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Taking apart a sigma lens fungus
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Jul 4, 2020 14:46:28   #
Chromodynamics6 Loc: Beverly Hills Ca.
 
Food for thought.

An ozone level of 0.4 ppm for 4 minutes will kill any bacteria, virus, mold and fungus. Hundreds of thousands of people use ozone to clean their cpap machines every day.

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Jul 4, 2020 14:52:59   #
rfmaude41 Loc: Lancaster, Texas (DFW area)
 
Blair Shaw Jr wrote:
That was nice and so easy to do actually....surprisingly so. Thanks Stan.


Please note that he only cleaned 4 of the lens' surfaces (I presume that there are actually 6 or 7 of them, and if he was able to do the others, then he would most likely have alignment (centering) problems.

But, yes, I have done similar cleaning(s) to many of my (Nikon & Mamiya) rangefinder lenses without any problems (and have the necessary tools to do it properly, and also do the alignments).

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Jul 4, 2020 15:07:02   #
bpulv Loc: Buena Park, CA
 
Chromodynamics6 wrote:
Food for thought.

An ozone level of 0.4 ppm for 4 minutes will kill any bacteria, virus, mold and fungus. Hundreds of thousands of people use ozone to clean their cpap machines every day.


I use my SoClean to clean my COVID-19 masks, but a 50-600mm lens is much too big to fit any C-PAP cleaning equipment. SoClean is taking pre-orders for a mask cleaner, but again it is way too small. Also, four minutes would not be enough. SoClean recommends and the cleaner's default setting is seven minutes plus the two hour soak time. Assuming you had a large enough ozone generator chamber to contain the lens in question. It would probably require more generation and soak time for the ozone to penetrate to the innards of the lens. If the mold is between cemented elements, the ozone will never affect the mold.

The bottom line is that he will be lucky if the lens can be repaired if Sigma or a Sigma authorized repair facility will not accept his lens for repair.

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Jul 4, 2020 15:10:10   #
SteveR Loc: Michigan
 
Bado wrote:
After the last hurricane in Texas flooding my sons home. My 50-600 lens sat on a shelf with 3 feet of water below for two weeks.
Well fungus grew a city in that lens.
Sigma pitched a big story we want to help.
So I sent Lens in and they said oh man we will knock off 100$ on a new one.
Did not accept , the lens takes good images in spite of the fungus , weird but true.
I am just itching to get in that lens and clean it myself. Anybody know how to do this and what tools?
So far I can’t even get independent repair shops to do it. I just want someone with balls to do it and try to clean as much as they can. If it comes out bad it’s on me
Any ideas out there
After the last hurricane in Texas flooding my sons... (show quote)


Should've taken the offer of $100 off on a new lens.

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Jul 4, 2020 15:18:27   #
flathead27ford Loc: Colorado, North of Greeley
 
Bado wrote:
After the last hurricane in Texas flooding my sons home. My 50-600 lens sat on a shelf with 3 feet of water below for two weeks.
Well fungus grew a city in that lens.
Sigma pitched a big story we want to help.
So I sent Lens in and they said oh man we will knock off 100$ on a new one.
Did not accept , the lens takes good images in spite of the fungus , weird but true.
I am just itching to get in that lens and clean it myself. Anybody know how to do this and what tools?
So far I can’t even get independent repair shops to do it. I just want someone with balls to do it and try to clean as much as they can. If it comes out bad it’s on me
Any ideas out there
After the last hurricane in Texas flooding my sons... (show quote)


Since the lens is probably already toast, I say why not give it a try at cleaning it yourself? They're are videos on YouTube that will give you the basics. If you decide to do this, give us an update of how things go. Cheers and good luck.

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Jul 4, 2020 15:49:25   #
Mike in AZ
 
My concern would be that the fungus might be able to get into your camera body if the contaminated lens were to be attached to it.

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Jul 4, 2020 16:54:09   #
Chromodynamics6 Loc: Beverly Hills Ca.
 
bpulv wrote:
I use my SoClean to clean my COVID-19 masks, but a 50-600mm lens is much too big to fit any C-PAP cleaning equipment. SoClean is taking pre-orders for a mask cleaner, but again it is way too small. Also, four minutes would not be enough. SoClean recommends and the cleaner's default setting is seven minutes plus the two hour soak time. Assuming you had a large enough ozone generator chamber to contain the lens in question. It would probably require more generation and soak time for the ozone to penetrate to the innards of the lens. If the mold is between cemented elements, the ozone will never affect the mold.

The bottom line is that he will be lucky if the lens can be repaired if Sigma or a Sigma authorized repair facility will not accept his lens for repair.
I use my SoClean to clean my COVID-19 masks, but a... (show quote)


I wasn't suggesting he use a SoClean to clean his lens. I mentioned a cpap cleaner to demonstrate how ozone is commonly used. Any kind of ozone generator, a plastic bag just big enough for the lens and some tape could get the job done with a little ingenuity. Take the mount end of the lens off, put it in a plastic bag, fill the bag and seal it then leave it for as long as you want. One could refresh the ozone and soak it as many times as deemed necessary. I don't know about SoClean but I'm sure it wouldn't be too difficult to determine where and how the ozone is introduced, a small hose maybe? Put that small hose in the end of the bag and seal it with tape. Cut a small hole in the other end of the bag to vent the bag and introduce more ozone and seal it with a twist tie or makeshift forceps or clamp.

