Camera Cleaning

[mitmig]

Recently I discovered to my horror a fungus in my camera. It is growing inside the viewfinder. Luckely the lenses are all o.k. But now I have to get the camera cleaned to get rid of the fungus. Does anybody know a good shop in Bangkok where I can bring my camera? Its a Nikon D50 and I don't want to miss it for a very long time

[rafval]

Recently I discovered to my horror a fungus in my camera. It is growing inside the viewfinder. Luckely the lenses are all o.k. But now I have to get the camera cleaned to get rid of the fungus. Does anybody know a good shop in Bangkok where I can bring my camera? Its a Nikon D50 and I don't want to miss it for a very long time

that sounds a bit strange, where were you storing it?

[mitmig]

Not really storing it, because I use it all the time. Now I've bought a big plastic box and some silicagel to store it. Why strange? I thought it was common, after reading some articles on the internet.

[Nordlys]

Why can't you just bring it to Nikon or its distributor for the service?

[percy2]

Because Niks are expensive and offer poor service?

Cheers

[mitmig]

Because Niks are expensive and offer poor service?

Cheers

Oh dear! Was about to give Niks on Silom Road a call, but if their service is poor in your opinion Any better suggestion?

[rafval]

Not really storing it, because I use it all the time. Now I've bought a big plastic box and some silicagel to store it. Why strange? I thought it was common, after reading some articles on the internet.

perhaps you are right, I follow the forums on dpreview and have never noticed anyone mention it, I would have thought you would have to have got water in it or store it in a very humid enviroment to have that problem, I would wonder if they somehow got moisture in while manufacturing it.

[percy2]

Because Niks are expensive and offer poor service?

Cheers

Oh dear! Was about to give Niks on Silom Road a call, but if their service is poor in your opinion Any better suggestion?

I haven't found anybody I would recommend yet

Fungus growing on lenses in the tropics is not such a rare event.

Those heated cabinets are good if you have the space.

Cheers

[mitmig]

I blame the high humidity (94% and more), but I'm glad my lenses are o.k. I have stored everything in a big plastic box now and added a small box of silicagel and the humidity already dropped to around 50%.

[ChiangMaiAmerican]

There are several DIY manuals on lens disassembly available. I have taken a couple down to parts and it isn't that hard. You will need a few basic tools though. Try a google search for lens fungus. There is a lot of information out there on the topic. Two cleaning solutions that come to mind are strong ammonia and believe it or not, Ponds cold creme. Supposedly the cold creme is what is used by a major manufacturer's service techs to remove lens fungus. A couple of resources I use for DIY camera repair are:

http://www.kyphoto.com/classics/repairmanuals.html

This site is mainly devoted to the repair of classic cameras but has a number of good links. There are a lot of free manual downloads there.

http://www.pbase.com/pganzel/stuff_im_working_on

The last site has detailed disassembly instructions for a number of Minolta AF lenses. Nikon lenses should be similar.

Edited November 28, 2007 by ChiangMaiAmerican

[ChiangMaiAmerican]

Below are 2 more links. The first is to partial dissasembly instructions for a D50. The second is to a downloadable copy of the D50 factory service manual for sale on Ebay for about $8 US. I have repaired several P&S Olympus digital cameras I bought for UW photography. It isn't aas hard as it seems. SLRs are a bit more difficult if the level of dissasembly is such that reassembly will require adjusting the lens to the camera body. I have a couple of old beater Minoltas I plan to take apart to see just how difficult realigning the lens to the body is without the fancy service equipment. Good luck with your fungus repair.

http://www.lifepixel.com/ir-tutorials/niko...nstructions.htm

http://cgi.ebay.com/Nikon-D50-Digital-Came...VQQcmdZViewItem

[mitmig]

Thanks so much ChiangMaiAmerica, I'll look in to it!