Vincent Pang Photography

Freelance Photographer in Malaysia for Wedding, Portrait, Events, Products, Fine Art and any photography related services

How to clean fungus inside a lens

Fungus can grow inside a lens if it has moisture being left there for a long time. However, fungus can easily be killed if they got expose to sunlight. That said, you should use your lens regularly (every week) and rest assure you shouldn't have fungus. Shoot an object a day, keep the fungus away ! hahaha

Unluckily, one of the lens my brother own has fungus in it and I have decided to give it a try to remove it.

I shall warn you DO NOT FOLLOW WHAT I WILL SHOW YOU BELOW. DO NOT ! DO IT AT YOUR OWN RISK !

The problem.
This is how fungus looks like on my brother's Konica Minolta 75-300mm f4.5-5.6

Step 1: Remove the filter
Normally lens will have a filter to protect the front element of the lens. Remove that by turning it anti-clockwise 

 

Step 2: Look for the notch
Look for a notch as shown below around the side of the lens after you remove the filter.

 

Step 3: The tools
With this tool below, I will turn the ring holding the front element anti-clockwise to remove it. This is just an alternative tools, there are more 'suitable' tools design to do this. I have use a cotton to protect the front element to prevent scratching it

 

Step 4: Remove the front element
Now that you have remove the ring, you can continue to removing the front element. I turn the lens upside down to remove it.

 

Step 5: Clean it
Now that you have access to the fungus part, you can continue to clean it. I have used some cotton buds and VCR tape cleaner.


 

Finally. Clean as new !

Comments (10) -

  • Darren

    9/2/2008 2:52:40 AM |

    AWESOME! And thanks a bunch !

  • |sorcerer|

    9/3/2008 11:09:01 AM |

    nice
    really appreciate the tuts
    im bookmarking this page Smile

  • vincentpang

    9/5/2008 1:14:23 AM |

    Darren: hopefully you sell this one soonest. Don't want to let it caught another fungus

    sorcerer: thanks, appreciate it

  • Jepf

    9/7/2008 8:51:55 AM |

    Cool tips man, thanks a lot.

  • ramblie

    10/6/2008 12:52:43 PM |

    Tips bagus ni!!! Thanks man...

  • Dan

    1/20/2009 1:45:26 AM |

    Wow cool! My uncle just gave me some lenses.  One of which (100 - 500mm) has a real bad fungus problem..  (bummer) I will try this when I get home..  

  • Yeoh

    4/22/2009 3:29:22 AM |

    Nice tips.

  • tukang nggame

    6/26/2009 2:56:19 AM |

    great tips, thanks for taking the time to sharing this with us

  • ckucin

    8/3/2009 12:23:50 AM |

    after you have clean it.. is the lens is good as before?? color capturing and so on.. Becoz one of my friend had her fungus lens cleaned but it won't work beautiful as before..

  • Data Deduplication

    11/10/2009 1:50:01 AM |

    The blog was absolutely fantastic! Lots of great information and inspiration, both of which we all need!

Comments are closed