Fungus Question

[JimG]

This image is from the 1st roll of a Zeiss Ikon Nedder I just got. The camera is great but the lens has some kind of haze inside of it. Does it show in the photo? There's an area in the bottom left of some of the images thats white, (as this one) is it caused by fungus or other? JimG

 

[ZeissFan]

That should be a Nettar camera. That spot in the lower left looks more like a light leak than fungus. It could be a leak in the bellows. It could be that the roll of film wasn't wound tightly on the take-up spool and it fogged when you removed it. Or it could be a tiny fungus spot, although if it were fungus, you would likely see it affect a much larger portion of the photo.

The white stuff in the lens could be haze or it could be fungus. Hard to say without actually looking at the lens. Haze generally will result in lowering the overall contrast of a photo but [generally] wouldn't show up in a small portion of the photo, as what's seen in your photo. Fungus should look like either a white mass or spidery fingers.

Getting back to the photo, if you have other photos taken under similar or identical conditions, it should appear on those photos as well, if it's a light leak. If it were a small spot of fungus, it would depend. If it's on the front cell, the location would change, depending on how the lens was focused (because these are front-cell focusing lenses). If it's on the middle or rear element, then it should be in the same spot in every photo.

But I would bet this is a light leak issue more than fungus. You ned to check the bellows and also check for signs of damage to the camera, especially along the edges of the back.

 

[JimG]

Nettar Question

Nettar Question

Mike- About half or more of the images had this spot in the same place, and your right it does look like a light leak (Holgaesque). I checked the bellows for light leaks when I got the camera, but I'll try again. Beyond that, if the lens has a haze problem do I still need to take the lens apart to take care of it? What would cause the haze? Whatever it is it covers about 70% of the lens. Thanks for your help.

 

[blee017]

Haze results in loss of sharpeness and contrast and/or tendency to flare.
It would be a lot easier to deal with than the light leak problem if the bellows is the culprit so I'd worry about the light leak problem first. 🙂

 

[ZeissFan]

In general, haze could be condensation that has formed and then evaporated once, several or numerous times on the lens surfaces. If a camera is stored in a garage that gets hot during the day and cool at night or a car glove box or any place that would have extremes in temperature and humidity in a short period.

Haze usually can be cleaned quite easily by removing the lens elements, cleaning with cotton and optical fluid and the reassembling and recollimating.

However, with certain cameras, some lens elements are held in place by snap rings, and you have to carefully remove those so you don't chip the lens. Also, the middle element must be replaced in the same orientation -- the curvature of the front and back often is very similar, so you must make note of which is the front and which is the back.

This might sound complicated, but it isn't. It's just the little things you have to watch when disassembling and reassembling.