Fungus or something more?

[mário m. rodrigues]

I took my eos 100 and lenses to have them cleaned, and I was told at

the store my lenses might not have fungus but something the owner

described as "glass cancer". Does this make any sense? I had never

heard the expression before.

[zacker]

how long has it been a smoker?

lol

I have never heard of glass cancer.... how the heck would something get into the glass and not just be on the surface? How long hs this guy been smoking and what was he smoking should be more the question im sure!

-zacker-

[steve_dunn2]

<p>I'd never heard of it, either, but Google tells me that <a href="http://www.floornature.com/worldaround/articolo.php/art595/1/en">there is such a phenomenon</a>, at least in window glass. I honestly have no idea whether the same thing can happen to optical glass; I suspect there would have been more posts about it here if it did.</p>

[bobatkins]

It's very unlikley to happen in optical glass.

 

Glass can also devitrify, which basically means turning from a glass to a crystal on the sufrace. This would likley look like small white spots. Again it's something rarely seen in optical glass.

 

99 times out of 100, stuff that looks like it might be fungus is fungus! If fungus attack is severe, it can't be cleaned off as it actually etches into the lens coating, and after that, into the glass itself.

[mário m. rodrigues]

Thank you all. From Bobs answer I assume the guy might be telling me that it might be a severe case and the lenses are compromised. Just a bad example of the generalization of a term. Again thanks.