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Lens fungus question
divamum
Registered Users Posts: 9,021 Major grins
I have an old (1980s) Canon 70-210 lens - it's push-pull model. Sadly, it appears to have developed fungus. I know it's best to store them separately, but is there any risk of transferring fungus to a *camera* if it is used?
Here's the story: a friend lost *everything* in an apartment fire (it started in the unit below hers, but her unit took the brunt of the damage). She desperately wants to get her kit back together - she's a dog trainer and was in the middle of a project which is going to be turned into a book/calendar - but, as she's now homeless in San Francisco and all money is going towards finding somewhere for her and her three dogs to live and re-establish their home, camera gear is WAY down the list.
Somebody passed on their old 20d to her, but she needs lenses to be able to use it (and if anybody has an old kit lens they want to donate, then by all means let me know!). My thought was since I can't sell this lens and I don't use it any more, I'd like to send it to her, but I don't want it to cause her problems in the long run by damaging the camera or other gear she acquires.
Thoughts?
Here's the story: a friend lost *everything* in an apartment fire (it started in the unit below hers, but her unit took the brunt of the damage). She desperately wants to get her kit back together - she's a dog trainer and was in the middle of a project which is going to be turned into a book/calendar - but, as she's now homeless in San Francisco and all money is going towards finding somewhere for her and her three dogs to live and re-establish their home, camera gear is WAY down the list.
Somebody passed on their old 20d to her, but she needs lenses to be able to use it (and if anybody has an old kit lens they want to donate, then by all means let me know!). My thought was since I can't sell this lens and I don't use it any more, I'd like to send it to her, but I don't want it to cause her problems in the long run by damaging the camera or other gear she acquires.
Thoughts?
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I have no experience with a lens contributing to fungus contamination in a camera body, but basic microbiology says that this lens will be a source of spores, and I would not want to mount it on my camera, nor store it with my lenses.
Usually if you can see significant amounts of fungus, the lens is no longer great optically either.
Moderator of the Technique Forum and Finishing School on Dgrin
However, I'm very glad I posted this thread since an extraordinarily kind dgrinner read it, and has offered to donate some gear. Heart is beyond warmed, and it once again reinforces what an amazing community dgrin is
It's entirely useable and gave me some decent pictures over the years when I still used it, but I'd say modern digital sensors "outresolve" it; I used it on my Rebel XT (in fact, that lens is the reason I stuck with Canon - I figured I'd be "good to go" since I "already had plenty of lense" HA!!) and it was ok, although it didn't seem to offer me the sharpness I remembered from when I was using it with film. I now understand why that's the case; at the time I was slightly confused
It's resale value is only about $120, so I'm not sure if it would be worth getting it repaired, if Canon even CAN repair it. Ziggy - do you know? It's this one.
The thing about push-pull zooms is that you can zoom and manually focus with your hand at the same time. They are susceptible to zoom creep.