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A place to politely discuss the tools, technique and culture of photography.

This is not a good place to simply share cool photos/videos or promote your own work and projects, but rather a place to discuss photography as an art and post things that would be of interest to other photographers.

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How big a deal is fungus in lens (alien.top)

submitted 9 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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Considering buying a used Fujifilm 16mm F1. 4 but the listing says 'fungus growth inside lens, does not affect image quality. Priced accordingly.' How worried should I be?

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago

It really depends on the lens, the position and the size of the fungus. I sometimes buy vintage with haze or fungus, and if I can I clean them up myself.

It doesn't really reduce the sharpness of the images, but causes a "glow" in bright conditions and around highlights especially at wider apertures; generally the impact is less severe than you would think.

I'd say a lens with mild fungus is worth something like half the price of one without, but this also varies with rarity and other factors.

If you end up getting it, you probably can keep it from growing further by UV sterilizing it (direct sunlight for some time) and then keeping it in a low humidity environment. As others have said, fungus can etch the lens coating, so some impact can remain even if you clean it/have it cleaned, nothing to be done about it.