Tonight's Challenge: Save a Lens!

[480sparky]

Stopped by the local brick-n-mortar toy store today just to see what was up. They tossed me this:

Said someone left it (Nikkor 200/4 Ai) under the seat of their truck for 3 years. Brought it in to see if it was worth fixing, and Nikon said how much it would be. He said, "Forget it!" and wanted to toss it. So they kept it and waited for me to darken their door.

What the heck, I thought! It's a free lens! It's at least worth trying to clean it up. These old lenses aren't that difficult to disassemble. So tonight, after supper, I cracked out the tools. Other than the dust on the front element, there was a lot of fungus on the rear of the second element.

A couple rounds of scrubbing cleaned that up nicely!

But more trouble lurked further in.

But still within reach of going in through where the aperture blades are. Several q-tips and some cleaning fluid later;

Reassemble, and I get a rather nice 200mm Ai out of the deal.

Yes, there's still some fungus further in, but not on the glass. And there is a slight amount between the front two elements. But heck. It's free!

I'll need to get a spanner wrench to take off the retaining ring between the front two elements, but that can easily wait for now. Now to take 'er out and shoot 'er (as opposed to it's fate as of this morning, and that was landfill fodder!)



I love saving old glass!

 

[shutterfinger]

http://www.ebay.com/itm/NEEWER-Pro-...enning-Tool-/311289497039?hash=item487a4cc5cf
http://www.skgrimes.com/products/spanner-wrench round point version
90% Isopropyl Alcohol for cleaning.

 

[Newt_on_Swings]

Careful about the fungus contaminating your bodies and other lenses. I would store it away from your collection. Take your time with the spanner, a slip can possibly gouge the lens.

 

[pdeeh]

Careful about the fungus contaminating your bodies and other lenses. I would store it away from your collection.

I acquired quite a few fungusy lenses over the years, and I did a lot of research on this.

So far as I can tell, storing one fungused lens next to another without will NOT "infect" the other.

The issue with fungus seems to be that fungal spores are so tiny that they cannot be kept out of lens assemblies, and even those fresh from the factory will contain spores.

The spores will only grow and fruit under suitable conditions - these seem to be darkness (absence of UV), damp and warmth. Leave an apparently uninfected lens in these conditions for long enough and you'll eventually see the marks of growth.

Lenses with apparent fungal growth seem to be able to be "uninfected" by dint of exposure to UV - the sun is good enough, or presumably a plate burner or similar will do the job too.

This won't of course remove the visual evidence of the fungus, which will require disassembly and cleaning, although sometimes the secretions of the fungus will have etched the coating and/or the glass and be permanent.

The takeaway is that storage is what matters.

What I've read and researched convinces me, but it's been from a dozen or more sources that I haven't got records of, so of course it may be simply I'm simply repeating internet bollocks. If someone has got clear verifiable scientific evidence to support (OR refute) this, it'd be interesting to hear.

 

[Nodda Duma]

Yes stick it in the sun to kill the fungus. Better yet a high power UV lamp but protect your eyes

 

[M Carter]

Well done - I love this as well, hate to see things hit the landfill.

I've got a couple HMI and HID lights with stern UV warnings on the globes (575s and 150s)… thinking of laying all my lenses out for a "light bath". Though I've never had fungus trouble.

I did score a great deal, an RB 65 and 127 for $100 from an estate-sale shopper. The 65 had the first fungus I've ever seen. Cleaned out easily with no etching after pulling the element groups - whew. Shutters and irises are fine, lenses are clean (some paint wear at the PC terminals which tells me these were likely pro or advanced amateur owned).

I do have a $15 Amazon/ebay spanner with both flat and pointed ends. It's worked just fine - doesn't get used much, good value for my needs.

 

[Sirius Glass]

Careful about the fungus contaminating your bodies and other lenses. I would store it away from your collection. Take your time with the spanner, a slip can possibly gouge the lens.

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