Mould On Lenses

[cusper]

Aaargh the joys of the tropics.

Ok I have a mould problem on some of my lenses 35mm slr.

Im in Surat and there are no shops here to deal with this problem, so does anyone know if Phuket

has a good camera shop? or can you solve this problem yourself?

Thanks in advance

[skippybangkok]

dont know...but had the same problem with an old camera. Keep my D70 and host of lenses not in a old small mini fridge ( no power ) with lots of dessicant.

[astral]

Check in your area for a good photo shop and then go and ask.

I live in Sri Racha Chonburi and had a Canon telephoto cleaned, but I

know they sent it off to Bangkok.

The job was very well done and cost 1500baht, if I remember rightly.

[taxexile]

do it quickly , some mould actually etches into the glass and can not be cleaned or polished off.

[ColPyat]

Aaargh the joys of the tropics.

Ok I have a mould problem on some of my lenses 35mm slr.

Im in Surat and there are no shops here to deal with this problem, so does anyone know if Phuket

has a good camera shop? or can you solve this problem yourself?

Thanks in advance

Mould is eating up the coating of the glass and turns an expensive lens into a piece of sh*t.

You should not put your lens into a fridge as this will creat humidity from the the temperature difference. What you should do is investing into dehumidifying cabinet, that will give slides and negs a lot longer life as well.

Edited May 3, 2006 by Kan Win

[taxexile]

if you dont want to spend thousands on a dehumidifying cabinet , then dehumidify regularly in an air con room and keep your camera and lenses in ziploc bags or plastic food container boxes with silica gel sachets.

when not in bags or boxes dont keep cameras etc. in drawers or cupboards with little or no ventilation.

keep them on open shelves.

[ColPyat]

if you dont want to spend thousands on a dehumidifying cabinet , then dehumidify regularly in an air con room and keep your camera and lenses in ziploc bags or plastic food container boxes with silica gel sachets.

when not in bags or boxes dont keep cameras etc. in drawers or cupboards with little or no ventilation.

keep them on open shelves.

Aircon is bad news for cameras, slides and negs. Due to the temperature difference condensation will buit up and make fungus even worse. Unless the aircon is running 24/7 you are better off spending about tenthousand baht for a usable dehumidifying cabinet. There are cheaper options, such as the plastic boxes with a small dehumidifier, or really cheap: get a plastic box and a large sack of silica gel that has to be pan fried as soon as it changes color.

Especially the rain season is going to be a camera and slide killer. Those things are simply not made to last long in more than 90% humidity.

[Nordlys]

Aircon is bad news for cameras, slides and negs. Due to the temperature difference condensation will buit up and make fungus even worse. Unless the aircon is running 24/7 you are better off spending about tenthousand baht for a usable dehumidifying cabinet. There are cheaper options, such as the plastic boxes with a small dehumidifier, or really cheap: get a plastic box and a large sack of silica gel that has to be pan fried as soon as it changes color.

Especially the rain season is going to be a camera and slide killer. Those things are simply not made to last long in more than 90% humidity.

Couldn't agree more. Given what it can cost to clean/repair or even replace the equipment damaged by the fungus (not to mention positive/negatives are not replacable at all!), dehumidifying cabinet or sealed plastic box + dehumidifer aren't that expensive an option. Like I said in the other thread, ziplocks aren't that good in sealing humidity for a long time and without an hygrometer you never know when to replace the dehumidifying agent.

[Etherus]

Just had a 70-200 f4.6 lens repaired and cleaned in Bangkok for 1200 baht. Great job. Also had the sensor on the 20D cleaned. but see spots coming back. You can check by taking a pic of a white computer screen and then using photoshop to modify auto contrast and auto colour. Frightening when you see hundreds of small round blobs on the image.

[Nordlys]

Just had a 70-200 f4.6 lens repaired and cleaned in Bangkok for 1200 baht. Great job. Also had the sensor on the 20D cleaned. but see spots coming back. You can check by taking a pic of a white computer screen and then using photoshop to modify auto contrast and auto colour. Frightening when you see hundreds of small round blobs on the image.

Where did you get the job done? At Canon service center on south Sathorn? How much did it cost to clean 20D sensor?

