Depends on what you consider "salvaged". If the fungus hasn't been
there very long and is not widespread you may be able to clean it off
without any apparent ill effect. But fungi exude acids that will etch
whatever they're living on. Fortunately, life as a fungus doesn't
proceed at anything like a torrid pace. I have cleaned fungus spots off
a couple of lenses where I can't tell there was ever anything there...
meaning I can't locate exactly where the fungus was.
If it's on the outside you are lucky and can easily clean it. If it's
on the inside you may not be able to do anything. According to
discussions that were going on here recently the 300/4.5 has a tendency
for the name ring to be assembled with glue and too much of it at that.
It may be next to impossible to unscrew the name ring to get the lens
open for cleaning.
When cleaning fungus I have used John Hermanson's suggested method which
is to use a dab of women's cold cream. I think he specified "Pond's"
brand but I used whatever my wife had in her cosmetics drawer and it
worked fine. The other cleaner (taught by the Olympus factory "sensei")
was "nose oil". That's exactly what it sounds like. Skin oil picked up
by rubbing your finger on the tip of your nose and then rubbing your
finger tip on the fungus spot. Skin oil (fortunately for us) has
anti-fungal properties and the tip of the nose is liberally supplied
with oil glands.
Chuck Norcutt
Gary W. Marklund wrote:
> I have an Olympus Zuiko 300mm f/4.5 that has a couple of fungus "stars".
> Does anyone know if this is salvageable? I only discovered them when I
> went to list the lens for sale.
>
> Thanks,
> Gary
>
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