Cleaning FUNGUS from vintage lenses!! Tools and method.

Your should have treated the other parts with the peroxide also. The Fungus spores are all over everything. It will just grow back the way you are doing it.

Excllent tutorial, thx; i have a Tamron-SP 500 55BB 500/f8 mirror tele full of fungus. Paid under $60 inc postage & figured was worth learning 2 clean it. Have u had experience cleaning a mirror tele .. is the process similar? Intending 2 practise on grubby filters 1st, then a conventional lens per ur tutorial .. b4 tackling the Tamron mirror tele.

Great video, many thanks.

Amazing! Great video and very well explained!

Are you aware that (old) Nikon (Nikkor) lenses should have a non-expiring warranty? If the lens has fungus, a certified Nikkor service will clean it for free.

what do you do with the aperature?

Probably better to put the cleaned lenses in a different spot. You put the cleaned lens on the spot where it was dirty with fungus previously. Might not make a big difference, but maybe put it on the cloth instead.

Good video, but why would you put your highly cleaned lens back on the table just where you picked it up from? Wouldn't there be spores and/or dirt on the table??

The hydrogen peroxide being corrosive wont damage the coatings? They say saliva is strong enough to break down the coating. I've used alcohol but never h2o2 and wondering if a dip in distilled water after cleaning would be a good idea to rinse off the h2o2?

Brilliant! I have a few ‘bargain’ lenses on the way from Japan that need treatment badly.

Have you ever tried to clean a larger / longer lens perhaps with middle elements?

subbed - cos youre pro and the vibe is right

warm the lens to a critical temp rest a good solution to kill fungus ...60 deg?

I'd have liked you to show the fungus on the element once disassembled, to appreciate the change after cleaning. One would think the fungus shown has already etched the glass and is uncleanable. I hope it is not, because I have some glass like that and need to have hope.

Thank you so much for this video. Really enjoyed it althogether, very well explained and even nice music

some questions:

1. shouldn't you NOT resuse the hydrogen peroxide between lens elements (thus avoiding potential fungal transfer from element to element as you clean).

2. should you also clean the non lens metal elements in the hydrogen peroxide too, as fungus can reside on those parts, not just on the glass lens elements...

I'll just add that I'd be loathe to use the microclothes - they WILL leave tiny micro scratches on the glass. I think it's far better to let them air dry inside a container with silica gel. Then wipe/clean them down with optical cleaning cloths like the Zeiss Ones.

Thank you for the information on cleaning lenses. Recently, I purchased three Nikon lenses (35mm 2.8, 50mm 1.4, and 85mm 2.8) which require cleaning which I will do myself. Thank you. FYI, I will be purchasing the items used in your video from Amazon.

Pls make a tutorial of cleaning of fungus & disassembly Fujinon 18-55mm zoom lens for X-T2..thanks!

How about uvc irradiation for killing the fungus (obviously not cleaning) before it can grow?

Brilliant step-by-step instruction, very useful, thank you.

Sir, I have stereo zoom microscope but due to fungus, I am not get proper image. Can you pls help me pls

Brilliant !
It helped me very much as i recently been gifted with and old Lens with looooots of fungi in there ahah

I Will try out to dismount It and clean It as soon as some tools arrive

Subscribed !!

Tank you so so much
Keep up the good work

I've been taught that hydrogen peroxide is way, way too aggressive for some of the internal coatings. Especially for example, certain Minolta Rokkor lenses. Have you ever cleaned fungus from a Rokkor PG 58mm f/1.2 ?

Super cool thank you for this

Very helpful, thank you.

I have a canon efs 55-250mm but it’s impossible to unscrew the tiny screw in it. They won’t even move and my tool got dulled

I've watched five videos before yours on this topic and yours is the only method that worked, many thanks.

From what I hear, the "Lomography" people prefer fungus in some instances.

Could I use 99% industrial IPA (alcohol) instead of hydrogen peroxide? or is this gonna damage the lens glass?

Hi, Thanks for the informative video! Question; Does this method, with the hydrogen peroxide solution, effect the coating of the lens in any way? And should a lens coating be reapplied for it to have the same effect? I'm looking to add some vintage lenses to my collection and I would really like the original look to maintain.
Thanks!

Thanks for the video but this task is way beyond my skill set. 😅

what about lens coating? will alcohol damage it?

Great video. Well shot.

Peroxide only solvent needed?

Fungus grows because people never take the lens out to shoot in the daylight. Expose your lenses to daylight and fungi will not grow,

Thanks. V helpful

will the peroxide mess with any lens coatings?

That swan solution is expensive

After cleaning fungus did you notice any sign where the coating is weakened??

Have you or anyone out there taken a Fujica gw690 or gsw690 apart?

Great video , thanks!

@VintageOptiks great Video Thanks! Im a fan of the TLRs, have you ever messed with one of the Mamiya TLR lens? I see them around for cheap when they are full of fungus. If they are simple enough to clean like the barrel lens I would love to give it a try. I guess they would be about the same in construction.

really good video, i followed every step and managed too clean lens. Thank you

excellent video, but I would like to point out that you are re-contaminating the clean lens by setting it back in the place where the dirty ones came from.

One suggestion I'd like to add is after you clean the lens, don't put it back down where you had it when it was contaminated.

Great music between chapters!

Hydrogen peroxide is a strong oxidizer. I wonder the coating of your lens is safe from it.

I have an old Pentax K2 with a 1.4 lens. The front lens seems to contain perhaps not fungus but like a cloud like smudge. Tested it on a canon and it produces very subtle coloured images. Yet scared to take it apart. It read somewhere that I can put the lens in the sun and that UV light micht clean it?