lens fungus

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merry Christmas everyone! I recently switched from canon to nikon,i thought I would keep my 150/600 sigma back to see how I got on with nikon.i checked my lens over, everything was fine so I put it with its caps on in its case and put it in a cupboard.so 3 months later I take it out only to be confronted with the dreaded fungus.this means an expensive strip down and clean.does any one know if keeping the lens and camera in a clear box with loose rice will help prevent this on my nikon gear? I will add I live in Cornwall [4 months of torrential rain,4 months of rain,4 months of rain every other day!]any other suggestions apart from moving,[I love it here really!]would be most welcome.also does anyone know of a repair place local to me?many thanks in advance, Andy.
 
I'm in cornwall too and I try to store mine with the silica gel packets, got loads off ebay. I also blast my lenses with UV light every now and again.
 
merry Christmas everyone! I recently switched from canon to nikon,i thought I would keep my 150/600 sigma back to see how I got on with nikon.i checked my lens over, everything was fine so I put it with its caps on in its case and put it in a cupboard.so 3 months later I take it out only to be confronted with the dreaded fungus.this means an expensive strip down and clean.does any one know if keeping the lens and camera in a clear box with loose rice will help prevent this on my nikon gear? I will add I live in Cornwall [4 months of torrential rain,4 months of rain,4 months of rain every other day!]any other suggestions apart from moving,[I love it here really!]would be most welcome.also does anyone know of a repair place local to me?many thanks in advance, Andy.

Store your kit in a cool dry and ventilated place.
If you don't have such a place I would forget the rice and buy a load of silica gel (much better at absorbing moisture) and put your (dry) kit in an airtight plastic box.
 
Buy a dry cabinet. A 60l one stores all my kit when not in use.
 
A dry cabinet is the best solution.

I have a humidity gauge in where I keep my gear & it usually sits around the 55-60 mark. Any higher & there's a dehumidifier in the room anyway which sits on auto :)
 
They sell big bags of silica gel in pet stores. Home bargains does it in their pets section for a few pounds.
 
Don't know of a repairers but Keep it away from other lenses now!
 
One tip to clear the fungus is to place the lens in sunlight for several hours, maybe over several days. (make sure the sunlight shines through the lens) Difficult at this time of year, but it works.
 
many thanks to everyone, i will look into a dry cabinet, if not sealed box with silica.andy
 
Someone needs to make back lens caps with a holes drilled in the face and a goretex covering. That would let the moisture out but keep dust out.
 
Someone needs to make back lens caps with a holes drilled in the face and a goretex covering. That would let the moisture out but keep dust out.

Goretex lens moisture in as well - it's only useful for letting moisture out in clothing because humans secrete water onto their skins to aid cooling.
 
Goretex lens moisture in as well - it's only useful for letting moisture out in clothing because humans secrete water onto their skins to aid cooling.
Yes, I can put something like that of for a couple of days (with a desiccant in the lens bag if needed) then put on a standard cap confident that any moisture in the lens is gone. I take pictures in places full of hot sweaty dancers (gonna regret writing that if I ever want to sell lenses).
 
1. Never put lenses away if they have been wet or in high humidity.
2. Silica gel is cheap and generally safe. ( those that change colour with use are less so as they contain chemicals for colour change do best to avoid).
3. Remove gel sacs and dry out on a radiator on a regular basis to ensure they remain effective.
4. Be aware that the porous gel sacs are easily damaged and can split releasing their contents - silica gel as the name suggests is hard and can easily scratch things such as lens glass. Hundreds of tiny silica nodules get everywhere especially in a camera bag.
5. Humidity cabinets are good but expensive and obviously suffer if the power supply fails.
 
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I have heard people say that sunlight will clear it but have never experienced this personally. I tried it with an old lens with fungus in and even went as far as trying a very strong uv sun lamp!

Basically fungal spores are everywhere and almost certainly within everyone’s expensive lenses but they won’t grow unless they have the right conditions which is generally moisture. They already have food ‘coatings’ in lenses!
 
I recently acquired some older manual focus lenses from an old Pentax film camera and one of the lenses had loads of fungus. I tried to dismantle it to clean it off but couldn’t get it back together again! To be honest I had a feeling that might happen and the lens is only worth about £25 so I figured it was ruined anyway and if I failed I could pick up another fungus-free lens. These lenses had been sitting in an attic in leather pouches for a good decade so there’s no surprise really.
 
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