Help - fungus!

[Michael Fraley]

I'm looking for some advice on preventing fungus. Just recently I took a zoom lens out of the camera bag it's been stored in for months, and there's a white spiderweb fungus on an internal surface. It's 2-3mm across. This prompted me to check my dozen or so cameras and lenses. I found more fungus in the viewfinder of several rangefinders that normally are stored in their ever-ready cases. What's the best way to fight this?

I read on the PhotoEthnography site that sunlight prevents fungus, so I put all the cases aside and lined up the cameras on a bookself. I took the lens caps off all lenses. Is there anything else I can do? I live near the ocean in San Francisco. It's a temperate climate, usually not outside of a 40 to 90 degree fahrenheit range. There is some humidity; mold is a problem along the baseboard of some walls. Short of new duopane windows all around or a dry box for umpteen cameras, anything I should be doing? Do you store cameras in the case, or lenses with a cap on?

Thank you very much,
Michael

[Michael Fraley]

Thanks everyone,

I managed to clean two viewfinders so far -- a Zorki 4 and a Fed 5C. I'll invest in some silica dessicant. And make regular checkups I guess. I've sent my two telephotos off for cleaning. I got nervous about even leaving a lens cap on but I guess that's silly.

[herron]

Michael:
Brian's right about getting that existing fungus off those lenses before it causes permanent damage!

Best thing I have found is a 50-50 mixture of household ammonia and hydrogen peroxide (it stinks, but it works). Doesn't take much at all. A capful will do several lenses. I have a How-To page on my web site.

Kamera's (the other Ron H) suggestion of a dessicant is also a very good idea, particularly in a normally humid environment.

[bobm]

There's also a school of thought that storing cameras and lenses in leather cases can also cause fungus or mould to develop.

[kiev4a]

I think fungus depends a lot of where you live. Our humidity here is usually about 10-15 percent in the summer and maybe 25 percent in the winter. About the only lens fungus around here comes from equipment coming in from outside.

[John Parry]

Having the skylight blow open and a howling gale and driving rain rattle around your apartment while you are home for the weekend works too!

Need to attack my Pentacon 4/300 pretty quickly!

Regards - John

[PeterW]

Ron Herron wrote:

Best thing I have found is a 50-50 mixture of household ammonia and hydrogen peroxide (it stinks, but it works). Doesn't take much at all. A capful will do several lenses.

I'll second that, Ron. Works like a charm, but I found clear ammonia better than cloudy ammonia which I found left a residue behind. It's also a good mixture for cleaning dirty satin chromium plate.

I've also tried cold cream (Pond's actually, but I doubt there's much difference in brands) to clean off fungus. That works well, but you have to use alcohol to clean off the grease afterwards.

I never keep cameras in their ER cases. Years ago I opened a case which had been closed for about a fortnight in warm conditions after being used on a moist sort of day, and found mould inside on the leather. Fortunately no fungus on the lens, but I reckoned that where mould can grow and flourish fungus can too.

I'm in two minds about bags of dessicant, silica gel or whatever. Probably very useful if you're packing cameras away, but I keep my cameras and lenses either on open shelves or in cabinets with plenty of air circulating, except for my current user which I keep in a fairly roomy camera bag, usually with the top open. So far (fingers crossed) in 20 or so years I've not had a new outbreak of fungus, only on cameras or lenses I've bought with it.

Years ago I was given a tip never to clean fungus off a lens anywhere near other cameras, and to throw the cloths or tissues away after use. If you happen to bush any dry spores off they can float around and settle on other lenses.

I usually use soft toilet tissue for cleaning both cameras and lenses and I haven't known it scratch a lens yet. It might look a bit odd having a roll sitting on a wooden peg in a corner of my workbench, but hey, it's soft, it's cheap so you don't mind using lots of it, it's fairly strong and it does the job. Only trouble is on the rare occasions when it runs out in the bathroom. The whole family knows where they can always find a spare roll!!

PeterW

[barrington]

I prevent mushrooms from growing in my equipment via the overkill method.I,too,use bags of sillica gel in every bag and case I have to keep my toys in.Not those silly little sachets you get.I get industrial stuff from work which is usually found free inside the packaging of delicate machinery.The bags I get are about 1lb in weight (each!) and are quite capable of sucking every bit of moisture from my entire house.Should I wish to take my gear out,I simply remove the several bags and replace them when I get home.

Barrington

[jody]

Bass pro shop in USA and probably any hunting store elsewhere carries bag of desecant for sale and also an electric rod that is used in gun cabnets to keep humitity at bay is also sold here. I bought one and will use in the china cabnet I store my cameras in. I need a new cabnet too. Also don't store in everready cases or any leather case. One summer my air conditioner went out. I live in the humid south. 3 mounths without air didnt hurt much but my leather coats and shoes. I deduct from this that it may be prone to mold and mildew. So no leather cases for cameras or lenses as far as storage goes.

[majicman]

A camera repair guy I know said that he uses naptha for fungus.

[Just Plain Curt]

I'd sure agree with jody about never ready leather cases. They look good, do wonders protecting camera bodies but when my cameras are at home the leather cases live in huge green garbage bags in my garage. They're a perfect medium for fungus or mold. if you've ever received a camera body with the leather having mould on it, you'll understand. Nothing, even cigar smoke, smells worse when you hold it up to your cheek to focus. I once threw out a gadget bag, two straps, flash and instruction books as soon as i got the camera. Even my kitchen smelled till I took the garbage out. Makes you wonder what the seller's house was like, EEEEEWWWWWW.