Cleaning from fungus: Nikkor 50 f/1.4 ...

... whether Ai, NAi or Pre-Ai, i don't have any clue (sorry Nikon shooters) ...
Nevertheless, a really nice lens to let the evil fungus there ...

As usual, the standard foreword: it worked for me, it doesn't mean that it will work for you. In other words, whether you decide to repair your lens by yourself, or to let a pro do the job, it's up to you:

I have no responsibility if you destroy your lens.

Now, let's the game begin ...

As you can see in the picture below, it is clearly infected by a fungus,
on the element rear the frontal one (we'll see that later) ...




Having some spare time, i prepared the "shock team" for action:
A sink cap
A small screwdriver
A pro-grade spanner wrench (thanks again, Alex)
Some cold cream
Some Q-tips
Zippo fluid
Lens cleaning fluid
A micro-fiber cloth

Now, let's the game begin ...

Using the sink cap, unscrew the front name ring ...



... and gently remove the front element.



Now, remove the filter support by unscrewing the small screw shown below (you must focus the lens to its shortest distance to see it) ...



Once the screw removed, unscrew the filter support ring to remove it ...



Now you will notice two notches for a spanner wrench.

DO NOT TRY TO UNSCREW THE RING RIGHT NOW!

Using the spanner wrench, very very gently shake the cell ...



... then, simply slip off the optical cell (two fingers will suffice) ...



Once the cell removed, unscrew its front element using the spanner wrench ...





Notice the three spots of fungus molds on the lens ...



Now, time to fix this: apply some cold cream on the lens to remove the fungus ...



... spread it using a q-tip and let it dry.
In the meantime, take a look at the diaphragm blades, to be sure that they are clean: if you need to clean them, it would be quite easy now ...



Let the cream destroy the molds during about an hour, then get the super cleaner (Zippo fluid) ...



... drop a few fluid on several q-tips and remove the cream from the lens. Notice that the three spots are no longer there ...



Using some optical cleaning fluid, remove the traces left by the Zippo fluid on the lens ...



Notice that there is no more haze on the lens ...



Time to rebuild the lens: screw in the front element in its cell ...



... gently slip in the cell in the focusing barrel (note the align screw on the side of the optical group) ...



... until it completely fits in the barrel ...



Finally, clean the front element and put it back on the lens, then screw in the front name ring. That's all ...



Now, some sample shots with the freshly cleaned lens:

At f/8:



At f/4:




Feel free to browse to the whole Flickr set available here, there are some more pictures, and they have overlaying notes where required.

The Nikkor wishes to say thanks for its new sight to the whole surgery team, to Rick Oleson for his great site endless source of inspiration and help, to the MFlenses team (Alex and Attila) for supplying professional grade lens-repair tools at fair prices, and, of course, my K10D with its FA-43 Limited for the pictures ...

Now, time to go have some phun ;-) ...

Cleaning fungus traces ... (1)

After beeing away for a while because of professional reasons, now back willing to share the last hint ...

As most of you know, the worst enemy of a lens is not dust or sand (or the Nutella on your fingertips), but the spores that fix on the elements of the lens and grow, especially in an humid environment, leading to some specks on the lenses, almost impossible to clean with "normal" liquids ...

Having fed my LBA with a Boyer Saphir B 135/4.5 for a few euros, i was quite disappointed by discovering that, once cleaned from dust, the lens showed some fungus traces on its front element (shame on me, i neglected to take a picture of the lens before cleaning ...). I was aware, from some forums discussions, that a good method for cleaning fungus traces from lenses was a cure of Cold Cream, but i was ... disappointed ... by the fact that every people was talking about Pond's Cold Cream, which is not commonly available in France ...
But, a few days ago, my friend told me that the cold cream is the oldest available cosmetic in the world, and that it is sold by almost all the major brands, with the same basic composition ... So, i went to the pharmacy and bought a tube of Avène Cold Cream, telling to myself that, in the worst case, i could have used it for my hands ...
And last night i decided to give it a try ... I started by cleaning the lens with some Zippo fluid (almost 100% pure kerosene, one of the best lens cleaning fluids around), then i applied some cold cream, and waited almost an hour ... Then i cleaned the lens again, and checked the fungus traces: they were still there, but the mold specks were lighter :-) ... So i decided for another try: another application of cold cream, and another cleanout after almost two hours ...

And the results are:


No more mold on the lens :-))) ...

I'm aware that this is only a little win, i still have to test it with my Meyer Orestor 135/2.8, with a nice fungus spot on its inner element (i promise, this time i will not forget to take a picture of the beast before trying to clean it), but the results i got with this lens seems quite promising to me ...

The whole set of pictures is in this Flickr set.

My Boyer Saphir B 135/4.5 wishes to thanks the Zippo fluid, the Avène Cold Cream, the basin cap and the microfibers cloth ...


... And of course my FA-43 Limited for taking the pictures ...

My first Limited lens ...

... A Pentax FA-43/1.9, in black finish (not my choice, i just took what was available).

Picture taken with a Pentax-K 85/1.8 stopped down to f/11 with a Vivitar auto extension tube of 12mm in cloudy daylight.


In the tradition of the Pentax Limited lenses, this one is very well built with a full metal barrel and front cap, and comes with a soft leather pouch (not shown here). Its focal length of 43mm makes it a "normal" lens for a 35mm film, but it becomes a very short tele (about 65mm) on an Pentax DSLR. Its compactness makes it quite discreet, especially in the black finish.
Despite its short rotation of about 120° from infinity to the shorted focusing distance, this lens is quite easy to use in manual focus mode because of the excellent contrast. And it is perfectly usable even wide open (see my previous post for an unprocessed sample at f/1.9).
Moreover, the front element doesn't rotate, thus allowing the use of a polarizing filter without hassle.

Here is another sample picture taken with this lens, a white Phalaenopsis orchid shot in artificial light on a black background.

Here, too, the image has not been processed, i just fixed the white balance and adjusted a bit the levels (the black background was far enough behind the flowers to avoid light reflections).

If only Pentax made this an f/1.4 ...

More to come ...

Happy new year ...

Happy new 2009 to everyone.



Pentax FA-43 Limited wide open, in unfixed halogen light. Image straight from the raw file without PP.

Have a nice shot.

Playing with light ... (8)

... As usual, with my Metz 45 CL-4 and the Cactus radio controller ...

Green glass nuggets on a white opaque acrylic sheet, to diffuse light, backlighted by the flash in manual mode triggered by the Cactus radio controller. A black paper cylinder has been used to accentuate the black borders of the nuggets. Shot with my new preferred lens, the FA-43 Limited ;-) ...



More to come ...

Airbus A330-200 TAM Airlines ...

... My first shot with my first Limited lens, a wonderful FA-43 f/1.9 ...



... An Airbus A330-200 TAM Airlines shot at the Toulouse Blagnac (LFBO) airport, landing after a touch-and-go ...

More to come ...