Spent $60 on a lens cleaning kit that did nothing for my fungus issue

I had a vintage 50mm f/1.4 with some haze and tiny fungus spots, so I bought a fancy kit with swabs and fluid from a camera store downtown. Spent a whole Saturday carefully wiping the elements, but the fungus was inside the rear group and I couldn't reach it. Ended up taking it to a pro who charged me $45 to disassemble and clean it properly, plus he showed me how the spores were between cemented glass. Has anyone else wasted money on home cleaning kits instead of just sending it out from the start?

3 comments

3 Comments

the_joseph1mo ago

barbara_baker57 is onto something with that UV box idea but here's the thing nobody's talking about - you might be able to hit that fungus with a tiny bit of ammonia vapor if you're brave lol. I read about this on a vintage lens forum where a guy used a qtip dipped in ammonia held near the gap between cemented glass elements. The vapor supposedly kills the spores without needing to fully separate them. I tried it on an old Takumar that had fungus between the front group and it stopped spreading for like a year before I finally sold it. Not saying it's a perfect fix but for $2 in supplies it might buy you some time while you figure out the pro route. Just be careful not to get liquid on anything or you'll wreck the coating worse than the fungus did.

barbara_baker571mo ago

Bought a cheap UV light box from Amazon for like $15. Left the lens under it for three days straight in a storage bin. Fungus stopped spreading and the haze cleared up about 80%. Still had to send it out for the deep clean but the UV stopped it from getting worse before the pro could get to it. Works great for prevention too, just pop any lens in there once a month. Not a perfect fix but it bought me time.

the_evan1mo ago

Yeah honestly @barbara_baker57 is right, the UV trick is solid for slowing it down. I did the same thing with a cheap LED strip in a Tupperware container and it kept my old 50mm 1.4 from getting worse while I saved up for the CLA.