Fungus in lens

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newshawk

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Chris Gallagher
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Hi

I'm looking at a Bronica 50mm f2.8 Zenzanon-MC Medium Format Lens which the vendor says has black spots in it. I suspect that these are fungus, but am I right in thinking that these could soften the focus of images?

If so how viable and costly is cleaning the lens or having it cleaned?

The guy is only asking £50, but I'll be buying sight unseen. Is it worth a punt?:bonk:
 
Depends on how big the spots are. One or two millimeter sized spots may be OK but you don't want a whole colony of them
 
This may sound stupid, but stick with me. The problem with fungus is that it shows that it can grown there. Which to me suggests it's likely to carry on growing. The smallest of spots shouldn't matter at wide apertures, but for smaller apertures, they may show up.
 
Thanks, that sounds spot on. As I'm shifting to MF to improve my landscape images, much of the work will be stopped down at least as far as f11 or f16. So I'll save the £50. Seems to be some debate about the effectiveness of using wide angle lenses in medium format - a capacity for making molehills out of mountains, so it may be no bad thing.
 
Dont forget it can spread! Keep it away from anything else you have and like fungus free!
 
I once lost a Sigma 400mm lens to fungus. I hadn't used it in a while, and dug it out with a view to selling it... it wasn't just a few spots, it was like a sheet of cotton wool that had grown over the entire inner element :puke:

It kind of put me off buying Sigma. I stick with camera-branded lenses now.

A.
 
Anorakus said:
I once lost a Sigma 400mm lens to fungus. I hadn't used it in a while, and dug it out with a view to selling it... it wasn't just a few spots, it was like a sheet of cotton wool that had grown over the entire inner element :puke:

It kind of put me off buying Sigma. I stick with camera-branded lenses now.

A.
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.. but is lens fungus limited only to non-core brands?
 
Story time

Fungus: Are you a own brand or a third party lens,

Canon: Why?

Fungus: well i can only stick to third party?

Canon Fair enough well sorry mate, i am a canon.

Fungus: Damn it, any sigmas tamrons round here!
 
Stop all having a go at me! :crying:

I had several lenses at the time, and the Sigma was the only one that grew fungus. It wasn't unreasonable to suppose that maybe they hadn't applied as efffective anti-fungal treatment as the camera-branded lenses.

A.
 
Anorakus said:
I once lost a Sigma 400mm lens to fungus. I hadn't used it in a while, and dug it out with a view to selling it... it wasn't just a few spots, it was like a sheet of cotton wool that had grown over the entire inner element :puke:


A.
Click to expand...

Sell it as a "Soft Focus" lens. Might get more money for it
 
Anorakus,

OK! Sorry to have picked on that .... I should have known better ... but I just couldn't resist! Frankly, your argument for anti-fungal coating does seem like a logical thing that branded lens makers should be doing but I guess they're not! :shrug:
 
Fungus tends to grow in older lenses (of any make) which have organic material in the coatings. It almost certainly won’t effect image quality but will kill the value.
I’m always concerned that fungis in one lens might spread to other lenses, I don’t know if this can happen but I’m not going to risk my MF Nikkor 55mm Mirco or 20mm etc just to use a cheap lens.
 
I have the same in a 5 year old zoom lens (Nikon). It is my second lens that is gone wrong. Both cases I've been in the tropics. I'm not sure if this is the reason that there is some growth.
Are there methods to protect this from happening?
 
I used to have a sigma 70-300 super II, It had fungus on the inside elements and made focusing difficult. I opened it up knowing there is no way it can be fixed. When I wiped the fungus away with alcohol, they left a mark on the lens.
 
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