Mold in Nikon 105 vr please help

Hi there,

I'm on a tiny island in the middle of nowhere and I won't be going anywhere for months.

I have mold in my Nikon 105 vr.

Can anyone give me a dismantle guide so I can clean it myself?

Thanks in advance.

There are some vids on YouTube thats where i would start

There are some vids on YouTube thats where i would start

not for this lens. Thanks though.

During my stay in Roatan i had some stuff from Ikelite shipped from Miami as there is a freight company who deliver to Roatan.

It was not really expensive and worked well, but don't ask me who the freight forwarder was.

Anyway,
cleaning lenses from fungus is a awkward task and it most likely won't last a long time as ance the lens is infected then it is very hard to kill the spores.

Also it seems that the fungus etch the coating and leaves some "trails" etched in the affected lens(es), have a look here:
http://www.zeiss.com/camera-lenses/en_de/website/service/fungus_on_lenses.html

There are some companies who do that but you have to decide if the $$S for it is worth or if you better opt for a new/used lens.

I had issues with fungus on the same lens i bought used some years ago and the price for having it professionally cleaned and the affected lens elements replaced

was expensive as the price for a new 105mm micro VRII.

In any case: Google is your friend to do some further research how to clean and avoid fungus in lenses.

Chris

Time for a new lens I'm afraid. Not much hope for it.

Yeah, sadly I have to agree with Aquapaul. I've had major issues in the last 12-18 months with Nikkor lenses and mould/fungus. I did a post about the problems of "champignons" in France.

I had to have repaired (by Nikon) an 80-400 at a cost of €1200; and an 18-200 for about €180. My beloved 60mm was considered "uneconomically repairable" - and am now looking at turning it into a clock!

Good luck if you are able to fix the issue, but as Chris has written, it seems to me too that the lens is etched by the growth and replacement of elements is required. But, in addition - to add to the misery - Nikon told me that often the lens electronics are also infected and various electrical opponents needed changing too.

Big bill, sadly, I fear.

Not entirely on topic, but how would one go about avoiding this?

Dry cabinets work, and you can use UV light to kill some types of fungus, but clean and dry are the keys I think unless you have access to a lab where you can fumigate them.

Bill

Not entirely on topic, but how would one go about avoiding this?

Mold spreads. Don't store infected equipment with the rest of your lenses.

Yeah, I think my mold problems started after a visit to Danum rain forest in Sabah. I have been to some pretty sweaty places in my life but nothing matched this!

The only way - maybe - to have prevented it would have been to keep lenses stored in ziplock packed with silica gel during the trip and whenever not in immediate use.

If you are desperate try this: UV kills fungus so leaving the lens pointing towards the sun so that it gets a thorough dose of UV through it (be aware that the glass in some lenses does not transmit UV well and remove any skylight or UV filters obviously. This might help stop the fungus getting any worse and causing coating/glass surface damage, but you may need to be careful not to overheat the lens and cause any damage. Then it needs to be kept dry - use a desiccant such as silica gel and keep it with the lens in a plastic bag. Contrary to popular belief, fungus or mold does not spread unless it has the right conditions to do so - so keeping equipment dry (and in the light) is far better than storing it in damp or humid (and dark) conditions and should prevent the spread of fungus or mold. Personally I wouldn't keep a lens with fungus with unaffected lenses simply because it is a source of fungal spores which may affect other lenses if they are then subjected to damp or humid condition in which the spores can then cause fungal or mold infection. But if you can stop the fungus by changing the conditions that the equipment is kept in, it shouldn't spread.

During my stay in Roatan i had some stuff from Ikelite shipped from Miami as there is a freight company who deliver to Roatan.

It was not really expensive and worked well, but don't ask me who the freight forwarder was.

 

Anyway,

cleaning lenses from fungus is a awkward task and it most likely won't last a long time as ance the lens is infected then it is very hard to kill the spores.

Also it seems that the fungus etch the coating and leaves some "trails" etched in the affected lens(es), have a look here:

http://www.zeiss.com/camera-lenses/en_de/website/service/fungus_on_lenses.html

 

There are some companies who do that but you have to decide if the $$S for it is worth or if you better opt for a new/used lens.

 

I had issues with fungus on the same lens i bought used some years ago and the price for having it professionally cleaned and the affected lens elements replaced

was expensive as the price for a new 105mm micro VRII.

 

In any case: Google is your friend to do some further research how to clean and avoid fungus in lenses.

 

Chris

Thank you so much

Thank you everyone. I've only had the lens a year and it's so expensive to replace. I've written to Nikon for an estimate. Luckily it's only a tiny amount and not in the center so you can't see it in images. I'll try the sun suggestion and I also have a blue light which I can try.

From now on i'm keeping all my lenses in Ziplock bags with Silica packs!

Thanks again!