably a quantitative issue. How much, what permanent damage, what f stop you're working at and the lighting all would determine the outcome in the final image.

The other issue that concerns me is how the former lens owner cared for the lens in the first place. If a little fungus/mold or mildew is all that's wrong with it, then I'd give it a maybe buy it at best and get it CLA'd. But you really don't know what all it's gotten in to and to me that's very problematic. And unless you're really good at repairing these things with the right tools, I'd save your dough.
Mark