[Aditya Panda]

Just a curiosity ahead of my DA* 300's arrival. The area I live in, close to India's East Coast, has very high levels of humidity and temperatures for over 7 months a year and fungus is the biggest enemy of my lenses. Being weather sealed, and theoretically immune from dust and moisture, are DA* lenses immune from fungus infestation? The last thing I'd want to do is let someone open up my DA*!

Cheers,
Aditya

[Sean Nelson]

Weather sealed does not mean weather or water proof. While I'd expect they are more resistant to fungus, I wouldn't go so far as to assume they're immune to it.

[creampuff]

No, and I wouldn't bet on it...
Whether weather sealed or not, it would be prudent to keep your gear in an electric dry cabinet after use to keep the humidity levels between 40-50% RH. I'm in the tropics too and it is frankly unthinkable for any camera user here not to invest in a dry cabinet as it is pretty easy for fungus to thrive with the high temperature and high humidity we get year round.

Years ago I ruined a Minolta MD 300mm f/4.5 due to fungus because the dry box I kept it in had a leak in the rubber seal, causing the silica gel to be rendered useless. Since then I swore off using silica gel altogether and invested in an electric dry cabinet. Touch wood, never had a fungus problem with any of my gear to date.

[Aditya Panda]

Thanks for your replies. It was just a bit of thinking aloud on my part, not that the DA* wouldn't get the best sort of protection I can afford. As its name implies, its sure gonna be the 'star' in my kit

@creampuff: next investment is an electronic dry box, no more silica gel after my 18-55 was attacked twice.

[borno]

Here are some scary pics

Help! Fungus? Warning: long post, 11 pics - FM Forums

[Syb]

Waaaaa they are great shots of something terrible in that link. It takes some calm to make a so great image of your favourite lens corrupted by fungus... thanks for the pointer!

[Aditya Panda]

Waaaaa they are great shots of something terrible in that link. It takes some calm to make a so great image of your favourite lens corrupted by fungus... thanks for the pointer!

Poor guy seems to be having singularly bad luck At least enough to get us on our toes!

[jsherman999]

Waaaaa they are great shots of something terrible in that link. It takes some calm to make a so great image of your favourite lens corrupted by fungus... thanks for the pointer!

Agreed, those are the best macro shots of lens fungus I've ever seen! Makes me want to send my fungal-50 to him to get a studio portrait!




.

[Lloydy]

In the thread Borno linked to someone mentioned cleaning a camera bag with alcohol or vinegar, obviously to kill a living organism.

Is there some king of disinfectant that we could leave in a storage cupboard that would permeate the atmosphere and prevent the fungus from starting?

[Conan]

In the thread Borno linked to someone mentioned cleaning a camera bag with alcohol or vinegar, obviously to kill a living organism.

Is there some king of disinfectant that we could leave in a storage cupboard that would permeate the atmosphere and prevent the fungus from starting?

You can try Tea Tree Oil since it has anti-fungal properties.

[Bactman]

In the thread Borno linked to someone mentioned cleaning a camera bag with alcohol or vinegar, obviously to kill a living organism.

Is there some king of disinfectant that we could leave in a storage cupboard that would permeate the atmosphere and prevent the fungus from starting?

From a microbial standpoint, humidity levels must be kept under 55-60% to prevent fungal growth from occurring. The minimal water activity for the most xerophilic fungus is something like 0.64 (or 64% RH) - but that is only to sustain hyphal growth. More moisture is needed to initiate germination from a spore.

I wouldn't necessarily recommend putting in some disinfectant to "kill" an airborne or settled spore. Every time you'd take a camera outside, open the storage cupboard door, etc. you would introduce spores to the interior of the cabinet. I would do everything to make sure the humidity levels are low enough to suppress mold growth.

[Gooshin]

if DA* star lenses are made under a vacume then i would say internal fungus would be a non issue, external is always an issue

but i dont think they are made under a vacume..

[Torphoto]

From experience no optical coatings used that I know of on any lens glass elemnts are fungal proof, all you can do is weekly inspect the lens and give it a few bursts of strobe flash or expose it to sun light ( no uv filters ) for a while, throw out any silica bags and store in open lighting and not in wood or leather, keep dust away and hope for the best.

That said Penta lenses seem to get infected less than others ( tokina is really bad for fungal growth, sigma next, never seen an oly lens with fungus yet, nikon and canon just as bad as Pentax ).

[Peter Zack]

Creampuff has the right answer. Store them in a dry cabinet with a proper electric heater, like he suggests.

[Sanglant]

if your talking closet sized cabinet you might want to look into a goldenrod or somthing like this if smaller