Should I be worried about these marks?

[Carriage]

Sorry for the bad pic, but should I be worried about the three black dots in the upper left quadrant? They don't look like the pictures I've seen of fungus but they don't really look like dust. I don't think I've noticed anything in any photos I've taken. Any help would be appreciated.

 

[IloveTLRs]

Maybe it's the photo, but that lens looks rather hazy .. personally I would be more worried about that. I don't think the other marks would make much difference.

Is that a Super Takumar?

 

[Carriage]

I think the haziness may be the photo. Its an smc takumar.

 

[randyB]

I think the haziness may be the photo. Its an smc takumar.

Even high quality lenses can get a film on the insides of the elements, a good cleaning should take care of the black dots and greatly improve image clarity.

 

[Carriage]

So should I be particularly concerned about fungus eating away at the glass, is it just dirty or is it too hard to tell?

 

[Kirks518]

Looks to me like you also have some separation going on in there as well, but I don't see any fungus. Between the separation and the haze, if you're not seeing any detrimental effects in your images, I'd leave well enough alone, unless it's an easy-access lens. Which Tak is it? The black dots may be some dried oil that collected some dust (which turned it blackish)?

 

[PentaxBronica]

Pentax coatings seem pretty resistant to fungus, certainly I've managed to clean a few later lenses and there's no visible trace left. One of them had the front element half-covered in the stuff, it hasn't reappeared since.

 

[jjphoto]

The resolution of that image is too poor to tell anything other than that there is significant haze which will certainly affect image quality, mainly by reducing contrast.

Whether there is or isn't fungus is impossible to tell from that image. Sometimes fungus is too fine to see without careful examination with a loupe/magnifier (or use another 50mm lens as a magnifier).

Here's a picture of a lens with lots of fungus in it:

And here's a close up of the same lens that actually shows the fungus:

 

[RobC]

those 3 dark spots may be the only 3 spots of the lens which are clear from the look of the photo.

They could just be grease spots. Is the lens as clean as you can make it?