Is it possible to clean mold off of lense elements

I got a "bargain" Ebay lense today that was actually NOS. No signs of use whatever. But sometime during it's storage life it has gotten a good case of mold on the inner rear element. It's a simple lens and the element surface is easy to get to. I tried cleaning it with alcohol and a cotton swab and got quite a bit off, but not all. Is there a solution or is this a garbage can item?

 

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Thanks in advance for any help. Jim Galli, Tonopah Nevada

I read a thread recently that using an amonia solution is the trick

to getting rid of fungus. You might want to go and check the other

threads for more detailed information. It was too long ago so you

should be able to find it quickly.

Even if the damage is severe and there is coating damage or etching of

the glass, don't give up on the lens until you've actually tested it.

Surface flaws like this make the lens undesirable to collectors, but

often make very little difference under most shooting conditions. The

improvement made by using a lens hood is often greater than the

degradation caused by surface flaws, in my experience.

Try putting the lens in the bright sun for a day or two. This worked

for me once and failed to work another time, but it would appear to

be worth a shot.

I've tried grain alcohol, rubbing alcohol, Windex, water, bleach and

amonia on an old uncoated lens I was given free and I couldn't get

the fungus to budge. I soaked one cell in undiluted amonia and later

undiluted bleach. NOTHING!

 

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However, I can still get negatives good enough to contact print.

 

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Is this a coated lens? If not you might try acetone.

Yes the lens is multi-coated. It is a nice little Konica 90 in a

Seikosha shutter originally intended for 120 I suppose. I'll clean it

up the best I can and use it a bit for close-up on 4X5. Thanks all

for the nice response. I'm a first time user. Jim

Although I have not tried this (so if a lethal gas is generated and

kills your dog, don't blame me!), Ed Romney recommends equal parts

Hydrogen Pyroxide and ammonia, applied with cotton swabs.

Hmmmm........... May be a double remedy here. Clean my lens, and the

neighbors dog keeps me up all night. I'll give it a try and post

results.

I echo the Romney lens cleaning solution. Equal parts Hydrogen

peroxide & ammonia works well. It will remove anything organic. I

cleaned an old Kodak lens and except for some slight patterns it came

out great. Any mark that's left is an etched coating which can't be

removed without recoating the lens.

 

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BTW, I had some lens elements coated for a piece of optical test

equipment and the cost was about $300 for a simple BBAR of two or

three layers. Most of the cost was in the setup and cleaning. I'd

thought of having some of my older pieces recoated at the same time

but never got around to it.

 

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Cheers,

 

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Duane

<p>I'm actually looking for how to clean my lenses & came across this. I'm new & certainly no expert but in anything/anytime I want fungus removed I use white vinegar. It actually kills it. It can't be as damaging as some of the 'remedys' I've been reading. Good luck.</p>