Home»Miscellaneous»Old Lens Crud

One of the problems with old vintage lenses is the possibility for fungus growth and other interior imperfections to develop over time. Fungus is pretty easy to spot. I've read about other issues that come up too, such as 'fogginess or cloudiness' on an interior lens element, or the integrity of lens coatings being compromised - eaten away by fungus or harsh environment air during storage. Fungus can be cleaned off, but once a glass element becomes cloudy or the coating is damaged - that's it.

The good thing though is that these old manual lenses are fairly easy to work with if you're good with your hands - especially primes. They have simple mechanical linkages that only fit one way. You just need the proper tools (lens spanner wrench and some very tiny screw drivers), steady hands, and a lot of patience. Cleaning the lens elements isn't that difficult once the lens is opened up. The challenge is getting the glass DUST FREE before reassembly. If you are the OCD type, plan on spending serious amounts of time assembling, looking for dust, and disassembling your lens!

If you aren't able to clean the interior - the effect on image quality will vary from shot to shot in unpredictable ways. Some shots will "appear" to be completely unaffected, while other more critical shots may show lower overall contrast, localized aberrations, or more pronounced flaring.