Learned the hard way about lens fungus in a humid basement shop

I had a guy bring in a Nikon 50mm 1.4 from the 70s last week, looked clean on the outside but the glass was foggy. Popped it open on my bench and found a whole colony of fungus eating the coating, looked like tiny spider webs between the elements. I was working out of my basement at the time and never ran a dehumidifier, just figured it was fine down there. Spent 4 hours carefully separating the groups and cleaning with peroxide and isopropyl, got maybe 80% of it off but the coating was already etched in spots. Customer was understanding, took a discount on the repair, but I had to order a replacement element from a donor lens to make it right. Now I keep a hygrometer on my bench and run a dehumidifier anytime it hits 60%. Any of you guys deal with fungus damage from your own workspace?

2 comments

2 Comments

leo23821d ago

Read somewhere that a lot of the old school camera repair guys used to keep their basements around 40-50% humidity just to avoid exactly this problem... heard one guy say he ran a dehumidifier 24/7 in his shop and never had a single lens come back with fungus. Makes me wonder how many vintage lenses are sitting in people's basements right now slowly getting eaten up without anyone knowing.

iris_green8420d ago

Figured my lens collection is safe since my basement is just a damp storage unit for regrets.