Help! Bugs in my lens!!!!

vickylou

vickylou

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Vicky
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I last used my lens saturday and got it out again to use today, it was stored on my camera facing down in a camera bag which is always zipped up. I looked at my lens to see if I needed to clean it and there are about 5 greenfly looking bugs walking around in there! how did they get in? if they got in can they get out? Does I need to send it in to have it cleaned. Its is a Tamron 17-50 VC that I bought used. I am worried it will cost more to clean the lens than it cost to buy :( there is no way I can afford that:(
 
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Wow never seen that before. I would be doubtful that they entered the lens as green fly most likely the eggs have been sucked into the lens and then hatched inside. Can see them finding their way out...or living very long in there.

Where were you when you last used the lens, in a park or forest?
 
in my uncles garden on Saturday. Nothing is showing at the apertures i was shooting today but they are balot bigger than a speck of dust so I imagine they could be troublesome! Anyone know anyone who cleans lenses reasonably? i imagine tamron will charge a fortune.

Should I store it on its side so hopefully when they die they dont die and get stuck in the middle of the lens! great decomposing bugs in my lens not good!

They are a bit smaller than a green fly and are whiter in colour. I will try and get a video of them using my phone.
 
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vickylou said:
in my uncles garden on Saturday. Nothing is showing at the apertures i was shooting today but they are balot bigger than a speck of dust so I imagine they could be troublesome! Anyone know anyone who cleans lenses reasonably? i imagine tamron will charge a fortune.

Should I store it on its side so hopefully when they die they dont die and get stuck in the middle of the lens! great decomposing bugs in my lens not good!

They are a bit smaller than a green fly and are whiter in colour. I will try and get a video of them using my phone.
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Ooooh!! I`d be interested if you could get a video of them using your phone, I didn`t know bugs could use phones! ;)
 
That is bizarre!

I would have thought it impossible even for the eggs to have got inside of a lens. :thinking:

See if you can get a picture of them in there if the video idea doesn't work, I would be very interested to see it.
 
I'd wait for the bugs to die (sad I know :'( ) and shake them to the edge of the element where they won't cause a problem.

In general, specks of dirt, dead bugs etc. in a lens are much less of a problem than you might think. Interesting article here

A.
 
Thanks that's an interesting article. Has anyone else ever found live bugs crawling around under the front element?
 
Could be some kind of mite, I remember having them in the viewfinder on my 300D.
I toyed with putting in the freezer!
On the plus side they are probably living on dust in there.
Get worried when the spiders move in to catch the flies.
 
I found my Tamron 17-50 quiet prone to picking up all sorts of debris. I found that if I held the hose of a vacuum cleaner pipe to the camera end of the lens and zoomed it in and out a few times with the vacuum running that got rid of most of the stuff.
 
I had a bug walking around either on my rear lens of somewhere in the camera, even after trying for ages to get rid of it I couldnt any way its gone now must have escaped or died
 
My first film SLR (a pentax K1000) had a similar problem back in the late 80's. A couple of months after getting it something started walking round in the viewfinder and leaving droppings. It looked massive but of course was only tiny. When I took it back the guy in the camera shop said they had a few back for the same issue and the Pentax rep had said it was down to an infestation at the factory, eggs had been laid in parts waiting to be assembled. Early firmware bugs? ;)
 
Wrap it in clingfilm and stick it in the freezer overnight. Bring it out the next day and let it warm up to room temp before removing the clingfilm. Problem sorted.
I had one in one of my old Canon cameras, it dissapeared never to return. It will kill any eggs left behind too.
 
I counted five of them in there, where will they go when they die will they fall to the side? Is it safe to put it in the freezer? I have Dyson vacuum worried that could to damage if I try to Hoover it, works fine on a laptop though.
 
I think if they die and decompose they will potentially create a lot more problems. I used Dyson as well.
 
4wd said:
Get worried when the spiders move in to catch the flies.
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And get worried when the birds move in to catch the spiders!!

Hope you manage to get it sorted.
 
I took the lens cap of this morning and there was one on the outside of the lens? so either it got out or they are in my bag, I can still still the little beggers walking around in there so there must be plenty of food and oxygen!!!!!!
 
Hoover is not working, too scared to put it too close as it is a powerful hoover, the bugs not even moving!
 
gramps said:
Gotta create suction, not a draught!
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but wont it do damage to the electronics inside, if i put it too close it will stick to the rear of the lens?
 
Well I checked my lens today and when I zoomed out I found one of the little bugs on the outside of the inner part of the zoom, so thats one less. I guess that is where they are getting in and getting out, fingers crossed the others follow. the thoough of bug poo in there does not make me happy though!
 
I've come across this before with an SLR and it was sorted by leaving it in the freezer for a couple of days. This was in the days when I lived at home and it used to p1ss my mum off. No idea why as I only had rolls of film in there and photographic paper and occasionally a camera body :lol:
 
vickylou said:
but wont it do damage to the electronics inside, if i put it too close it will stick to the rear of the lens?
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vickylou said:
works fine on a laptop though.
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You've answered your own question.

Seriously though, it's highly unlikely to hurt it.
 
Thunderbugs I call them, aka Thrips - had a few LCD screens that have gathered a few of these little critters over the summer months, and one of my users reported getting bugs inside her laptop screen last week. They'll die and hopefully fall out of view.
 
A friend of mine discovered some on the inside of his camera body (somewhere just above the mirror) a few years back at a motorcycle show. Not sure how he got rid of them though!
 
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