Oh dear. Peculiar fabric-like strands on the inside of front and real elements of an SK 120N. Any ideas?

[Whisp3r]

Dark, humid and still air is a perfect set up for the growth of mold/fungus. IIRC, ideal relative humidity for gear is 45-55% and I try to keep it closer to the lower number.

Humidity is around 55-65% in that room. So probably not great for these lenses. Moving them to a different room right away. So far only one lens is affected, and it appears to have grown very quickly. I'll send the photos to Christoph Greiner first thing in the morning, hopefully the lens can be saved. My 'active' photo gear is not in that room, thank goodness.

 

[Whisp3r]

any camera and lens repair station should be possible to clean it

Thanks for the advice, I placed the lens elements on a windowsil, so it should get some sunlight tomorrow. I'll reach out to Greiner tomorrow.

 

[Paul Spinnler]

Its a good reminder for everyone; wouldn't want my 43XL to get fungus. I might order some silicon gel packs to throw it into my lens storage places ...

 

[Whisp3r]

best pictures of fungus i ever seen.
the lenaes can be clean with alcohol but only when the fungus is not inside the glued elements, that mean betwean the first and second glass.
you shold do it now, when you wait too long the fungus will distroy the coutings and cant be removed any more

It's inside the glued elements, I think. Great.

 

[4x5Australian]

Any situation where humidity is allowed to persist is potentially dangerous. Lack of bright light and stagnant air ramp up the risk.
Exposure to household dust, which is full of organic matter such as tiny flakes of skin, is the cherry on top.

Bedrooms or living rooms without bright light - where people and or pets breathe out moisture - without fresh air exchange are prime targets.

My childhood wakeup to fungus was my father finding that his collection of photo slides was infected by fungus, after he'd stored the boxes in the bedroom wardrobe. Darkness + overnight breathing + stagnant air. The organic film emulsion acted like a petri dish.

With that lesson, I store lenses not in frequent use in a bright room in a glass cabinet along with containers of DampRid (containing water-absorbing calcium chloride powder) that get replenished regularly. In one past suspect situation I allocated a small room as my photo room for negatives and lenses and ran a dehumidifier in it continuously.

Rod

 

[anyone]

It's inside the glued elements, I think. Great.

If Greiner doesn‘t work out for you, I can point you to a different repair place in Germany where I had good experiences.

 

[akaru]

I have lived in humidity most of my life, and saw my first (Canon) kit riddled with it due to leaving it all in a photo backpack. Then I made it worse by scratching the front element due to popped-off lens cap and an errant silica gel packet—silica is hard stuff.

Nowadays I always use Pelican cases and make my own backpack using them, and there’s always a protected silica device in there—and nothing but tight push-on lens caps!

They make padded ones meant for drawers that are “rechargeable”. I’m still not sure if this is good enough since the air doesn’t move. I try to use them often or at least fondle them

 

[AreBee]

I might order some silicon gel packs to throw it into my lens storage places ...

Here's a handy pack size calculator.

 

[SylB]

You could use the B+W UV-pro device to sterilize your lenses, if you fear that fungus could develop on your other lenses too.

 

[Alkibiades]

It's inside the glued elements, I think. Great.

you cant see it from outside. It can be on the outer side of the glued element. this would be no problem. I cleaned a lot of such lenses. most of them I could clean fully. some old historical lenses not, the fungus demaged the coutings, but i could kill the fungus and these lenses are still optical OK.
When the fungus is "young", it will be probably not inside the glued element.

 

[Alkibiades]

Its a good reminder for everyone; wouldn't want my 43XL to get fungus. I might order some silicon gel packs to throw it into my lens storage places ...

this is really scary indeed. But the schneider lenses are not a really big problem, they can be opened and cleaned, thay are 6 or 8 elements classic and easy design, where the cleaned glasselements can be mounted back on the right place also very easy. This will be a big problem with rodenstock digarons that have 14-16 elements. Ones i talk about is with Mr Wenzel he told me that every glass replacemant of the digarons would be so complicated that the work and new optical calibration would cost like a new lens.

 

[f8orbust]

A B&W air tight case with loads of rechargeable silicon packs plus an occasional few seconds in one of these every couple of months keeps my mind at ease. Maybe it's overkill, but then again, I do live in the UK.

 

[Whisp3r]

When the fungus is "young", it will be probably not inside the glued element.

But the schneider lenses are not a really big problem, they can be opened and cleaned, thay are 6 or 8 elements classic and easy design, where the cleaned glasselements can be mounted back on the right place also very easy.

If Greiner doesn‘t work out for you, I can point you to a different repair place in Germany where I had good experiences.

Well, I just received word from Greiner, and it looks bad. Mr. Greiner himself looked at the photos I provided and his conclusion was brief and to the point: the fungus is inside the lens so it can not be repaired. End of story.

Well, that is somewhat disappointing. So, Herr Anyone, it looks like I'll be needing that tech's contact info from you after all

Thanks once again to everyone for chiming in, I appreciate it!

 

[rdeloe]

Well, I just received word from Greiner, and it looks bad. Mr. Greiner himself looked at the photos I provided and his conclusion was brief and to the point: the fungus is inside the lens so it can not be repaired. End of story.

Well, that is somewhat disappointing. So, Herr Anyone, it looks like I'll be needing that tech's contact info from you after all

Thanks once again to everyone for chiming in, I appreciate it!

