passable solution to canon "Haze"

F

Fred2

Member
Local time
3:21 PM
Joined
Jul 22, 2011
Messages
34
Hi everybody,

I have a black and silver Canon 50/1.8 ltm. for quite a while now and love the lens. One major downside of my particular version however, was the infamous canon "lens haze" it suffered from. Quite some early canon lenses have this. I read somewhere, that its something in the aperture lubrification that - over time - evaporates, gets on some of the internal elements being food to some lens fungus there... A lot of times its supposed to be uncurable, because the glass is being etched, leaving the actual lens surface uneven, looking fogged or frosted...
My Lens seemed to have exactly that kind of damage. I couldn't wipe off the haze. It actually seemed to look worse after trying.
So I used the lens for a couple of years. It's still nice even with the obviously low image contrast and being prone to flare:


photo sharing


photo sharing

Then, recently I read articles on how lenses are made, because it's actually quite interesting. After reading I tought: Why not repolishing the etched element myself?
So I ordered ceroxid online, made a small lap from wax, put it on a drill and started moving the element over the spinning pit for about an hour.
This is the tool:



Obviously I took off all that was left on the original coating. Still, one uncoated element seems to be a lot better than an etched one and lenses of that vintage are only single coated anyway.

So here is the result, reassembled: Big sorry for not taking before shots, here. You can clearly see the reflection of the uncoated but otherwise clear element:



So how does it perform?
I did in fact do before and after shots on my ILCE 7 mark I. Here we go:

Before:

photo sharing

After:

photo sharing

I know that a lot of people are very reluctant about modifying old lenses and there is no going back to where I started from. Still, I really see it as a big improvement from the point of actually using the lens. And thats what it is about for me. Sure, I would love to recoat the lens as well, but I don't have a vacuum chamber at hands ;).
I'm very much looking forward to use the lens on my canon p more often :)
Hope you like my post. If you're interested I can come back to write more about the exact method.

All the best, Fred.
 
Is the "infamous canon lens haze" a real thing? I've never heard of it before. As far as I know all lenses can get haze, I even had a Cron V with haze once and I see many old Nikon lenses with haze on eBay. My Canon 50 1.4 ltm does not have haze at all.
 
DanskDynamit said:
Is the "infamous canon lens haze" a real thing? I've never heard of it before. As far as I know all lenses can get haze, I even had a Cron V with haze once and I see many old Nikon lenses with haze on eBay. My Canon 50 1.4 ltm does not have haze at all.
Click to expand...

I don't know... I read about it quite a lot, thats probably why :D. Some lenses do have this, some don't. The 1.4 almost never has it, but its quite difficult to get a clean 1.8...
 
Dude... what a difference!

I kind of like the soft feel of the before... but wow did that clean up the image.

A+
 
DanskDynamit said:
Is the "infamous canon lens haze" a real thing? I've never heard of it before.
Click to expand...

I have a 35mm Serenar (Canon) and it is prone to haze. Mine is not like the OP's, my lens haze is easily removed with a microfiber clothe. I have it down to 10 minutes. I do the cleaning every time I use the lens. That is probably over kill but I don't like the images with haze.

This is what mine looked like before cleaning:

Puerto Vallarta 2010 by John Carter, on Flickr

And after:Tmax400 HC-110h by John Carter, on Flickr
 
Another thing you can try is a bit of chrome polish, like Blue Magic of Simichrome, on a microfiber cloth. It's non-abrasive and fixed the hazy front element on an old Leitz Xenon lens I had.
 
DanskDynamit said:
Is the "infamous canon lens haze" a real thing? I've never heard of it before. As far as I know all lenses can get haze, I even had a Cron V with haze once and I see many old Nikon lenses with haze on eBay. My Canon 50 1.4 LTM does not have haze at all.
Click to expand...

Oh, it's very real. Especially in the first series of lenses after the Serenars, particularly the 50mm 1:1.8. I think they came out about the same time as the Canon P, and not only do they haze over, but it tends to etch the element too. You can do a good job of cleaning it out, and it just comes back.

I'm going to do a total tear down on mine the next time, and remove the old lubricant, which is the suspected source of the problem.

That was a great there job of polishing, Fred. You weren't going to lose anything trying because if you didn't the lens was ruined anyway. I'll have to think about that when I have mine apart, and a full charge on the drill.

PF
 
It shows great improvement in OP with this particular haze allocation in the Canon LTM.
But if you read more, even here at RF; we have reported second type of haze.
I had 50 1.8 with it. Haze but not on any of the elements external surface.
 
