Do you own any old camera lenses? Like maybe something you inherited from a parent or relative? Does that sparkling glass seem to have grown dimmer and dimmer lately? If so, you might be suffering from lens fungus.

- scroll down to see the video tutorial -

Yep, I said – fungus. How can a camera lens get a fungus you ask? Well… its most common in really humid locations. What happens is that fine mold particles, which are everywhere get inside the barrel of the lens. Even the most sealed lens out there has somewhere that this microscopic stuff can find its way in.

photo: petrichor

After it gets there it lies dormant until something, like moisture, causes it to bloom.  When it does it will slowly grow inside the barrel and across the glass. If it stays on long enough it can permanently etch the glass surfaces. Say huh? Yep, thats right – most fungus, or any life for that matter have to poop. This “poop” will slowly eat away at the surface of the lens, eventually lowering the IQ.

So, what do you do? Well – watch the short video tutorial to see how I dealt with some lens fungus on one of my lenses.

Some tools you could need for this project:

• Jewelers screwdrivers
• Spanner wrench set
• Tweezers
• Flashlight
• Q-tips
• Cleaning agent (I’ll let you do some research on this decision)

Plan on taking around an hour to take the lens apart and reassemble it. Make sure to document each step, you will forget things – believe me.

More tips:

Use a flashlight to see if you actually have fungus on your lens. Take a small light, go into a dark room and open the lens up. Shine the light up into the lens at an angle. Look at the glass from an angle and look for really gross stuff like this:

Photo by:  vickie_s

More photography tutorials:

I hope this short tutorial helps you out with your dirty lens. Feel free to leave some comments or tips on how you’ve cleaned your camera lens as well!

This week I will be reviewing the Promaster Spectrum 7 MC 28mm 1:2.8 lens.  This particular lens is a Pentax k-mount, so you will need to either be using an adapter for your body or using a Pentax body.

The Promaster 28mm is both a wide-angle lens and a macro for some close-up photography. I’ve been using it for landscape photography, botanical and prop work.

Kenji Uegaki

This Promaster lens build was pretty light-weight, lacking  the solid metal feel of some older m42 lenses like the Hanimex I reviewed recently. There was a fair amount of plastic in the body, which made me feel a little paranoid sometimes when using it.

More lens reviews

• Lens review: Promaster Spectrum 7 MC 28mm f2.8
• Lens review - SMC Pentax-M Asahi 50mm 2.8 1:2
• Review of Hanimex 135mm F2.8 m42 mounted lens.

What really makes this lens shine though was the quality of its macro images. The bokeh was smooth and detail sharp and clear. Like I said earlier, it really shines in close in work. I also recently used it in a series of photographs of espresso cups. The shots taken with the Promaster actually turned out better than the tripod-mounted shots I was taking with my Asahi lens.

As far as landscape photography, it does an adequate job. Its nothing amazing but, if you need a wider lens and don’t like using zooms, this lens will do the job. Its really great for this when you consider the price.

Because the Promaster seems to be a mish-mash of various lens manufactures the quality can vary widely. But, the price of buying one of these used off of a site like eBay can be a really good deal.  I won the bid for this little lens for 18.00 U.S. dollars. Thats really cheap considering the versatility it offers.

cfinke

Now, there is a word of caution for this lens. You’re going to need to make a minor modification to get it to mount to your Pentax body. See, there is an extra pin that really serves no purpose on dSLR cameras. What happens is the extra pin gets stuck in the mount on modern Pentax cameras.

Instead of explaining this myself, I’m going to direct you to theaterofnoise for a detailed answer on how to fix this problem.

Here are some tips from my own experience doing this, in case it might help:

• Have plenty of light
• Mark how each part comes off or, take pictures of each step
• Have a set of jewelers screw drivers
• Tweezers
• A lot of patience

I think for the price this can be a great lens to add to your collection. It can work great for a macro lens with some nice bokeh for botanical shots or prop shots.

Some shots from gallery taken with the Promaster 28mm

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This week I’ll be reviewing the SMC Pentax-M Asahi 50mm 2.8 1:2 manual lens. Its a  k-mount lens for mounting on many Pentax cameras. I’ve tested the lens in every-day situations with only minor adjustments to the RAW files. Mainly boosting sharpness and contrast.

More lens reviews

Older lenses are very popular with both amateur and pro photographers alike. You can get some unique images that aren’t always achievable with modern glass. Or, if it is, will cost you an arm and a leg. So, if you’re just really tight with your coin, enjoy the hunt for older glass, or just really poor this can be a great option for you.

SMC Pentax-M Asahi 50mm 2.8 1:2

This lens has been in the family for around twenty years, moving from my P-38 to my Pentax dSLR. I’ll go ahead and admit its one of my favorite pieces of glass. With great bokeh, really nice color and a thin depth-of-field thats perfect for portrait photography.

I shot photographs on a cold cloudy day and, a cool winter evening with some golden sunset. I shot a range of distances so you can get an idea of how this lens focuses at different zones.

Here are my findings:

• Solid all-metal construction. I can attest to that with two decades of use.
• Smooth, fast focus
• Handles low(er) light setting well with 2.8 opening
• Pre-aperture preview still works on this older lens with my particular Pentax dSLR
• AF alert functions
• Nice color
• Nice bokeh

I promise, no one died in the making of this photograph.

This is a solid lens, great for portraits or selective focus. I’m really happy with the results, and I think you will be too if you can happen to snag one off of eBay or a local seller in older glass.

Here are a few samples. These are untreated to give you a real world example of how they come out of the camera.

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