3.5cm f/1.8 with fungus sold on Ebay for 465 USD

[Jan Van Laethem]

I have been watching this lens on Ebay, which just closed at 465 USD after 18 bids. I enclose part of the description given by the seller: "This auction is for a Nikon Nippon Kogaku W-Nikkor 3.5 cm f1.8 manual focus lens for the Nikon SP rangefinder camera in 6 condition. The lens body shows normal wear with tiny marks on the finish. The aperture ring works properly but the focusing ring is loose. The glass is clean but there are signs of moderate fungus internally." Item number is 110243689154 , if you type it into the search box in Ebay you should be able to find it.

I am in no way an expert on this, but 465 USD for a lens with fungus seems like a very steep price. I wonder how much a mint condition example of the same lens would go for. How do you see the current market for Nikon RF at this moment? Would it be a good moment to buy now or is there a craze over vintage Nikon equipment? I am seeing the same trends on some F and F2 cameras and accessories recently.

Incidentally, there is a lot of Nikon RF equipment on Ebay at this moment, some of it with original boxes and instructions.

 

[jonmanjiro]

I would rate the fungus as considerably worse than "moderate" 😱

 

[Highway 61]

Bought mine last year in (truly) like new condition, with both caps, for $845 plus shipping from a NHS-LHS member who uses to sell on eBay.

$465 for this one isn't that bad deal at all.

That fungus has the "dropped flakes" look of the gentle aerobic fungus, which is harmless to coatings and glass surfaces. I do not think it's some of the terrible glass etching acid one.

Leave another $100 banknote at a good reputable camera repair workshop like DAG etc. for a complete service including glass and all mechanical parts cleaning plus an helical relube and you have a perfect W-Nikkor-C 35/1.8 for less than $600.

IMO.

OTOH there is another one still currently running with a BIN price of $745 or so IIRC.

 

[Sonnar2]

Leave another $100 banknote at a good reputable camera repair workshop like DAG etc. for a complete service including glass and all mechanical parts cleaning plus an helical relube and you have a perfect W-Nikkor-C 35/1.8 for less than $600.

IMO.

Some years ago it took me 30 DM to clean a Canon 35/2.0 at a small repair shop in Frankfurt/M. which has mild, hard-to-detect spider-web like fungus in the outer edges of one rear element. It comes out like new. One the other hand a foggy fungus of another lens turns out uncurable.