What's up with this case?

[btgc]

Recently I got never-ready leather case for Ricoh Five-One-Nine, because it's lens with focusing ears needs some care while in transit and I don't want to take larger bag.

Case were claimed to be clear, have no mold but when it arrived, first thing opening box I noticed it had noticeable smell. On pictures you see inside of both sides, lower one is better and upper side is worse. I'm worried if this is not kind of fungus, thus making case unusable. Your opinions?

P.S. damn, I have a feeling that after taking pictures of case my eyes got irritated.

 

[jesse1dog]

It looks to me as if pressure from having the camera in the case has made the leather dye come through the inner material. If the case has been damp as well at some time this will have helped. Some of the dyes used weren't all that fast and some leathers weren't treated very well in production. I suggest you leave the case out in the sun for a bit: and you can also try one of those 'odour eater' sprays that have such great claims but that so far I have never found 100% effective!
jesse

 

[btgc]

That sounds like a good theory. Case is painted brown from outside.

I took it out again and looked more. I have impression that probably camera inside has rusted and seller has attempted to clean case. When I use small brush, lining gets little cleaner and small particles take off. It's not exactly rust as I know it, and brownish cast is in places where actual camera don't have metal parts - so pressure/dye theory is strong enough.

 

[Ken Smith]

A lot of these older camera cases have a foam padding of some type inside the top of the case where it fits over the camera's deck. Over time this foam crumbles and breaks down into a fine powder that "rains" down inside the case and is the dickens to clean out. I usually wind up vacuuming the case using a crevice tool attachment.

 

[btgc]

Ken, this is not the case (with this case). I have seen and replaced deteriorating foam, though here it looks like pressure from camera activated dye transfer from leather to lining. At least some protruding parts of camera can be identified as stronger brownish areas on lining.

From yesterday I have put case into closed box with jar of baking soda to remove smell.

 

[jesse1dog]

I'll be very interested to hear what happens.
Where did you get the idea of baking soda?

jesse

 

[btgc]

couple of years ago I've read that on Net, maybe even here on RFF, can you think it can be wrong? 😀

I think soda absorbs smell, it should be changed time by time as it gets saturated. When I got my first smelly camera, I did similar way, but not sure what helped more - spa box with baking soda or wrapping in newspapers. Finally smell of nicotine disappeared, at least to level I can't really smell it.

UPD: just replaced soda...smell leaves case, I have impression. Let's see how it goes on. Fresh soda has some faint specific smell which is lost after sitting in box with that case. Probably those chemically aware can explain reaction?