That's disappointing to hear. Good luck finding someone else who is a bit more open minded about what repairable means!

 

[Alkibiades]

Well, I just received word from Greiner, and it looks bad. Mr. Greiner himself looked at the photos I provided and his conclusion was brief and to the point: the fungus is inside the lens so it can not be repaired. End of story.

Well, that is somewhat disappointing. So, Herr Anyone, it looks like I'll be needing that tech's contact info from you after all

Thanks once again to everyone for chiming in, I appreciate it!

Foto Greiner did not repair lenses himself, he just send them to schneider. When schneider did not want to do fungus cleaning so no chance...
But every photo repair station must be able to open the lens and clean it ( accept the glued element).
Where are located? I can write you some adresses from repair stations in germany, but the job is easy to do so it should be done everywhere.

 

[Whisp3r]

Foto Greiner did not repair lenses himself, he just send them to schneider. When schneider did not want to do fungus cleaning so no chance...
But every photo repair station must be able to open the lens and clean it ( accept the glued element).
Where are located? I can write you some adresses from repair stations in germany, but the job is easy to do so it should be done everywhere.

That makes sense, I've only ever sent in lenses to Greiner for adjustments, never for cleaning, I've been very happy with their service but I understand if this is not something they can do.

Forum member Anyone sent me the contact info of a repair station in Freiburg so I'll hit them up first, but more addresses are certainly welcome as well. I'm located in Ghent, Belgium but part of my family lives on the Belgian-German border near Aachen so I could drive out there if necessary. Of course, I can also just ship the lens.

 

[Alkibiades]

That makes sense, I've only ever sent in lenses to Greiner for adjustments, never for cleaning, I've been very happy with their service but I understand if this is not something they can do.

Forum member Anyone sent me the contact info of a repair station in Freiburg so I'll hit them up first, but more addresses are certainly welcome as well. I'm located in Ghent, Belgium but part of my family lives on the Belgian-German border near Aachen so I could drive out there if necessary. Of course, I can also just ship the lens.

You could visit then Düsseldorf, there is a very friendly old man, has very nice prices: Foto Dieter Bilzer Feinmech.Fotorep. tel. +49 211 376151
Also Foto Prügel in Berlin has very atraktiv prices. be carefull, there are some Foto repair that are extremly expensive, the price differance is absolutly crazy!!! whereever you go always ask for end price. Guys with open and fair price politic will tell you this, the other not, they will always talk like I dont know.... bla, bla and at the end the surprice is coming...

 

[EMelo]

This is my first post in this forum. I have learned a lot with the civilized and knowledgeable GetDpi community and it’s fair to contribute with what I can to the mold topic.

– Desiccant: I would avoid calcium chloride because of corrosion of metal. Silica gel is much better. For lenses that will remain unused for a long time I use a couple of Merck’s Trokenmittel-Beutel 10 g together with the lenses in an air-tight plastic box; the sachets avoid the spilling of the silica and possible damage of lens glass. I found that most people do not activate the silica before using it. Usually silica has a colored indicator that turns from blue to pink (or colorless to orange) when unable to absorb more water. It must be activated in an electric oven at about 150 ºC for 3 h (google other time/temperature possibilities) and still hot stored in an air-tight glass jar until cold.

– UV spore killing: The advice of B+W UV-pro is probably the best option (UV-C) but you can also use a common UV-C tube (take care not to be exposed to it especially the eyes). However, some years ago I read about damage to glued elements and I don’t know how the glue reacts to UV-C since it is designed for UV-A with a tad of B. Exposing the lenses to the Sun (not behind glass that absorbs most UV) helps in inhibiting the growth of fungus/mold, but Sun (UV-A with a bit of B) is very inefficient at killing spores. Ethanol 70% (not 90%) is a good eradicator of fungus and spores and I would say the first approach to a lens disease, followed by sun to remove the residual humidity.

– Plants, pets and humans have a plethora of fungus and microorganisms in happy coexistence to maintain a healthy and protective skin/cuticle, and storing lenses together with them is risky. Just from my experience 50% constant relative humidity is safe and not too expensive in dehumidifier consumption.

Hope this helps.

Eurico

 

[f8orbust]

However, some years ago I read about damage to glued elements and I don’t know how the glue reacts to UV-C since it is designed for UV-A with a tad of B.

Unless your lens is made of fused quartz/silica (unlikely) I wouldn't worry too much, as the UV-C isn't able to penetrate other types of glass, so it will never reach the inner workings of a lens. It's commonly used in laser optics because of its positive UV and IR transmission characteristics.

It's still a good (and cheap) choice for sterilising the outer surfaces of a lens and, in combination with keeping the lens in an air tight / low humidity environment minimises the chances of a lens succumbing to a 'last of us' scenario.

 

[guphotography]

Well, I just received word from Greiner, and it looks bad. Mr. Greiner himself looked at the photos I provided and his conclusion was brief and to the point: the fungus is inside the lens so it can not be repaired. End of story.

Well, that is somewhat disappointing. So, Herr Anyone, it looks like I'll be needing that tech's contact info from you after all

Thanks once again to everyone for chiming in, I appreciate it!

Late to the party, but I have had 60xl shutter serviced and small fungus removed from centre of the element, all for slight more than what Greiner charges for an "inspection".

But the catch is that the technician is local to me, here in the UK.

I'm sure you can find genuine folks with know how near to you to sort the lens out.

Keep us posted please.

Cheers