Not just a Program A & a 50mm

No, its my father's Program A and its seen better days.

I borrowed it from him last time I went home for Christmas vacations. He still doesnt want to give it to me... I admit I only want it for th 50mm F1.4, I'd rather have an MX...
His reluctance is understandable since he paid so much for it at the time and it has taken so many pictures throughout its 20 years.
I was looking through my father's slides (a few hundreds of them) and I realized it would make a fantastic present if I digitized them and made a book to offer him.

After he finally lent me the camera, succumbing to the fact its been sitting in the bag for a couple of years now... I thought it would also be nice to give him back the camera in a better state. Can't promise the F1.4 wont be swapped for my F1.7 though


Anyhow, here's the camera:


That bag is beyhond hope, and the white stuff on it spells trouble...



Some dust, tiny scuffs, but seems ok...



Yep, its got some dust specks...



Ouch, that is a big one...

But if we take a better look


Tragedy

The camera seems to still work fine.
And the lens?
Some pics of my F1.7 from the K10D:
F1.4


Not sharp, but its so dreamy...

F2.8


Sharp.

F8


Still no signs of those fungi or dust.


So I'll give the camera a cleaning and take for a stroll then its on to find a quote on how much it'll cost to get rid of the dirt and fungi out of the 50mm.

Getting the fungus out of the lens will cost more than its worth and may have etched the coating, or may not of course.... What a shame.

Best wishes, Kris.

I can't imagine any way it'd cost less to get the fungus cleaned off than it would to simply replace the lens unfortunately.

Having said that, it doesn't appear to have any impact to the IQ so if it were me I'd make sure any remaining fungi is killed off and then just use it as it is. Lens fungus can't survive large doses of UV light so the easiest way to kill it is to leave the lens in direct sunlight (on a windowsill) for a few weeks - that'll stop any further spread and leave you with a useable (if cosmetically challenged!) lens.

Its not that difficult to do yourself, at least the front element anyway.

I just cleaned up Pentax A 50mm f2.0 with a large piece of rubbish under the front element, Wear rubber gloves when you do this. I used a rubber stopper to remove the front locking ring (thats the part with the writing around it) and a smaller stopper to remove the inner ring which locks the element in place. The element will then drop out into your hand. Give it a clean up and re-assemble.
Not sure about the rear element but looking at it, it doesn't look too difficult.

Thats a pitty...
Cameratiks here in Edinburgh told me it would start at £24 to clean a lens. It probably depends on what you need to do...
I'll take the lens there and check what they say.

I think I might as well fork the money for the repair or a new lens, because killing fungi with sunlight right now, here... in Edinburgh? Thats gonna be difficult

I took the camera out for a spin and sadly the new batteries are now dead. After 8 shots, they have been in the camera for only 3 days...
Seems I better buy a used one...

My prog A ran into trouble when the shutter release decided to undo itself.
Anyway the point of my comment - check the condition of the 'flocked' door seal on the back (this breaks up) & check the condition of the foam mirror shock absorber inside, this also breaks up & spreads peices all round the penta prism - especially when you trying to clean the mirror with a cloth over one finger! Your lens problems are the least of your worries!
A backup Prog A which I later bought also suffered from these probs.

The foam used for seals and shock absorbers in the 1970s is subject to degradation with time. It basically fragments and causes a dreadful mess.

It's an easy job though to have the foam replaced before this happens, and this should be done at the very first sign of decay.

Interslice make foam replacement kits easily available on ebay.

K.

I've removed fungus from a couple of 50mm f2s without any problems, and I wouldn't be put off buying an f1.4 with a similar problem although I'm not sure if they're as easy to work on.

On the f2s the mould was on the rearmost lens of the front element group and the foremost lens of the rear group, so all I had to do was unscrew the front group, clean the back of it and the front of the rear group, then reassemble.

I should perhaps add that neither of these lenses cost more than £6 or so, the most recent one was £4.50 and is perfectly useable now with only a small amount of dust. Just need to keep an eye on it for any more mould.