Fungus in my sensor

[otografias]

Hello everyone! I have had a problem with fungus on my sensor, I think it is on the ir filter that protects the sensor, although it has been cleaned and treated by a service technician, a trace has remained on the glass coating.
Do you know if there is a way to clean it, or remove the filter and work without it. What advice do you have for me? can I order a new glass (maybe anti newton)?
thank you very much !

 

[Paul Spinnler]

Send to P1. Will cost ...

 

[otografias]

It is beyond repair. On the one hand I can't find the official mamiya technical service, and in the photographic technical services they don't want to fix it, they can't find spare parts, and they don't want to risk it.
:- (

 

[rdeloe]

That doesn't look like any fungus I've seen. However, I'm used to seeing fungus on lenses.

 

[buildbot]

It is beyond repair. On the one hand I can't find the official mamiya technical service, and in the photographic technical services they don't want to fix it, they can't find spare parts, and they don't want to risk it.
:- (

You can try reaching out to kolari vision - https://kolarivision.com/ - they were able to help me a few times get new cover glass swapped onto a digital back. I wouldn't use it if Phase One will service it and you can afford the 1K price from them, but kolari is perfect for older, less valuable DBs. Probably around 300-500 for a new filter.

 

[otografias]

That doesn't look like any fungus I've seen. However, I'm used to seeing fungus on lenses.

The fungus was cleaned, but they damage the glass recover like this .

 

[otografias]

You can try reaching out to kolari vision - https://kolarivision.com/ - they were able to help me a few times get new cover glass swapped onto a digital back. I wouldn't use it if Phase One will service it and you can afford the 1K price from them, but kolari is perfect for older, less valuable DBs. Probably around 300-500 for a new filter.

hey! thanks I´ll ask for them .

 

[chriswebb]

There are also people out there who remove bayer filters off of color cameras to turn them monochrome. They do that by milling off the filter from the sensor somehow. They may be another option, but a lot more risky probably. I've heard some horror stories and I personally did not like the service I received from them either and decided to cancel my order so i didn't see their results first hand, but those places do exist for the long shot option. Don't take this as an endorsement of those services, just letting you know options.

 

[buildbot]

There are also people out there who remove bayer filters off of color cameras to turn them monochrome. They do that by milling off the filter from the sensor somehow. They may be another option, but a lot more risky probably. I've heard some horror stories and I personally did not like the service I received from them either and decided to cancel my order so i didn't see their results first hand, but those places do exist for the long shot option. Don't take this as an endorsement of those services, just letting you know options.

I think the issue is with the IR filter in front of the CCD, not the CCD itself having residual fungus.

And yeah, basically, from what I've seen they literally scrape the microlenses/bayer filter off. Silicon being harder to scratch, the underlying sensor is supposed to be "fine".

 

[chriswebb]

I think the issue is with the IR filter in front of the CCD, not the CCD itself having residual fungus.

And yeah, basically, from what I've seen they literally scrape the microlenses/bayer filter off. Silicon being harder to scratch, the underlying sensor is supposed to be "fine".

Ah that makes sense. I think I just saw fungus and thought destroy.

 

[buildbot]

Ah that makes sense. I think I just saw fungus and thought destroy.

Haha I understand that. I keep everything in humidity cabinets because I lost my 120mm MF macro to fungus :/

 

[Pieter 12]

Leica never called this problem fungus, but corrosion. Is it really fungus and does humidity have anything to do with it?

 

[buildbot]

Leica never called this problem fungus, but corrosion. Is it really fungus and does humidity have anything to do with it?

On a sensor, yeah I would be surprised to see fungus. I suppose it’s possible though? I know corrosion was a thing with Leica CCDs, I thought that was also cover glass related just that it’s fused to the sensor? I could be wrong!

 

[Paul Spinnler]

You can try reaching out to kolari vision - https://kolarivision.com/ - they were able to help me a few times get new cover glass swapped onto a digital back. I wouldn't use it if Phase One will service it and you can afford the 1K price from them, but kolari is perfect for older, less valuable DBs. Probably around 300-500 for a new filter.

Do they convert old backs to mono as well?

 

[buildbot]

Do they convert old backs to mono as well?

No, they are pretty unrelated things from what I understand.
These people do that conversion:

Monochrome Cameras

LDP LLC www.MaxMax.com optical products and photonics

maxmax.com

IDK if they'd do a digital back.

 

[otografias]

There are also people out there who remove bayer filters off of color cameras to turn them monochrome. They do that by milling off the filter from the sensor somehow. They may be another option, but a lot more risky probably. I've heard some horror stories and I personally did not like the service I received from them either and decided to cancel my order so i didn't see their results first hand, but those places do exist for the long shot option. Don't take this as an endorsement of those services, just letting you know options.

that's very interesting, I didn't know about this possibility, is it the Bayer filter that I have in bad condition? I thought it was an infrared layer?

 

[otografias]

I think the issue is with the IR filter in front of the CCD, not the CCD itself having residual fungus.

And yeah, basically, from what I've seen they literally scrape the microlenses/bayer filter off. Silicon being harder to scratch, the underlying sensor is supposed to be "fine".

I think the issue is with the IR filter in front of the CCD, not the CCD itself having residual fungus.

And yeah, basically, from what I've seen they literally scrape the microlenses/bayer filter off. Silicon being harder to scratch, the underlying sensor is supposed to be "fine".

And what would happen if I simply remove the filter? It would be very dangerous for the sensor... but in the last case I couldn't find a replacement, it could be a solution.?

 

[buildbot]

that's very interesting, I didn't know about this possibility, is it the Bayer filter that I have in bad condition? I thought it was an infrared layer?

It looks like the IR filter to me, not the sensor. I don't really know why bayer filters & monochrome conversion where brought into this. Fungus on the IR filter is not uncommon and looks exactly like this, and yeah it can etch the glass so cleaning does not help.

And what would happen if I simply remove the filter? It would be very dangerous for the sensor... but in the last case I couldn't find a replacement, it could be a solution.?

You lose the IR cutoff, and the focus will shift a bit. If you use an XF I think it would be possible to offset the AF enough to compensate, but manually focusing you'd be off. You'd also need to use an IR filter on the lens unless you want everything to look very red from the IR contamination.

 

[chriswebb]

It looks like the IR filter to me, not the sensor. I don't really know why bayer filters & monochrome conversion where brought into this. Fungus on the IR filter is not uncommon and looks exactly like this, and yeah it can etch the glass so cleaning does not help.

It was mainly a suggestion if it was a non-removable part of the sensor, i.e. like the bayer filter. Definitely not the right scenario here.

 

[P. Chong]

This happened to mine. Hassleblad changed the glass cover. Sensor was ok. But cost more than usd1k. In 2018. It’s been good since.