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I have a Mamiya 250mm lens, 127mm and 50mm lenses. All 3 have fungus/spores inside the elements. Can anyone tell me how to take these lenses apart and clean please? What should I use to clean them?
Thanks.
We've been down this road before and after almost 200 responses, the asker still was not satisfied. Take it to a camera shop or send it to the manufacturer.We've been down this road before and after almost 200 responses, the asker still was not satisfied. Take it to a camera shop or send it to the manufacturer.
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A camera specialist may help but they should alwys be kept dry and at room temp never warm and humid. Silicate gel in your storage bag also prevents this from happening.
This is not a do-it-yourself job. Lenses are put together with exacting tolerances and you will screw up all kinds of things unless you are a trained technician. If the lens has fungus it just indicates it's got some age and well overdue for a repair shop servicing. Remember to un-**** a lens if you don't plan to use it for a while.
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The dreaded fungus is something that bothers every photographer. I have suffered from it before, and every coming rain gives me constant worries of possibilities of fungus growing somewhere inside my lenses. I am more vulnerable to fungus than most people because I don't think much about taking out the camera to get some good shots even if it has been raining a bit, and have often got plenty of rain drops on the camera and the lens therefore. Where does fungus comefrom?
Fungus spores are everywhere and germinate under suitable environmental conditions:
Relative humidity of at least 70% (more than 3 days)
No or little airflow
Darkness
Nutrients (textile lint, traces of grease, varnish, dust and dirt)
Temperatures between 10 and 35°C
How can fungus be avoided?
Silica Gel. This seems to be the easiest and common way to avoid fungus, but I haven't had much success with it either.
. Store the lenses in an airtight container. Again, you may need to put a few Silica Gels in the container. Putting too many of Silica Gel is known to dry out the lubricants in the lens, so you need to use your discretion with quantity of the Silica Gel.
. A popular idea is to install a low wattage tungsten bulb in the closet where you keep the lens. This will keep the place warm and dry, preventing the fungus. This is known to work.
. Store the lens in transparent container. Fungus is known to fear light and love darkness. Also make sure that the lenses are not stored in leather bags, as leather can easily attract fungus.
And finally, of course, the best way to prevent fungus is to get out and shoot more often.
After the work is done, immediately clean the instruments. If possible, you can use a fan or blower to facilitate evaporation of surface moisture.
The fog is most likely lens fungus and is very difficult to remove, so is also expensive to remove. It's not suited to a DIY repair without special tools and equipment. Spare parts for your lens are practically unobtainable, and camera and lens repairers are much rarer these days.
With all due respect, your lens is nearly worthless even if in perfect condition, so your lens is totally beyond economic repair.
You have the following options (in no particular order):-
1. Discard your lens and replace it. You can find replacements very cheaply online, although you may need to be a little flexible as to what's acceptable. Tamron Adaptall-2 lenses can be very good and you can switch the lens mounting to fit your Minolta MD. Lesser-regarded brands such as Sunagor were also in reality very good lenses and their 80-250mm has a very similar effective focal length to your Vivitar. Hoya were also a less-regarded brand despite actually making many of the lenses for "better" brands (including Vivitar, from time to time). You can also find replacement lenses for free either by asking around friends and relatives or by looking/asking on FreeCycle and Gumtree, although it is harder to find them for Minolta than say, Canon, Nikon or Pentax. On the flip side I have had many complete and perfectly functional 35mm SLR outfits from FreeCycle, so if the lens comes with a body attached who's complaining?
2. If the fogging does not affect your images then live with it. if it does reduce contrast, then consider scanning your negatives/transparencies and using free software to repair the images.
3. Leave your lens out in daylight with the lens cap removed. Some of the common types of lens fungus are destroyed by UV light. It won't physically remove the fungus, nor will it repair any damage to the optical elements inside your lens, but it can recover an otherwise unusable lens. If the fogging inside is due to moisture instead, then the fogging may dissipate if the lens is left in a warm and sunny location which is well ventilated. Marks may remain, but they'll rarely affect image quality.
Well, that's a great lens and most definitely worth the cleaning/service. I don't know where in the world you are but fungus growing inside a lens is only heard of in high humidity environments and can happen fairly quickly. Are you sure this is a fungus on the inside and not just a clouded smear on the front element? If the lens is having a problem then the camera won't be to far behind. To answer your question more directly "what should I do" my suggestion is to send the lens to a authorized Tamron service/repair center/depot for cleaning. After which get a few of those little moisture absorbing packets and place them in with your photo gear to help reduce the moisture.
Any way you want. The problem with fungus is that it etches the glass, which then has to be replaced. Unless you can find a stockpile of Contax 50mm f/1.7 Planar T* lenses for a replacement part, you'll have to buy another lens.
Let alone the recalibrating after replacing the lens element.
Hello. Sadly, the answer is no. You must have the lens repaired by a tech. If the fungus is on the front lens element, trying to remove the lens for cleaning will invite disaster in short order. There are hidden set-screws, grease, precise distances, and sometimes timing positions involved. If the fungus is severe enough, the actual glass element will have to be replaced because fungus can etch itself into the surface! The key to preventing fungus is to NOT store the camera/lenses in a cool, dark, place like a closet or drawer. If you do need to store the system for a longer period, remove all batteries, use a desiccant(the little packet that says DO NOT EAT) which absorbs moisture, and then close up everything in a sealed bag. This keeps any extra moisture from entering the sealed environment of the bag while the desiccant keeps the interior extremely dry.---Hope this helps!---Rick
if it's mild then it won't have any appreciable effect on your photographs, so leave it until it's worse. The fungus can be slowed or killed by sunlight or by exposing the lens element to ultra violet light.
If it's really bad then you have to decide whether it's worth a professional strip down and clean. You'd have realistic two choices: to remove the fungus and replace all lubricants and canada balsam lens cement with modern antifungal equivalents but leave the damaged lens coatings as they are or to do the same and also have affected lens groups replaced with new ones or have the old ones re-coated. The first option is expensive, the second option is very expensive.
This is actually a very common situation for older lenses. You should take the lens to a trained technician and have them clean the inner elements of the lens. Often times they can, if the fungus isn't too bad. In extreme situations, they will need to replace the element itself.
Lens fungus is really common and it's not cost effective to repair. Even if the fungus is removed then the multicoatings are permanently damaged.
The good news is that until the fungus becomes pretty severe the image quality doesn't suffer much as most photos use the lens stopped down to some extent and this means that if the centre of the lens is clear then there's nothing to block the light paths.
Unfortunately it does tend to spread, so keep affected lenses in a separate camera bag to the rest and if you can afford to do so then throw them away and replace your camera bag as it will be loaded with microscopic spores waiting to attack more lenses. Making sure that your camera and lenses are completely dry and free of condensation before storing them until next used will prevent reoccurence.
We've been down this road before and after almost 200 responses, the asker still was not satisfied. Take it to a camera shop or send it to the manufacturer.
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