Canon Serenar Heavy Condensation?

Hey all. I have a handsome Leica III (IIIa?) that I originally bought with a 5cm Canon Serenar 3.5 collapsible. I would like to use it, except it's got this:

 

 

I want to say it's condensation? You can see the droplets if you look closely. It's within the inside rear element, as when I look in the front element the aperture blades visually look clear. I have seen that some people with more modern lenses can sit them in the sun to clear them up, but this has been there for a long while now. Is this maybe oil? Water? Something else? Can I put the lens under a bright, hot lamp and mimic the sun? Up here in the northwest it's gonna be rainy for the next 9 months I'm sure lol. Thank you!

 

Yes, you can use a heat lamp to do the same thing the sun would. My guess is though that it's not water and it's going to require disassembly to clean that up.

I don't know much about this kind of thing, but I once left a camera/lens (Contaflex Super B) on a window in bright (summer) light hoping to rejuvenate the selenium meter. The heat was not good for it and the aperture blades got stuck from drifting lube. I did eventually disassemble this and clean the aperture... and the meter is still to this day intermittent ..when it works, it works good.

 

I would wait it out.. it should "climatize" on it's own.. store it with dessicant packages.. or store it for a few weeks in rice. If after all it doesn't clear.. you will have to disassemble .

Or send it to somebody like Youxin Ye for a CLA and you'll get back a clean, relubed, and calibrated lens. I did this with a 50 Serenar several years ago, and it worked like new when it came back...contrast was also much improved.

I've had this problem with a Canon 7, caused by bringing the camera in from an icy car to a very warm room.While the condensation did slowly diminish it was leaving behind little drying marks on the inside face of the element, and as it was a valuable lens I sent it off for cleaning rather than attempting the job myself. The whole lens was cleaned and lubed and came back like new.

Unfortunately it may be oil, I've had this lens for over a year and it has never cleared up. How much is usually a clean and lube from a professional for a lens? I realize they vary but perhaps an average so I can weigh in actually getting it cleaned or just selling it. I already have a Nikkor 50 1.4 and a Nikkor 85 f/2 for the Leica so it's not like it won't get use lol, but I do like how light and small it is with the collapsible lens. Thank you!

Katie - lens CLAs typically run from $80-100 USD where I live.

If you look on-line, some Leica lenses (and Serenars and a few early Canon RF LTM lenses) have a "fogging" problem (LINK). I suppose lubrication re-condensing.

 

Professional cleaning in any case may do the job.

Quite a few of these lenses show this problem and sometimes you can clean all you want, but there is etching of the coating on the inner element that won't come away. Good luck, maybe yours won't be one of them!

I had to disassemble my 35 Summaron to clean it. It wasn't that difficult.