That's ambitious and daring. Congrats on that, and getting improvement.

The 50mm 1:1.8 on my Canon P had bad haze. Worst I'd ever seen. Looked like frosted glass. I'd had recent success cleaning fungus with 50:50 Hydrogen Peroxide : Ammonia. I had no real hope of success, but, went ahead and tried it. Removed element near aperture, and soaked it. I was stunned! STUNNED I say! It came out looking new and perfect. I've only shot one roll with it, but, results are good.

Street theater by wwfloyd, on Flickr
 
Interesting thread. I picked up a Color-Skopar 105mm 3.5 with coating bloom and blotchy spots and have been wondering how to get that back into shootable shape. Taking the coating off and using a hood on it for all eternity is no issue for me, it's going to go on a Horseman 970 and I only work that camera off a tripod anyway.

I'll be giving the chrome polish a try first, see what that does.


Thanks, folks
 
Vince Lupo said:
Another thing you can try is a bit of chrome polish, like Blue Magic of Simichrome, on a microfiber cloth. It's non-abrasive and fixed the hazy front element on an old Leitz Xenon lens I had.
Click to expand...

As far as I know, chrome polish is abrasive. Most likely it is a lot coarser than the abrasive I used (cerium oxide), wich particles are about 2 μm. Thus, I would't try to polish lens surfaces with chrome polish. If you can't get cerium oxide I would go and try glass polish for car windshields, wich is commonly available, instead!
 
wwfloyd said:
That's ambitious and daring. Congrats on that, and getting improvement.

The 50mm 1:1.8 on my Canon P had bad haze. Worst I'd ever seen. Looked like frosted glass. I'd had recent success cleaning fungus with 50:50 Hydrogen Peroxide : Ammonia. I had no real hope of success, but, went ahead and tried it. Removed element near aperture, and soaked it. I was stunned! STUNNED I say! It came out looking new and perfect. I've only shot one roll with it, but, results are good.
Click to expand...


Thanks! It was a real pleasure to see one of my favourite lenses get alive again and for me it was very well worth the effort, since I do use it a lot :)

I was about to try this Peroxide/Amonia thing also, but It was reported to not cure etched glass. Maybe yours was not etched, yet?
Anyway the result speaks for itself: You picture really looks perfect to me! Have fun with your lens! :)
 
farlymac said:
Oh, it's very real. Especially in the first series of lenses after the Serenars, particularly the 50mm 1:1.8. I think they came out about the same time as the Canon P, and not only do they haze over, but it tends to etch the element too. You can do a good job of cleaning it out, and it just comes back.

I'm going to do a total tear down on mine the next time, and remove the old lubricant, which is the suspected source of the problem.

That was a great there job of polishing, Fred. You weren't going to lose anything trying because if you didn't the lens was ruined anyway. I'll have to think about that when I have mine apart, and a full charge on the drill.

PF
Click to expand...

Thanks for the support!

Lets hope it doesn't come back. If it does, I will also replace the lubricant and see if it helps!
 
Ko.Fe. said:
It shows great improvement in OP with this particular haze allocation in the Canon LTM.
But if you read more, even here at RF; we have reported second type of haze.
I had 50 1.8 with it. Haze but not on any of the elements external surface.
Click to expand...

Mine was also damaged on one of the middle elements, not on any external ones.

Best regards, Fred
 
Fred2 said:
As far as I know, chrome polish is abrasive. Most likely it is a lot coarser than the abrasive I used (cerium oxide), wich particles are about 2 μm. Thus, I would't try to polish lens surfaces with chrome polish. If you can't get cerium oxide I would go and try glass polish for car windshields, wich is commonly available, instead!
Click to expand...

Nope it's not. At least Blue Magic, not abrasive. Promise.

https://www.bluemagicusa.com/500-06-metal-polish-jar/

Here is the Xenon lens I mentioned with Blue Magic - turned out beautifully:


Cleaner Xenon by Vince Lupo, on Flickr
 
Good job! That really improved the contrast.

I’ve seen this on a few Canon lenses including the 50/1.5, which was an easy wipe, and a black barrel 1.8 which ended up being etched.
 
My 50 1.4 as well as 1.2 both had haze that was easily cleaned.
The one in the original post here really improved a lot.
Once I discovered cerium oxide, a whole new world of old glass was opened to me.
Phil Forrest
 
Thanks for this, I have my mother's Canon P and 50mm 2.8 LTM lens and the lens has the haze issue. I took it apart once and tried to clean it off but only made it worse... I'll definitely try this method! Will post before / after shots...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom