Anyone cleaned fungus from a lens interior?

Gogl · 6 Mar 2014 at 15:36

I have an old Nikon Series E 75-150mm lens, but it has fungus growing inside it. It's value is unlikely to be worth the cost of getting it cleaned professionally so failing a reasonable quote I was thinking of seeing what I could do about it myself. I just wondered if anyone here had had a go at cleaning the internal elements of a lens? I don't really want to destroy it completely but I'd rather not just leave it to rot and am after all these years, still quite eager to deconstruct things beyond my capability to reconstruct.

a1ex2001 · 6 Mar 2014 at 15:55

go slow take pictures and make notes, store the screws etc sensible and you should get away with it. Check online for guides! If it's old and of little value there is no harm in trying especially if the alternative is a box or the bin.

Gogl · 6 Mar 2014 at 16:04

Yeah, I'll search around, I've seen some things about repairing lenses with different ailments but I've not yet read much that seemed in any way authoritative about the dos and don'ts of cleaning lens elements.

Andy90 · 6 Mar 2014 at 19:00

Gogl said:
I have an old Nikon Series E 75-150mm lens, but it has fungus growing inside it. It's value is unlikely to be worth the cost of getting it cleaned professionally so failing a reasonable quote I was thinking of seeing what I could do about it myself. I just wondered if anyone here had had a go at cleaning the internal elements of a lens? I don't really want to destroy it completely but I'd rather not just leave it to rot and am after all these years, still quite eager to deconstruct things beyond my capability to reconstruct.

Found this webpage a few years ago. It is still working - not sure if all the pages it links to are still working (and some are in a language other than English) - tons of information about Photographic DIY and modifications, its a bit like a tinkerers Aladdins cave

He's not a bad photographer either.

http://www.4photos.de/index-en.html

There is also Matts Classic Camera Repairs and Tips - he does mention lens element cleaning a bit down the page.

http://mattsclassiccameras.com/repairtips.html

Gogl · 6 Mar 2014 at 19:13

Excellent! Thanks very much

da_ging · 15 Mar 2014 at 00:22

Here's one of my old 80-200 F/4 lenses in bits, pretty easy to take apart so long as you don't have any issues with stuck screws and you take note of where everything is and the orientation of each bit before you remove it.

and unless the fungus is in the middle of the lens you can usually get to it with only a partial disassembly which makes things easier.

Gogl · 15 Mar 2014 at 02:08

Ahh very nice, thanks for the upload, it's good to see and doesn't look too scary.

Can I ask what screwdriver(s) you used to take it apart? If you can remember.

Cheers.

da_ging · 15 Mar 2014 at 05:52

Small ones

Think it was my Wera ph0, ph00 and 0.25x1.2 slot ones.

Where is the fungus in yours?

Gogl · 15 Mar 2014 at 07:00

It's quote prolific, there is only one obvious spot on the lens, and you need to look through the lens to see it, however if light catches the lens elements you can see there is a faint web-like appearance across them which causes glare, I don't think anything less than a full clean will suffice. Mould on the inner casing is much more obvious.

Anyway, this was a present for someone and I have since got a replacement so while I wouldn't mind having this to use myself, I'm fairly free to do the manly thing I mentioned and dissemble something that I then fail to reassemble.

Will probably be a mini greenhouse by the time I get around to it, need the tools first.