If the lens is still working and the image quality is okay, killing the fugus may be all he needs to do.

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Jul 4, 2020 17:11:06   #
bpulv Loc: Buena Park, CA
 
Chromodynamics6 wrote:
I wasn't suggesting he use a SoClean to clean his lens. I mentioned a cpap cleaner to demonstrate how ozone is commonly used. Any kind of ozone generator, a plastic bag just big enough for the lens and some tape could get the job done with a little ingenuity. Take the mount end of the lens off, put it in a plastic bag, fill the bag and seal it then leave it for as long as you want. One could refresh the ozone and soak it as many times as deemed necessary. I don't know about SoClean but I'm sure it wouldn't be too difficult to determine where and how the ozone is introduced, a small hose maybe? Put that small hose in the end of the bag and seal it with tape. Cut a small hole in the other end of the bag to vent the bag and introduce more ozone and seal it with a twist tie or makeshift forceps or clamp.

If the lens is still working and the image quality is okay, killing the fugus may be all he needs to do.
I wasn't suggesting he use a SoClean to clean his ... (show quote)


Actually, that could be an easy solution. You could quickly adapt a SoClean machine by taking a SoClean hose with the mask removed, cutting the hose in half and splicing a plastic bag between the hose halves. I would go into the SoClean menu and change the ozone generation time to the maximum, let it soak two hours and then repeat the process multiple times.

There is one drawback about ozone that I just remembered. Ozone attacks rubber, plastics and other materials that might be in the lens assembly, so it would not be without risk. However, what has he got to loose.

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Jul 4, 2020 17:36:40   #
Canisdirus
 
For Pete's sake...
Most of you thinking he can disassemble this lens and clean and reassemble ...and have it work as normal...are DREAMING.

This is the element setup...it is COMPLICATED.
It's a 60-600mm ...holy smokes ppl.



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Jul 4, 2020 17:51:25   #
bpulv Loc: Buena Park, CA
 
Canisdirus wrote:
For Pete's sake...
Most of you thinking he can disassemble this lens and clean and reassemble ...and have it work as normal...are DREAMING.

This is the element setup...it is COMPLICATED.
It's a 60-600mm ...holy smokes ppl.


I agree. See my previous posts in this thread. The 50-600mm lens is more than complicated. It takes Sigma proprietary equipment and computer systems to realign it during reassembly and only Sigma's factory and factory authorize repair facilities have access to that equipment. So even if a DYIer was able to disassemble and reassemble it, which is doubtful, the lens would never work correctly because they couldn't realign it.

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Jul 4, 2020 19:31:33   #
kymarto Loc: Portland OR and Milan Italy
 
CHG_CANON wrote:
Beat me to it. Keep this fungus lens no where near any other equipment, not even inside the house, if possible.


Spores are everywhere all the time. If the conditions are right for it to grow it will grow wherever you are. If they are not it not only won't but can't.

I have over 100 vintage lenses, some with fungus. I store them in airtight boxes with dessicant to keep the humidity under 50%. Not one has ever had the fungus progress or been "infected" by another lens.

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Jul 6, 2020 12:45:27   #
Chromodynamics6 Loc: Beverly Hills Ca.
 
Canisdirus wrote:
For Pete's sake...
Most of you thinking he can disassemble this lens and clean and reassemble ...and have it work as normal...are DREAMING.

This is the element setup...it is COMPLICATED.
It's a 60-600mm ...holy smokes ppl.


Some people play checkers and some play chess.

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Jul 6, 2020 16:58:51   #
kymarto Loc: Portland OR and Milan Italy
 
Chromodynamics6 wrote:
Some people play checkers and some play chess.


I have to agree that without the proper tools and spare parts, this is a fool's errand. Even if you were to get it apart and back together, the question of centering of elements is also crucial. When I had one zoom lens worked on by Nikon service in Tokyo, I had to bring it back because they had reassembled it with the elements decentered, which greatly affected the performance on one side. This is a bit like bringing your Lamborghini to the corner gas station and asking the kid working there for a complete engine rebuild.

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Jul 6, 2020 21:10:55   #
Mike in AZ
 
I have a large pair of Celestron binoculars that are out of alignment and useless. I tried to align them myself after watching some YouTube videos. I got them fairly well aligned but not perfect. You need a real good alignment rig to get them better. I only paid about $100 for them and it would cost more for the factory to align them after shipping. I suspect that trying to mess with disassembly of a camera zoom lens would create an even bigger alignment issue.

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Jul 6, 2020 21:43:21   #
Chromodynamics6 Loc: Beverly Hills Ca.
 
kymarto wrote:
I have to agree that without the proper tools and spare parts, this is a fool's errand. Even if you were to get it apart and back together, the question of centering of elements is also crucial. When I had one zoom lens worked on by Nikon service in Tokyo, I had to bring it back because they had reassembled it with the elements decentered, which greatly affected the performance on one side. This is a bit like bringing your Lamborghini to the corner gas station and asking the kid working there for a complete engine rebuild.
I have to agree that without the proper tools and ... (show quote)


We all know our limitations because, in most cases, we are the one's that define them.

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