Canonet QL17 - mold in the lens :(

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The weekend at a camera fair I combed the junk bins and found a Canonet QL17. After a like TLC it looks very nice but at the fair I missed the mold inside the lens 🙁 The mold is visible on the inside all across the lens - how is this going to affect my photos? I shot a quick test roll the other day in my house and so far nothing has really shown up. Did I luck out?
 
If you did not mix this camera with any other of your camera gear, you did indeed luck out.

Mold spreads by spores. It has the potential, indeed, probablility, of contaminating your other gear if in the same room or even house, much less a camera bag. Granted you may kill most of it by exposure to direct sunlight. I suspect you may miss some of it though. Normal advice by those who have had experience with these things is to chuck it. Sorry, they are fun little cameras, but try for another.
 
It looks like this inside. Guess I should chuck it 🙄 It cost me less than $5 (no wonder.)
 

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It's also worth taking apart to clean it, since you didn't spend enough money to worry about it if you mess things up. I'm sure folks here can assist with how to disassemble the lens.
 
The front element can removed without taking off other rings. Needlenose the retaining off CCW. Then the element will fall in your hand.

If you want a super way of cleaning the element, PM me.
That way I don't start a fight here. 😉
 
I agree. Have a mess with it. It's good fun and very liberating to have a tinker with a camera when you've got nothing to lose.

Surely there must be some (chemical?) way of treating lens mold? It can't be that tough.

I got mine open using a pair or needle nosed pliers that needed oiling. Being almost seized i could set them to the position of the notches and carefully unscrew the lenses. Fingernails wouldn't have worked for me.

Bob.
 
Bobfrance said:
I'm intrigued!

dip it in weed-killer? 😀
Click to expand...

You may be onto something. 😀 😀

Actually, as you probably know, if there is anyone who can give good advice on RF repair in general, and Canonets specifically, it is greyhoundman. I have always heard it was unsafe to keep anything around with fungus. However, if greyhoundman says there is a way; there is.

Greyhoundman, I hope this post finds you in good and improving health. Btw, fwiw, I noted your lens hack on your blog. To my knowledge, Soligor never had interchangable mounts. The TX mount was exclussive to Vivitar afik. Vivitar in fact had some very good lenses in the TX line. I have 3 or 4 and have found them to be good performers, and like being able to use them on different camera brands. All that said, it is possible that someone performed a hack prior to your getting it.
 
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oftheherd said:
You may be onto something. 😀 😀

Actually, as you probably know, if there is anyone who can give good advice on RF repair in general, and Canonets specifically, it is greyhoundman. I have always heard it was unsafe to keep anything around with fungus. However, if greyhoundman says there is a way; there is.

Greyhoundman, I hope this post finds you in good and improving health. Btw, fwiw, I noted your lens hack on your blog. To my knowledge, Soligor never had interchangable mounts. The TX mount was exclussive to Vivitar afik. Vivitar in fact had some very good lenses in the TX line. I have 3 or 4 and have found them to be good performers, and like being able to use them on different camera brands. All that said, it is possible that someone performed a hack prior to your getting it.
Click to expand...

I saw the blog post on the lens hack too. I think you are right - Soligor did have some kind of proprietary interchangeable mount (T4), but less common than the Vivitar TX. T4 mounts fit TX but not vice versa. It may be that someone mangled a TX mount onto this lens.

The link below seems quite useful:

http://64.233.183.104/search?q=cach...id=00J4f1+soligor+tx&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=3&gl=uk
 
zuikologist said:
I saw the blog post on the lens hack too. I think you are right - Soligor did have some kind of proprietary interchangeable mount (T4), but less common than the Vivitar TX. T4 mounts fit TX but not vice versa. It may be that someone mangled a TX mount onto this lens.

The link below seems quite useful:

http://64.233.183.104/search?q=cach...id=00J4f1+soligor+tx&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=3&gl=uk
Click to expand...

Interesting. I am aware of the T mounts of course, but I didn't know they were Soligors. Learn something new everyday. Now that you mention it, weren't the T-4 mounts made to do what the TX did, give auto settings on those cameras of the time that had autoexposure?
 
Soligor also produced lenses for the T2 mount which was pretty much universal and used for many accessories such as slide copiers etc. 😉

As far as the fungus goes, I would be very wary of keeping a bag with known fungus spores but depending on the type of fungus and assuning it hasn't etched the glass, I see no problem with cleaning the glass thoroughly and then using the camera. There are fungus spores everywhere and you can't do anything about them. Keeping your kit away from a lens with fungus isn't going to "stop" you having problems. My favourite pro technician used to work in a hot humid country and said they were forever having to clean lenses. The only thing you can do is keep your kit in an environment which inhibits the germination of the spores.

Kim
 
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