What's wrong with this Ross ensign lens?

[seany65]

Hello all, I was wondering if anyone could please tell me what's wrong with a Ross lens on an ensign 1620 autorange camera? I'm told that the problem is on the back of the front element of the lens. I presume 'front element' means the part of the lens in front of the shutter.

As always, please click on the thumbnail to see the big pic:



I don't own it and have no access to it, but any info about the problem(s) and if it/they can be dealt with would be much appreciated by myself and the owner.

 

[Rangefinder 35]

It looks like fungus to me. There is no easy fix, but take it apart and clean it.

 

[seany65]

Thanks for the near-instantaneous reply Rangefinder 35. That was my guess too.

Is it possible for fungus to appear between cemented elements?

 

[Rangefinder 35]

Apparently yes. I had a beautiful Rodenstock Grandagon that over the years developed this problem. I could never totally get rid of it. Putting it for a week in a ziplock bag with silicone crystals helped for a while, but it came back eventually. One can give it to a camera service that services pro equipment and they can disassemble the lens and clean it. How much it costs, though?

 

[johnnyrod]

It does look like fungus, some of it looks to be on the front though. I can't figure out if the front group is a cemented doublet or a single element - I'd wager the latter - in which case you are lucky. If there are just a few spots on the front element then the impact on image quality is going to be very small. The presence of any fungus though, especially if it is on the back of the front element/group, makes you wonder about haze and more fungus on other groups. Fungus grows with damp but from what I've seen, it's grows a lot more readily than a camera corrodes. If it's something you're looking to buy, I'd ask for more pictures of the back element etc., and some assurance the problem is minimal - at least you are covered for misrepresentation. Looks easy enough to fix!

 

[seany65]

@jonnyrod, There's no question of misrepresentation, the seller showed and mentioned these 'spots' in the listing and and says they don't seem to be on the elements behind the shutter and shows a pic of that part. The pic I posted here was added to the listing by the seller after I asked a question, because in the other pic that showed a close-up of the front it wasn't too clear.

I haven't bought it, I just wanted to see if I could get any info that could help the seller.

It would be a good buy for someone who can deal with the fungus as the rest of it looks VG in the pics.

I've read that the Ross Xpress lens is a tessar design, though I've no idea how close to that design the Xpress lens is. Is it 'identical'? Is it an 'improvement'? Is it a design that is only based on a tessar design? I've no idea, so whether that means the front element is single or cemented I wouldn't know.

Easy enough to fix for someone who ain't a cack-handed moron maybe, but I'm firmly in the 'cack-handed' category so it would cost, and I'd bet quite a bit to have it fixed.

EDIT: Something I forgot to ask in the original post: Is it possible to replace the metal sliding thing that goes over the red window?

Click on thumbs to see big pics.