Still plenty out there

Good old fleabay !!

Just taken delivery of a Spotmatic with original strap,ERC,clip on flash mount(sprung not slide),3 lightmeters in leather cases,and a 1.4 50mm lens ( with some fungus )and front cap.
Pretty good for £32 plus postage - first impressions very favourable - a couple of test shots at F8 on the *istD show no obvious signs of deterioration in picture quality.I shall follow earlier posts and keep the lens in the "sunlight" in order to minimise growth.

Keep shooting


Tony

You can probably kill the growth completely, assuming you can get to it. I find vinegar on a cotton bud works very well for neutralising and removing it.

Prime lenses are the simplest to work on, but you'll need a lens spanner to do it properly.

Now, if anyone knows how to get the plastic light shield thingy off the back of an SMCP 28-50mm zoom? I got most of the fungus out but couldn't remove the rear element group to finish the job.

Thanks Matt


Tony

Update - I managed to get the back end of the 28-50mm apart after some more unbolting, it now has some dust but no fungus! Even more amazingly it went back together ok and I think it works.

If the Takumar 50mm f1.4 is anything like the later SMC-P 55mm f1.8 or the M 50mm f1.7 then they're pretty simple to work on. I've rescued a couple of fungus-infested 50mm f2s, on both of them the infection was on the front of the forward element of the rear group, so all I had to do was unscrew the finishing ring, unscrew the front element group, swab the fungus off, polish clean, and reassemble with as little dust as possible.

My job for next week then !

Thanks again

Tony