I'm not sure if this belongs in the "Camera Repairs & Modification" or "Ethics" subforum
Today I was poking around the scholarly corners of the internet looking for any interesting lessons on preventing fungal growth in camera lenses, and stumbled across a small research paper on just that topic by the U.S. Army. They demonstrated excellent success! Apparently, they've been sitting on this knowledge since 1946, but I've never seen anyone mention it in a camera forum.
So, tip of the day: coating the inside of your telescopes, binoculars, and camera lenses with radium is apparently an extremely effective and long-lasting fungal prevention method!
In addition to great anti-fungal properties, they point out that radium "is relatively easy and safe to handle," and, since it lasts for literally millennia, you can transfer it to new lenses when retiring your old ones! I wonder if the binoculars also keep your eyes warm on cold winter nights?
They decided against trying uranium, after finding it less effective against fungal growth. It's that tasty, highly-absorbable alpha radiation that fungus craves, and uranium just doesn't have enough punch.
They did note that Panatomic X film showed a "halo" when stored in the vicinity of such a lens for too long, but claimed the photographs were unaffected if shot in a reasonable amount of time. I guess the author presumes no real photographer would leave film in a camera for 30 days... and that's why this is in the "ethics" subforum!
The paper is "Preventing the Fungus Fouling of Optical Instruments." by Richard E. Vicklund (https://doi.org/10.1021/ie50440a011). I'm afraid it's not freely available, but I'm sure your local SCIence-HUB would let you...RUmmage around in their library, and maybe find a free copy? (<-- this is also why it's in the "ethics" subforum)
Today I was poking around the scholarly corners of the internet looking for any interesting lessons on preventing fungal growth in camera lenses, and stumbled across a small research paper on just that topic by the U.S. Army. They demonstrated excellent success! Apparently, they've been sitting on this knowledge since 1946, but I've never seen anyone mention it in a camera forum.
So, tip of the day: coating the inside of your telescopes, binoculars, and camera lenses with radium is apparently an extremely effective and long-lasting fungal prevention method!
In addition to great anti-fungal properties, they point out that radium "is relatively easy and safe to handle," and, since it lasts for literally millennia, you can transfer it to new lenses when retiring your old ones! I wonder if the binoculars also keep your eyes warm on cold winter nights?
They decided against trying uranium, after finding it less effective against fungal growth. It's that tasty, highly-absorbable alpha radiation that fungus craves, and uranium just doesn't have enough punch.
They did note that Panatomic X film showed a "halo" when stored in the vicinity of such a lens for too long, but claimed the photographs were unaffected if shot in a reasonable amount of time. I guess the author presumes no real photographer would leave film in a camera for 30 days... and that's why this is in the "ethics" subforum!
The paper is "Preventing the Fungus Fouling of Optical Instruments." by Richard E. Vicklund (https://doi.org/10.1021/ie50440a011). I'm afraid it's not freely available, but I'm sure your local SCIence-HUB would let you...RUmmage around in their library, and maybe find a free copy? (<-- this is also why it's in the "ethics" subforum)