TP: Protect your Lenses from Fungus

Also read TP: How to identify fungus

I always hate when I hear people not using Skylight or UV filter for protection. Poor care and storage is one of the biggest reason of getting fungus. Leaving lens open front or rear cap and especially in cold and wet place. Please take care of your equipment and get serious.

This is how I store my 32 lenses:

1. Leave the filter on the lens permanently.
2. Leave the front and rear lens cap.
3. Wrap the lens in the clear plastic bag.
4. Face the lens up side down (front element up) in the lens case.
5. Leave a slica gel in the case for absorbing moisture.
6. Close the case and store in the cabinet.

Never leave the lens on the body if you are not using it for long period of time. Cap down both body and lens and store properly in there cases.



Edited by brettania - 27 November 2007 at 05:12

Asher wrote: I don't use filters because they DO affect the quality of the images. If you spend big $$ on filters maybe they don't have such a profound affect but then how do you protect the expensive filter?

If you don't use filters you've to clean your lens more often which will get you micro-scratches and cleaning marks. You'll cause more damage by cleaning your lens. It will also reduce the re-sale value. Sand and salt water is really bad. Also accidents do happen. There is always a 1% chance of damaging the lens. Imagine if you get water splashes on the front element of your lens, it can easily get inside the lens through front element and later you'll see fungus growing inside the lens.

Too many risks of not using lens filter!

If you really love your lens then buy a high quality B+W or Hoya multi-coated filter. High quality filter will not degrade the picture quality, infact it will improve the picture by removing haze. Its cheaper to replace the filter than lens.

Lens is a collection of many elements adding 1 extra element (filter) will not make any difference.

Wrapping lenses in plsatic bags leaves condensation on the inside unable to evaporate thus enhancing fungus developement if left uncheck. I wrap my lenses in fibercloths before storing them. Lenspen did the job of cleaning the glasses though I have UV or Skylight 1B filters on eversince the minute I own them.

I was on a 200+ mile sailing race this summer (Great Lakes of Canada) when I took my 7D and 200 f2.8 out of a small case I had stowed in a locker, and tried to take a photo of a freighter. It was bad, foggy.

I looked through the frront of the lens and just about croaked... there was fog between some elements. I imediately thought of fungus, as I realized the case I had the camera in was quite sealed (thinking this was good on the water).

Fortunately, out in clear air for a while, the lens quickly cleared.

It was a wakeup call, I can see why members in tropical climates worry about this.

My own experience, FWIW.
I live in Corpus Christi, Tx. Very high humidity year round. I used to store lenses in plastic with silica. Seemed to work pretty well for a long time, then had an outbreak of fungus that affected 4 lenses; probably didn't change the silica often enough.
These days, I try to expose all my lenses and filters to sun light at least every 2-3 months, and store them without the plastic. Just place silica with them in the lens case or camera bag. Have had no fungus for the last 3+ years.

The greenhouse effect.

I do as brettania suggests. Putting a lens on my windowsill (inside :P) for a while so it can soak up a bit of light.

As for Silica Gel you can actually re-use it. When the crystals are pink they have absorbed water. You can roast/heat them in an oven till crystals turn blue and then they're ready to have another go. They turn light pink fairly quickly due to atmospheric moisute I guess but that doesn't mean they're full.