Mold on my tamron lens

<p>Hi everyone. I recently discovered mold in my Tamron 17-50mm lens. Which is a bummer because this lens is really sharp for a third party lens. Anyway I'm trying to find out how much this is going to cost to get cleaned and if it is worth it to even get cleaned. The mold doesn't look very bad on my lens, it looks like it is limited to the element just inside the front lens element but it is enough that it shows up in my images. Has anyone else sent a lens back to Tamron for fungus cleaning? How much did it cost? I'd say it would be worth it to spend up to $250 to get it cleaned so I don't want to send it in if it is going to be any more than that. If I do send it in though I may try and sell it to get another lens, I think it is worth about $300 used. Thanks.</p>

<p>If it's just suface mould that can be cleaned off, the cost should be quite a bit less than that. If it's etched into the glass and the element needs to be replaced then the cost will be a little higher but I can't image it would be as much as $250.</p>

<p>An independant camera repair shop could probably do the cleaning for under $100. I've no idea what Tamron charges. The advantage of going with Tamron is that they may be better equiped to make sure everything is aligned properly when the lens is reassembled.</p>

<p>The effect of fungus in the lens would normally be lowered contrast/increased flare.</p>

<p>I once had mould inside the lenses itself but the pix were still sharp and minimum flare.Maybe i was lucky but if it is bad,then i suggest following the Bob's advice.</p>

<p>Bob said:</p>

<blockquote>

<p>The advantage of going with Tamron is that they may be better equipped to make sure everything is aligned properly when the lens is reassembled.</p>

</blockquote>

<p>and how. If the mold is in the wrong place, you could be really happy you went back to "mother's house."</p>

<p>I sent tamron an e-mail several days ago to see if they could give a rough estimate but I have not heard back from them. Not even an e-mail saying "sorry we cannot give estimates without seeing the lens". It might be better to go with them I'm just worried I'll get stuck with a bill that is much higher than I want to pay. There is a camera repair shop a couple miles from my house that i've heard good things about so I may just bring it in to see what they think. Oh and the symptoms bob described are exactly what i am experiencing, I discovered it when shooting into the sun creating this shot, as you can see the flare is horrible. After seeing the spots I looked at the lens and I saw some little white spots on the lens element just inside the front element.<br>

<img src="http://www.austinbooth.com/moldspot.jpg" alt="" /></p>