Fungus on Rolleinar (Getting rid of)

[TenEleven]

I'd like to share my a story that hopefully enables others to score a cheap(er) set of the famed Rolleinar closeup lenses for their TLRs. I am going to use mine on a Minolta Autocord, but I'm sure that other TLRs with a Bay 1 mount will work just fine.

Upon browsing through various auctions, I stumbled upon a set of Rolleinars; 1 + 2, plus assorted other Rollei color filters all in a beautiful and practical leather case. Current bid price? Roughly $11.

Here:

The catch? Well... see for yourself:

Yuck! 😱 Can you say petri dish?

Well, I decided to bid $20 on it anyway, thinking; what the heck - and guess what? I won.

Well here's the thing. Once I got them I just dunked the whole collection into stop-bath acid, the strongest acid I had at hand. At this point I figured that I only could win. Immediately little swirly white clouds began to rise from the glass.

While the lenses were soaking I sprayed down the leather case with desinfectant and rubbed it down with lighter fluid. During this process it came apart, glued it with krazy glue. (Didn't want to use organic glue, for reasons you can imagine.) After that I washed them off in warm water and then cleaned them as normal using lens cleaner and a microfiber cloth that I had bought specially for this purpose and then discarded. Left them a day in the sun after that.

The result?

Nice. Not perfect, but nice! Had to toss the orange filter as the gelatin had delaminated, washing and scrubbing had no effect on this one. There are still some minor markings on where the fungus had apparently dug deeper, but luckily even those are only visible in the coating when viewed at an angle, so my best guess is that it won't effect image quality at all. I ran some quick tests with my digital camera with the filter Frankenstein-ed on, but even when peeping - couldn't detect any issues VS a filter in mint condition.

For less than $25, all cost figured in, I think it's not a bad deal. As it's one of the old 3 piece Rolleinar sets, I demoted the worse of the two lenses (as shown above) to viewing lenses. This goes to show show two things that I wasn't aware of: The older Rolleinars were coated and the coating is quite hardy surviving even my brutal way of cleaning.

Now for a question: I'd love to use the case, for it's handiness, but I have some reservations as it may re-infect the lenses. Thoughts on this? Also now these filters should be fine for using my good camera, no? I'd hate to "infect it" after it's been going strong for all those decades.

 

[Leigh Youdale]

I used to disinfect leather work shoes in Formaldehyde. Very effective but it's stuff that you have to be careful about using and for all I know it might even be unavailable now in some countries.

 

[maddoc]

I have a similar set (bought from a member here at RFF at a much higher price but close to mint condition) and keep the Rolleinars in my dry-cabinet and the filter in the case (the case outside of the dry-cabinet).

I don`t think that your glass surfaces will be re-infected but I would recommend a couple of days in bright sun-light might disinfect the leather case totally. However, the color of the leather might be affected by this ...

 

[johannielscom]

Blimey, those filters are looking clean.

Guess I'm going to try this on an old fungus-invested lens I have lying raound somewhere to see if it clears up. If it does, I have a cunning plan that I cannot yet reveal 😎

 

[Steve M.]

Ditch the case, it's a fungus trap. I'm glad you were able to get these cleaned up so easily, relatively. It's the first time I've heard of fungus growth on the outside of glass. Every time I've had this issue, it's been between cemented pieces of elements, and that wasn't something I could repair at home.

 

[mdx]

I have bought Rolleinar 2 and some filters from the experienced collector, so they were in very good condition and so I did not have to use any chemical mystic rejuvenating.

 

[KoNickon]

Use the case. Leave it in sunlight for a few days. Put the filters back in, and just keep an eye on them -- expose them to air and sunlight regularly. Fungus doesn't happen overnight.

 

[TenEleven]

Thanks for all the feedback and information, I really appreciate it. Still 50/50 on the case I guess I could just dunk it in ammonia and then soak it in sunlight, it's not like I have anything to lose with it.

 

[Leigh Youdale]

I'm not so sure about ammonia. I think it might be too aggressive and have to many residue problems. I've never heard of anyone using ammonia to clean camera equipment. Good for floors though!
If you Google "leather" and "fungus" you'll find several suggestions. The one closest to my experience is this one -

Outside, remove as much mildew as possible with a brush or dry sponge.
Leave in the sun for a couple of hours.
Sponge the leather with a solution of soapy water and leave to dry in the sun.
If, when dry, mildew is still evident, make a half and half solution of water and denatured alcohol (rubbing alcohol) and use a clean sponge to wipe the leather down.
Wipe again using a fresh cloth or sponge and clean water.
Allow to dry thoroughly in the sun.