What is this? Fungus? Have not seen this before!

cinemakinoeye

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My Canon FD 35mm f/2 lens sat dormant for a while, and when I pulled it out of the Pelican case it was in, it had new things inside.

Is this a variety of Fungus? I've not seen anything exactly like this before.

Is it time to learn how to disassemble and clean lenses?

 

OAPOli

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You are referring to the little white dots correct? Those are caused by a degradation of the anti-reflective paint used to coat the outside surface of the lens element. It's also colloquially called "Schneideritis". This doesn't affect the image in any way. One could remove the elements and re-coat them with a specialty paint.
 
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It's hard to tell exactly from the photo, but those look like water droplets which condensed in the lens as it was moved from cold to warm(er) higher more moist conditions.

The moisture can either condense as an overall fog or sometimes (rare) droplets.

Once or twice of the move from cold to warm, without slow controlled warmup, probably does not matter, but if done repeatedly, the film just builds up.

Dust or particles (this is my assessment, see below) get stuck on the inside surface thanks to the moisture - via surface tension.

I don't recall seeing white spots like these before, in my experience, which stretches back over 50+ years, but who knows.

If it is actually a fungus, it is unusual be cause fungus in lenses usually spreads out in a filmy manner over the surface.

As to "Schneideritis" I suppose it is possible, but inside the lens there is nothing white as I recall, it's black as the 'Black Hole of Calcutta" for good reason.

The only harm it can do is perhaps an unwanted reflection off a particle in an image, but it would likely be way too far out of focus to matter.

Unless you are REALLY experienced, this is NOT a DIY project.

Save yourself a LOT of grief, just send it in for service.
 

xkaes

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My vote is also for "Schneideritis" -- which doesn't just happen in Schneider lenses. I have a Fujinon lens that has it, for example. As mentioned it doesn't affect the images so fuggetaboutit.
 

Ian C

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Schneideritus, definitely.

It doesn't remotely resemble fungus.


It has no effect on the image produced by the lens.
 

koraks

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Save yourself a LOT of grief, just send it in for service.

There's no reason to send in this lens or to intervene in any sort of way. It's as the others said Schneideritis, which is basically harmless.
There doesn't have to be anything white in the lens. The light just bounces off the edges of the lens elements, which are a matte surface which will scatter light. This doesn't happen on the glued surface since the glue fills the gaps and makes an interface that doesn't scatter. A bit like your marble kitchen countertop looking more contrasty when it's wet, or why oiled wood has a richer hue.