Is this fungus?

[Phantomas]

Bought a 500 c/m set from a guy that claimed to be an ex Hassie dealer with connections to old Hassie service people etc. Whatever. "6 months warranty". Nice enough set. Came home, better light see strange s*#t in the lens. It's on the second front element (behind the front one). Don't know what it is. Fungus?
Sent it back to the guy (since I got "6 month warranty") he sent it back in the same condition, saying it's no fungus, no effect on the lens, better not clean, etc.
That was about a year ago. The set works fine, I'm getting fine results. Still, would like to know what the hell is it inside my lens? Just in case so I'll move it away from all my other glass (and if anything can be done about it).

Thanks.

 

[adrianzg]

doesn't look like fungus to me. fugi marks on lenses appear spider like. urs look like coatinng marks on the internal surface. i think.

 

[Kent]

Perhaps some kind of separation...
If you get good results, why bother? It's rather cosmetical then.
I've got a Summicron 35 in bad shape, but the results are great. Of course, I would prefer a mint lens but for this lens I have paid about 1/4 of the normal used price...

 

[Phantomas]

I'm not worried (well, a bit 🙂 ) and shot non stop with non stop pleasure with this set. Just makes me cringe to look down the barrel of the lens and wanted to know what it was I was looking at.

 

[hans voralberg]

Coating mark may be? Separation pops up as well but that's a very weird pattern for separation.

 

[Chris101]

It looks as if the lens had been submerged in water, and it seeped in between two elements and dried there. I would not expect that to have much effect on the image/

 

[p.giannakis]

I would agree with Chris101, it does look like some kind of liquid has seeped between the lens elements. It's not something that you'll get if you expose the lens in a rain though.
I would imagine that he applied some kind of lens cleaning liquid and this seeped inside.
If it doesnt affect the lens performance in backlight, i wouldnt worry about it at all.
Check here: http://www.lensrentals.com/news/2008.10.30/front-element-scratches
You see what i mean 🙂

 

[Phantomas]

Thanks guys. It's good to know and at least I'm now schooled on recognising what is NOT fungus 🙂

The lens performance is absolutely fine. As a matter of fact this Hassie with this Zeiss has bocome my favourite set. Unbelievable sharpness and definition.

Oh well, since it's not fungus the lens can continue residing next to the others and I can safely use the same cloth to clean them all I guess.