Angenieux 12-120 with Fungus

[Cody Ryan]

Hi Guys I have a Angenieux 12-120 that i picked up for pretty cheap Cosmetics are good and so are the zoom and focus. But she is suffering from some fungus that looks like it could be on multiple elements. Is she worth getting cleaned or not with the time? Can anyone give me a price on what this would cost or make a recommendation on who I should go to.

 

Thanks Cody

 

 

[Dom Jaeger]

Hi Cody,

I'm not sure where you're located (I'm a lens technician in Melbourne Australia), but generally the cost to clean even mild fungus from a zoom like the 12-120 would be more than the value of another one, and yours looks to be pretty badly infected.

 

I wouldn't pay more than about 150 USD for even a pristine 12-120, and sometimes you can pick them up for less. If you got it off eBay I would try to get a refund. Fungus is one of the first things to ask about when buying old optics, it severely devalues a lens.

 

Mild fungus can sometimes be cleaned off, but more often than not it etches into the coatings, particularly if it's been left for a while. The surface under the front element of a zoom like yours is not too hard to reach, but the further in the fungus is, the harder it becomes, and the more time it takes. There's also the danger that spores can spread, some optical repair facilities refuse to deal with fungus infected lenses.

[Mark Dunn]

My Kowa anamorphic had some, so I bit the bullet and it was very easy to clean off with a lens cloth, no chemicals at all. But that's much simpler mechanically and has only a couple of elements. I don't think I'd tackle a zoom.

If the seller declared the fungus you can't really expect a refund.

[Don Norberto]

got a similar problem before. I decided to try to open, clean and close it by myself. It was quite easy. If you break it...throw it away. It's worthless anyway and this way you get some experiance.