Fun with Fungus.!

Thanks a lot,

Did you treat the metal parts which touch the lens with vinegar to kill any fungus spores which may be floating around.

Greg

Thanks, persons all.

DM.
You need not remove the mount or the filter tube, if you have a lens spanner. I am too mean to buy one (good ones are expensive!), so it is necessary to remove those parts, in order to get the access and grip needed for removing the element retaining rings. The method of using the edge of a steel rule, located in the notches of the ring, really requires the removal of the front tube.

Your point about the washing up liquid is a good one. The one I use is just cheap, mild detergent without any fancy additives, but yes. - It would have been a good idea to have said that after the rinse, the glass should be cleaned again, with proper lens cleaning fluid.

Algi.
I don't know about the A series version. Just about any A series lens is going to be expensive enough to be worth getting cleaned professionally, I'd say. I'd be very reluctant to take one of those apart!

Thoramay.
I'm a Tottenham boy, born and bred. - Yes. Spurs... The only team in the land that can soundly beat European Champions, Inter Milan... Then lose badly to Bolton flippin' Wanderers!.

Greg.
Yes. I gave the inside of the barrel a wipe with a vinegar soaked cotton bud, too.

Interesting thread.

Any idea how to clean the fungus from between cemented elements. Its on a Takumar.

Here is our patient. - Reassembled this evening and fully restored to health.

That sounds like a job for a professional, Bob. Certainly not an easy DIY fix. Probably not economically viable... Unless it's a particularly rare and valuable Takumar.

Not valuable (super tak 55 1. but in reasonable nick, except for a little present from the bogey man right in the middle of the cemented rear group!

Have been keeping my eye out for a scruffy one with a good rear group, looking to swap it over and get one decent copy.

I think the cement softens with a bit of heat and you can get it apart.
The big problem is gluing it back together it has to be to quite tight
tolerances.... job for a specialist.

mowog I haven't got an 'A' series suffering from fungus, but my
50mm f/1.4 needs re-greasing, I was just wondering if it came apart
the same. It doesn't bother me the way it is, it's just if I come
to sell it.

I don't think the cemented elements can be helped on a DIY basis for the reasons people mention, they need a lot of precision when re-gluing.

Older lenses are easier to work on as in general the parts will drop into the correct alignment and then stay there while you tighten things a little more than finger tight. I've only fiddled with one AF lens (F 80-200mm f4.7-5.6) which had a bit of mould on the back of the front element. Luckily this part simply unscrewed from the filter thread and was easy to clean, I then had some fun resetting the infinity focus (you screw the front element in or out and then tighten a collar against it to lock it in place) but it seems to work perfectly.

Try not to disturb the infinity setting while regreasing - if you can get at the thread without doing this then it will save a lot of hassle later on. The best way I've found to set infinity focus if you do have to disturb that is to use a film body with split focus screen, mounted on a tripod and aimed at the furthest point you can find (I use a ridge about six or seven miles away). You can then tweak it until perfect.

Are their any service manuals for Pentax lenses online or ay sites that deal with dissasmblign DA star lenses. I have a DA 14mm f/2.8 that won't infinity focus on my K20D but it will on my K10D.

Although when I say it won't infinity focus I really mean the K20D wont lock the AF on objects at infinity which means I can't fire the shutter unless I disable that feature. note: the red square appears but it doesn't get as far as the 'beep'

I thought the cemented elements were going to be difficult, that's why it's still not done!

I don't think there are any service manuals, and I really wouldn't be inclined to fiddle with any new lenses either. IIRC John Riley mentioned that due to the quantities of plastic in new lenses they're assembled to precise torque settings allowing for the inherent flex in the materials, as opposed to the old metal ones where you could just tighten everything up a little more than finger tight and it'd be fine.

As I said before, my only successful fix on a modern (ish) lens was an 80-200mm zoom. I was lucky in that the mould was only on the very front element which could be unscrewed without much hassle and was fairly easy to adjust once refitted.

I'd previously bought a "spares or repair" 28-80mm with power zoom - let's just say I now have a selection of optical glass lenses and lumps of plastic as there were too many broken bits for me to figure out how to rebuild it! On the plus side its power zoom switch has been passed to an otherwise perfect example of the same lens.

Brilliantly done sir,This could be very usefull to folk like me who like Carboot sales.
Thanks.

Bill.

Thank you, Sir.

Ahh! - Now there's a thing... Car boot sales. The best place to find bargains. I haven't been to one for years. I suppose they're all finished for the winter, now.

Happy hunting.

Not at all, we have them year round and probably go more often in the winter months.

Our nearest moves to a smaller tarmac location over the winter & becomes free to enter for buyers. (The Sunday one is always free entry & on Concrete)
I've hardly ever seen any half useful photo stuff at them though. Been lucky once with a fish-eye adapter & brought a incomplete zoom lens for a project on another occasion (both at the summer site)

Very well done great to see