Lens fungus:Can it be cleaned out?

[jaxshooter]

What can be done about lens fungus.I work in a projection booth part time and there are some very nice lenses that have unfortunately not been stored or cared for properly and here in Florida,fungus grows prolifically.I have also been given an Elmo 1012 XLS with a slight lens fungus problem.How can this stuff be cleaned out,or can it be done without damaging the lens?

[ekoe]

Fungus eats the glass. It causes permanent damage. If it's in the early stages, you can clean it with little noticeable damage. Sometimes it's just oil fog, which is not as unfortunate. Is the fungus foggy or is it mouldy and web-like?

[super-8-epiphany]

What can be done about lens fungus.I work in a projection booth part time and there are some very nice lenses that have unfortunately not been stored or cared for properly and here in Florida,fungus grows prolifically.I have also been given an Elmo 1012 XLS with a slight lens fungus problem.How can this stuff be cleaned out,or can it be done without damaging the lens?

I've cleaned a few cameras myself that had lens dust/fungus problem, mostly still cameras. The biggest hurdle on some, is the degree you must disassemble the camera, to gain access to clean.

I've found that those long Q-tips used for cleaning audio tape heads, work well, dipped in alcohol or a light solvent. The alcohol will evaporate- use it minimally. The Q-tip allows access into tight areas, and eliminates some disassembly time, and can be a real life-saver sometimes.

DON'T use regular Q-tips, as the cotton from those comes off and may stay on the lens- the audio Q-tips have long wooden stick handles, and were specifically made not to come apart. You can get them at any audio supply house, like Radio Shack, Rex, Circuit City, etc.

[etimh]

I have no knowledge or tips on what to actually do with the fungus on the lens, but here is an experience I recently had that is related.

I purchased a Canon 1218 off ebay last year that was fully functional but had the beginnings of some lens fungus. I took it in to my tech guy who said that he would see what he could do with it. He informed me that there were all kinds of risks involved in getting into a camera's lens system like that but I told him to go for it--if something got messed up it would be no worse than what I had when I started.

I really trust this guy and he has done some magic for me--bringing completely dead cameras back to life, etc. He wasn't sure what he could do but he said that if he could actually get to the lens he would attempt to "clean it up," whatever that entails. I was interested because this fungus thing is such a mystery and planned to grill him on the whole process.

Well, unfortunately, he could not get the camera apart to get to the lens to work on it. He supposedly tried a bunch of different things but he believes that Canon uses some kind of bonding adhesive seal or something. So my point is, that if you can get to the lens, something can probably be done. But actually getting to the crap may still be the problem.

So I've gotten this humungous thing all back and I'm going to shoot a cart through it to see what comes out. Its still running great but I wonder what the stuff on the lens is going to do to the image. If its no good then the big 1218 will unfortunately go onto the shelf for display. Its too bad but its still a beautiful camera to look at and admire. One last thing, he did warn me to try and keep it away from other clean cameras because of the possibility of fungus "migration." 8O

Tim

[ekoe]

BTW, give the most promising ones a blast of that Florida UV on a windowsill for a few days... to halt any further growth.

[Blue Audio Visual]

Fungus eats the glass.

My understanding is that it eats the coating, not the glass. If there were a glass-eating fungus out there then all human civilization is surely doomed. Although you may be able to clean it off the coating, you will always be left with the 'shadow' of the fungus where the coating has been removed, so cleaning is unlikely to improve the situation, but may stop it getting worse.

In terms of long-term useablility the thing to remember is that the fungus is generally way off the focal plane, and will be less noticeable if it is towards the edge of the lens.

[timdrage]

Although you may be able to clean it off the coating, you will always be left with the 'shadow' of the fungus where the coating has been removed, so cleaning is unlikely to improve the situation, but may stop it getting worse.

Hmm maybe for a bad case you could then somehow remove the rest of the coating!? Actually i seem to remember that they scrubbed the coating of modern lenses for Saving Private Ryan?

[Blue Audio Visual]

Hmm maybe for a bad case you could then somehow remove the rest of the coating!? Actually i seem to remember that they scrubbed the coating of modern lenses for Saving Private Ryan?

Tim - I'm not trying to be rude, but you can't ****ing remove lens coating by scrubbing it with ****ing wire wool or similar! Well, I suppose you could, but you would remove and knacker the precision-ground top surface of the glass in the process.

I'm sure Spielberg had quite a few quid to spare to pay a pro to do it if he decided to do as you suggest, rather than get his Auntie Betty to do it in-between her normal household chores for pin money.

Lens coatings are condensed onto the glass surface in a vacuum. There is a very informative and interesting video worth watching (I have posted the same info here some time ago) if you follow the link below.

YouTube Film: How camera lenses are made

Bart

[timdrage]

but you would remove and knacker the precision-ground top surface of the glass in the process.

Haha well yes, it was just a figure of speech, I don't mean they literally took a brillo pad to it... I read that they removed the coating anyway, it didn't specify how but presumably it's possible is all.

[mattias]

actually scratches on a glass surface doesn't change the optical performance that much. the "average" refraction stays the same. look at a medium grade diffusion filter and you'll see how much irregularities you can have and still get perfectly sharp images. a brillo pad may still be a bit too coarse ;-) but i'd try maybe a piece of leather or a very fine grade sandpaper.

/matt

[ekoe]

Sorry... by 'fungus eats the glass' I was referring loosely to any len surface, including it's coating. But I wouldn't expect the acids produced by fungus not to etch the glass as well, in the absence of a coating.
I read that bit too about Kaminiski literally scraping the multi-coating off the Panavision Primo for 'Saving Private Ryan' in American Cinematographer... I didn't believe it then, but maybe he did. There's a lot of lens flare in that beach footage, which could be acheived by scratches on the front element.

[Bart Sanders]

Hi!

The cure is using hydrogen-peroxide (in dutch "waterstof-peroxide") which is often used in dental or mouth care. It's a harmless fluid. It does destroy the fungus however.

The problem is how to get to the glass surface. This usually means a disassembly of the lens. The fungus will leave traces of destroyed coating, but if it is just a first sign of fungus, you will not or barely note an error in the resulting image of the lens-system.

I cleaned the lens of a Czech Flexarette 6x6 still camera in this way and it makes terrific pictures again. But, then again, these Meopta lenses are disassembled quite easily and put together again.

[metaT8]

How does fungus start in the first place?

m

[mattias]

it's called sex. fungus somewhere releases spores, which go airborne and land on your lens, then grow. the probable prerequisites are moisture and darkness, which is why fungus likes basements.

/matt