[skippybangkok]

You should not put your lens into a fridge as this will creat humidity from the the temperature

I think the rel. humidity will go up a the air temperature decreases ( due point )...right, but a Fridge with power turned off is a hermetically sealed space right ? Temp remains i.e.28 or 32, dessicant sucks moisture...... Rel humidity will sink right ?

And with a wad of dessicant in it, is a de-humidifyer really so superior ? The old fridge which was going to be thrown out anyway is cheap, and at the the cost of dessicant......... seems cheaper than a pro-set.

I dont go in there very often, and the gel has maintained its colour for yonks.

Views appreicated. Not keen on getting a de-hum. if no required.

p..s anyone wanna buy a 16mm wide angle for Nikon. Used it about 5x for U/W wide angle before moving to D70. IM me.

Edited May 5, 2006 by skippybangkok

[ColPyat]

You should not put your lens into a fridge as this will creat humidity from the the temperature

I think the rel. humidity will go up a the air temperature decreases ( due point )...right, but a Fridge with power turned off is a hermetically sealed space right ? Temp remains i.e.28 or 32, dessicant sucks moisture...... Rel humidity will sink right ?

And with a wad of dessicant in it, is a de-humidifyer really so superior ? The old fridge which was going to be thrown out anyway is cheap, and at the the cost of dessicant......... seems cheaper than a pro-set.

I dont go in there very often, and the gel has maintained its colour for yonks.

Views appreicated. Not keen on getting a de-hum. if no required.

p..s anyone wanna buy a 16mm wide angle for Nikon. Used it about 5x for U/W wide angle before moving to D70. IM me.

I am not good on the technical matters.

But the silica gel thing does work. It worked for me several years when i was still poor and struggling. Depending how often i opened the sealed box, and the season the gel changed from a deep blue to a pink. Then i fried it in a pan until it turned blue again.

You can get usable dehumidifing cabinets for a bit more than tenthousand in the shop in MBK on the third floor, owned by the same people as Fotofile. The advantage of a proper dehumidifying cabinet is that you can finetune the moisture levels. Too dry is not good either as it will dry out the camera lubricants.

[ColPyat]

Just had a 70-200 f4.6 lens repaired and cleaned in Bangkok for 1200 baht. Great job. Also had the sensor on the 20D cleaned. but see spots coming back. You can check by taking a pic of a white computer screen and then using photoshop to modify auto contrast and auto colour. Frightening when you see hundreds of small round blobs on the image.

Once you have fungus in the lens it is almost impossible to get rid of it completely. It will always reappear, and needs regular cleaning.

It is also nearly impossible to see with the eye how much the coating was affected. I believe i have read somewhere that older lenses are easier to get fungus due to the glues used and different coating techniques.

[Etherus]

Had the camera cleaning job done in Australia Canon at $90. I need to get it repaired again so will try Canon in Sathorn road as they did a great job repairing and cleaning the lens.

[Snapper52]

Aaargh the joys of the tropics.

Ok I have a mould problem on some of my lenses 35mm slr.

Im in Surat and there are no shops here to deal with this problem, so does anyone know if Phuket

has a good camera shop? or can you solve this problem yourself?

Thanks in advance

you should have a small pouch of sea salt with your camera and lenses, then you will not have any problems with mould and humidity

[hughden]

Fotofile in MBK will do you a sealed box for around 2,000 baht which will take a camera and a few lenses. The dessicant is dried out by plugging its container into the mains for a couple of hours. The frequency of drying out cycles will fluctuate between weekly and never, depending on how often you open the box. There is a meter on the outside and it never gets too dry indside (which I understand can also cause mould).

[ZZZ]

Just as a test I stuck a 10W bulb in a cupboard with a hygrometer and a thermometer. After a few hours the result was 20% humidity, 31C. Outside the cupboard it was 70% humidity and 27C.

Anyone think this could be used as a dehumidifier cabinet ?

[ColPyat]

(which I understand can also cause mould).

It doesn't cause mold, but the lubricants dry out, which is bad news.

After a few hours the result was 20% humidity, 31C. Outside the cupboard it was 70% humidity and 27C.

20% humidity is far too dry, humidity level should be somewhere around 45% to 55%.

It really is worth the money to spend a few bucks on one of the plastic boxes or a proper dehumidifying cabinet, especially important now during the rain season.