Dust or Fungus?

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matt
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A few years ago I purchased a few Canon FD lenses 2nd hand, I never inspected them closely and tbh I havent really used them, however I recently purchased a mirrorless cameras and an X to FD adapter. Having taken a few shots with a few of the lenses some of the photos seem to have a "glow" about them and on closer inspection of the lenses I can see quite an amount of dust inside, or it could be fungus I cant really tell.
So, the question is, if it's fungus on some of the lenses will it transfer across to the others via the camera if I use the clean ones and the "dirty" ones, something I dont want to do to either the lenses which appear ok or to any new lenses I buy for the mirrorless? I know there's not much point in trying to get them fixed if its fungus unless they are exotic hard to find/replace lenses and tbh if I have to dump them I wont be heart broken, but a couple are quite nice and I would like the opportunity to use them in the fuji , some appear reasonably clean but if there's any risk of fungus transfer to either lens or camera I'll get rid of them, the lenses have all been stored together in a large plastic box at the bottom of my wardrobe, a separate box to anything else.

Not sure where I should post this but as they are old Film lenses here seemed the most logical place plus I expect some mirrorless peps come in here too.

Thanks.
 
If fungus, it can only spread, either more so within the affected lens, or to other lenses / equipment if the environmental conditions are correct.
 
Pictures may help - I know it can be difficult to get clear photos of the culprit sometimes.
 
Just to add what Asha posted:- There can't be many camera and lenses, outside a clean room, that doesn't has some type of fungus spore inside them (from the atmosphere) just waiting for warm damp conditions to germinate\spread......so if you had an affected lens with fungus next to a clean one (but probably has spores) the fungus would stay dormant if the lenses are kept in dry conditions. After all did they ever find things covered in fungus when they opened up Egyptian tombs.......
 
As above assume all your equipment is loaded with fungal spores as is mine and everyone else’s who posts here and those who don’t ;)

I can’t recommend enough a dry cabinet to store equipment in. £100 is very little compared the costs of replacing a decent lens collection.
 
As above assume all your equipment is loaded with fungal spores as is mine and everyone else’s who posts here and those who don’t ;)

I can’t recommend enough a dry cabinet to store equipment in. £100 is very little compared the costs of replacing a decent lens collection.

I suppose if you want to get scientific about fungii then:- Everything living on earth needs water, so what is the minimum humidity for fungii to thrive....well my lenses (and cameras) are kept in a cabinet in a room where people breathe and they are ok, so the humidity is not very low, but I'm in the UK and humid countries would have a problem.
 
Would it help to keep the older lenses in a separate box or bag, and to chuck some silica bags in with them?
 
I have a couple of old manual lenses with some fungus, but they were very secondhand and very cheap. Far more distressing was when I went to trade in my Canon EOS 5D kit only to be told that my 17-40 and 24-105 lenses both had considerable fungus in them, so I had to have them professionally cleaned/serviced before trading in. The 5D and 24-105 were bought brand new as a kit from AJ Purdy with a Lowepro Nova 3 AW bag included in the deal. There was enough room in the bag to accommodate the 17-40 lens, so the full kit was always stored in this bag in a centrally heated house.

I'm bound to say that the fungus never showed up in any photos, which is why I was so amazed at being shown the amount of it in the lenses. This was done by shining a strong LED light through the lens from behind, and I'd say this is worth doing with all your lenses. I may just have been unlucky, but I'll not be buying Canon lenses in future. Hopefully you'll not have any/many issues.
 
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I have a Nikon 2.8 80-200mm lens which also suffer with some inner lens fungi but believe it or not an aphid got inside and got rid of most of it.
 
Thanks guys for the info.
 
so the full kit was always stored in this bag in a centrally heated house.

Well the general opinion is:- don't store gear in a bag esp leather...and just my opinion is to keep lenses and cameras open in a dry room (erm not kitchen o_O ) with ventilation. Although most of my cameras and lenses are in a cabinet I do open it a lot so the air is not stale.
 
My stuff is in a glass-fronted cabinet, but the room is dry and I also have a liberal scattering of silica-gel pouches in the cabinet too.

Well unless someone posts "I kept my lenses in a cabinet in a dry room and they are now covered with fungus"....it's OK to do this.
To date I've never read of anyone with problems keeping lenses on shelves or cabinet, with a glass front, in a dry room.
Mind you if you want to scare someone you could say:- humans shed skin sells etc in a room and these could settle on lenses and the fungus could feed on it, well yeah if you then store the lenses in a damp attic etc.....and a type of fungus likes dead skin cells.
 
Most of my lenses live in a fairly well sealed plastic storage tub with a room dehumidifier in it. Seems to work.

/Touches all of the wood can find.
 
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