tomhoo

I had oil streak down the back of the front group on a 1:1.4 CS 35mm Mamiya. Their grease is awful - way, way too thick - in cold weather makes lens impossible to focus - opposite of Nikon F series.

Update: finally had a chance to inspect the fisheye better and there is heavy "crud" on the internal filters. I'm going to pull the front element and clean. The filters are terrible looking. Best way to explain what I'm seeing: imagine if you had the lens near a stove where grease accumulates on everything. That's what it looks like. Very uniform, not smooth, and seemingly thick layer.

When I try to "look into the light," I am basically blinded by the white and can't see anything. However, when aiming the lens to the very dark under my desk and then shining a LED flash light at oblique angles perhaps trying to get reflections of the lens walls. When I can see a horror show of pits/dust/dirt and haze that is hear the edge of the white light image - if I can see any of the white light, I'm blinded and can't see anything. This particular discovery on a Mamiya CS 50mm Macro and a 1:1.4 50mm I'm also having difficult cleaning the outer lens surfaces. Using Eclipse and Pec Pads and when I lift the pad, the last island of alcohol leaves a smudge - not to mention dust. (In my house, the dust falls like snow) I have a camel hair brush blower and the brush appears to be contaminated - I don't know if a new brush/blower would work. I just checked a NOS 135mm CS which I bought new. When I opened the box, I put a 1A filter on it to protect the lends. I put it on the camera a couple times and never used it since I had the zoom. That lens is failing the under desk light test. It is not unlike looking at a desert sandblasted windshield. There is also a possibility it is static sticky tiny dust specs that when I try to clean, I'm just moving them around. I'm beginning to think that all Mamiya CS lenses which are at least 30 years old are suffering from issues. I wonder if my Auto XTL ES lenses are suffering...

I tried that and all I got was a tiny spot on the objective lens - I had the aperture wide open and the spot on the objective lens was maybe 1/4" in diameter. I have a 21mm w/light haze and I could see that clearly by getting just the right reflection of light bouncing off the objective lens. That method was much better than shining light through it. A 1:1.4 50mm shining light is very effective. Maybe using a light table would be more effective on the fisheye? I have stereo microscopes - would there be a way to use them?

I think I'm pretty good spotting haze etc. in anything from a 21 to 50mm, but the fisheye is impossible for me. How do you do it?