How fast can fungus take over a lens?

[novum]

I am in the process of selling some of my gear to a certain camera store. Tell me what you think of this:

"The Nikon 28mm Ai lens came in below our BGN grade due to heavy haze and fungus. I cannot make an offer for the 28mm Nikon lens."
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What I supposedly bought originally at the same place nine months ago:

Product: 28 F3.5 AI MANUAL FOCUS WIDE ANGLE LENS
Grade: Excellent Plus
Price: $109.00
​

So a lens I used on only three occasions degraded to its current unusable condition in 9 months? I keep my lenses capped, fore and aft. I live in Austin, Texas, not the tropics. I take good care of my gear, though I'm not obsessive about it. Could a lens fall so far, so fast?

It's not that much money, but I just find this hard to digest. In fact, I have some heartburn or indigestion bothering me right now!

Edit: One weird addition. I was in Borneo (as hot and humid as any place on the planet) for several weeks and the lenses I took with me are still fine (one of which I sold after it was evaluated as being in EX condition). The 28 didn't make that trip; maybe I should've taken it!

 

[sevo]

A mere three days in adverse conditions can be enough to waste a perfect lens, as many travel photographers have experienced.

 

[Roger Hicks]

Under the wrong conditions, it takes weeks at most: dark (capped?) and humid (bottom of a closet, possibly in a nice, moist fabric camera bag). Haze? Heat will do that.

Use is of course irrelevant, as the lens is likely to deteriorate faster if it is not used.

Sorry to be so negative, but that's the way it is.

Cheers,

R.

 

[novum]

Your answers are helpful. I was just dumbfounded, initially, but yeah, it gets hot in Texas, so I suppose I can accept that the lens went south so quickly. So very frustrating though.

So how do I prevent this from happening in the future? I've got much nicer lenses that I would hate to lose this way.

1) Keep 'em cool.
2) Keep 'em dry (with silica gel packs, I assume)
3) ?

 

[Roger Hicks]

Silica gel and a dry (airtight) case.

Regenerate silica gel in hot sun or a cool oven or, as Dan says, a microwave.

Cheers,

R.