Any fix for a fungus-afflicted Nikkor-H 50 f2?

[alfredian]

Just acquired (e-place) a lovely (cosmetic, mechanical & shutterblade) chrome s-mount Nikkor-H 50mm f2 lens. Turns out to have significant, wall-to-wall fungus on one surface of the 2nd-to-last rear element. I got it at a low-ish price, so I can put money into it. Anybody out there who can clean & reassemble mushroom-edition Nikon glass? Other than the fungus thing it's about the best Nikkor-H I've seen in a while.--alfredian

 

[Phil_F_NM]

Is the element etched or are there just strands in there?
Can you clean and polish it out yourself? With toothpaste then some rouge for optics?

Phil Forrest

 

[Dez]

There's a pretty good chance the crud will come off with lens cleaning fluid and a microfiber cloth. The rear lens elements are easily removable using a ring spanner.

Cheers,
Dez

 

[richardHaw]

I think I made an overhaul article of that lens 😱😱😱

my way of cleaning it is to use distilled water, ammonia and hydrogen peroxide. that will surely kill the fungus. benzene works as well. there are so many ways to do it but the most important thing is to prevent it from germinating again

 

[Beemermark]

Most people today seem more worried about "condition" than the actual purpose of the lens.

Go take some pictures and see if you like the results.

 

[richardHaw]

Most people today seem more worried about "condition" than the actual purpose of the lens.

Go take some pictures and see if you like the results.

true, most of my lenses (more than 100) have been picked up from the junk boxes and many had fungi at one point. it helped that they were Nikkors since Nikkors used hard coatings 😱😱😱

 

[alfredian]

Thanks all, alfredian

Thanks all, alfredian

I'm back - lost internet to viral issues last night, but back on line. My main impediment to lens disassembly is lack of manuals, etc. Don't want to end up with a shoe box full of parts I can't reassemble. Also, lack a collimator. I guess I could buy a lens wrench on line.

This lens has enough glop to definitely affect the contrast. Stuff on the front surface of the front element can be tolerated. In addition to the wall-to-wall mini-spider webs there are some solid patches off to one side.

I'll keep the H2O2 & lighter fluid in mind. Ditto the NH3 recipe. Know enough chemistry to keep the recipes separate.

Aha!! could cannibalize some ug-ly lenses for their glass! Overall, I don't like to play macho-geek and blow up the gun with my tinkering.--alfredian

 

[richardHaw]

I will PM you. 😱😱😱

 

[alfredian]

Thanks again RichardHaw

Thanks again RichardHaw

Thanks again - your link-to-blogs was excellent. Very informative and extremely well photographed, in sequence, step-by-step. - alfredian

 

[willie_901]

...

Aha!! could cannibalize some ug-ly lenses for their glass! Overall, I don't like to play macho-geek and blow up the gun with my tinkering.--alfredian

Good plan.