fungus and lens cleaning fluid

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seany65

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Hello all. I recently went to a second-hand camera shop to ask them to look at a couple of issues with a camera I'd recently bought. One of these problems was tiny, tiny dots of what I thought could be fungus (sort of irregular dots with 'roots'). The assistant looked and said it was (yay, I've learned what the early stages of fungus look like). He took it over to a bench while I was looking at a Yashica tlr with a weird-named taking lens, and when he brought it he said used some ethyl alcohol and that's got rid of it. He also said breath can have enzymes which destroy fungus.

I would like to ask if anyone has heard about enzymes in human breath being able to kill fungus?

I would also like to ask about using alcohol-based lens cleaning fluid. I've read that it can damage the coatings on lenses and so we should use non-alcohol cleaning fluid, but Ive also read that it's the stuff to use.

Can fungus be killed by alcohol fluids but can they damage lenses?

Any help would be much appreciated.

For several reasons I decided not to keep the camera I took to the shop, one reason being too many cameras and not enough space.
 
I use isopropyl alcohol 91% all the time to clean old lenses that I've just bought w/ zero issues. And I have also used it to remove fungus etc. Super cheap, available at drug stores. Does not damage coatings.
 
1. I have used isopropyl alcohol to good effect to remove fungus, rapidly, without any discernable coating damage.
2. As a side question, are not most, if not all, lens cleaning solutions alcohol based? First I have ever heard that an alcohol based lens cleaning solution might be problematic. Every bottle I have ever received from my ophthamologist has been alcohol based, as is the proprietary Zeiss solution I have.
If not alcohol based, what could a lens cleaning solution be comprised of, that would actually work? I am not questioning the possibility that alcohol might cause problems (with lenses, not those other problems) I’ve just never heard this before. Ignorance is a possibility, which is why I ask.
 
I've heard of technicians using thymol on fungus in lenses.
It's the distilled oil of the thyme plant, and not expensive online.
philip
 
Thanks to everyone for the replies.

@Larry Cloetta: first please accept my apologies for reading your name as 'Lady Cloetta'.:eek: Anyway, yes there are some alcohol-free lens cleaners and no, I don't know what the cleaning ingrediants are either.

@ChrisPlatt: I've never heard of Windex, but I've just done a search and found out that they have quite a few different types. I wonder if I should use on that would make my lens smell nice then the only things that would stink are the photographs I produce.:eek:

Thanks for the link Ko.Fe.

@StanMac: I'd be worried about using Hydrogen Peroxide as it sounds too much like the fuel used in V2 rockets.:D
 
seany65 said:
@StanMac: I'd be worried about using Hydrogen Peroxide as it sounds too much like the fuel used in V2 rockets.:D
Click to expand...

The 3% hydrogen peroxide as comes from the drug store is what I have used very successfully in the past for fungus. The hydrogen peroxide that Werner was using in the V2 was in the area of 97% if I recall more or less correctly, and is a different beast, quite caustic to skin (personal experience), and not an off the shelf item.
 
I've worked at some places that had enough gear that Nikon and Canon technicians would occasionaly come to our workplace to clean gear.

They both used the same thing to clean lenses... 98% denatured alcohol.
 
AFAIK ethanol as well as propanol will kill fungii. I suppose the reason people recommend hydrogen peroxyde or ammonia has more to do with cleaning it off than killing it. However spores will find their way back inside anyway, dry enough storage is what matters to prevent fungus from growing.
Side note, I've found demineralized water very effective in removing streaks that were left behind after cleaning lenses with alcohol and even some dirt, it dissolves stuff much better than tap water.
 
I’ve only cleaned one lens in my life. It was for a Mamiya TLR. The camera where the lens comes off with different sizes available.

I used Windex and it mostly worked. The fungus had etched into the glass. I put it into the trash.

Never going to buy another lens with fungus on it!
 
Thanks to everyone for all the new replies and info.

@Larry H-L: I can't help thinking that 'Denatured Alcohol' is Booze that doesn't get you drunk.:eek:
 
I've only been successful at restoring non-coated lenses, and I've always used hydrogen peroxide. The two coated lenses that I had that had fungus, even though I was able to remove the fungus, it had already damaged the lens coating, which made the lenses kind of suck optically afterwards.

Best,
-Tim
 
One of the lens repair guys who makes videos on YouTube (who does it mime style, with no speaking) uses both a commercial glass cleaner and lighter fluid. I'm not sure why he (and his buddy who does talk) switch from one to the other, sometimes in the same video. I used lighter fluid on a couple of lenses and it seemed to leave a slight oily film that wiped right off with a lint-free lens cloth.

Scott
 
Your breath does not contain enzymes to kill fungus that I know of. I guess in theory either ethanol (what we drink) or isopropanol are both good at killing bacteria, though fungi are funny ones and quite tough. The hydrogen peroxide approach will kill them and I think is also intended to kill the spores; it's a mild bleach, if you like. Ammonia is a good glass cleaner; anything that separates dirt from glass is going to shift fungus, at least at the time. As for lens damage, mainly this is caused by rubbing, particularly some old Leica glass I believe is quite soft, but unless you use something quite caustic then glass is a pretty inert material, and certainly won't be touched by organic solvents e.g. alcohols. I too use hexane (near enough to lighter fluid) to clean lenses as well as solvents (methanol mainly) as alcohols are not always good at dissolving grease, which can be one cause of haziness, as said above.
 
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