Cleaning fungus from lens

[goinggreynow]

Plenty of on-line videos,etc, but just wondering if any fellow members have any first hand experience of cleaning fungus from the inside elements of a lens. I have a Pentacon 135mm and a Helios 44m. The Pentacon looks to have some minor fungus about 5mm long on the inside of the front element. The Helios is a little more problematic. Part of me just wants to get rid of them both but they are interesting lenses and given that I didn't pay too much for either, I am thinking it might be worth trying to sort the Pentacon at least. I appreciate that I will need a lens spanner/wrench but would be interested in hearing just how much of a hassle this is likely to be.
What this has taught me, though, is that it is simply not enough to hold a lens up to the light to check for fungus. I did this with both and saw nothing!. It was not until I used a torch and loupe that my problems became apparent. This may just help someone in the future.

 

[vtecsilver]

There are a number of videos on Youtube showing you how to take the Helios 44 lens apart and clean the fungus from it. It doesn't seem too dificult, though I don't know about the Pentacon 135mm. One video shows a sliding caliper measuring tool being used to remove the front cover and lens element from a 44M-4:

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BUNgusKqt-Y

I need to clean some fungus from a Helios 44-2 so will be doing some research on how to take it apart as it seems different to the 44M-4

 

[kendo1]

There are a number of videos on Youtube showing you how to take the Helios 44 lens apart and clean the fungus from it. It doesn't seem too dificult, though I don't know about the Pentacon 135mm. One video shows a sliding caliper measuring tool being used to remove the front cover and lens element from a 44M-4:

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BUNgusKqt-Y

I need to clean some fungus from a Helios 44-2 so will be doing some research on how to take it apart as it seems different to the 44M-4

A pair of compasses will do the job too.

 

[goinggreynow]

Many thanks for the replies. i think I will pick up a cheap lens spanner and see how I get on. Still not overly keen, though, on trying to clean a lens which is riddled with fungus!

 

[AJQS]

I've cleaned fungus from a few lenses, sometimes its easy to get at it, other times not. It doesn't make any difference to the performance, but does increase the resale value (if it goes well!)!

 

[goinggreynow]

I've cleaned fungus from a few lenses, sometimes its easy to get at it, other times not. It doesn't make any difference to the performance, but does increase the resale value (if it goes well!)!

Many thanks. I've already been told that the deeper the fungus is inside the lens, the more difficult to get at it. My Pentacon appears to have just a few threads on the underside of the front element. I just need to somehow get over this (irrational?) fear of using a "fungus infected" lens, irrespective of whether it's been cleaned or not! When you read comments (not on TP) about cross contamination you can perhaps be forgiven for thinking it's not worth the hassle. Then you take a few shots with a "clean" lens and realise that these old lenses can often really be worth the effort for not a lot of £.

 

[the black fox]

bought a lens tool to remove the elements from a couple of "gifted " lenses a few years ago ,and although fairly simple to do the actual fungus was to deeply embedded .if you get to it early enough its worth doing though

 

[goinggreynow]

bought a lens tool to remove the elements from a couple of "gifted " lenses a few years ago ,and although fairly simple to do the actual fungus was to deeply embedded .if you get to it early enough its worth doing though

many thanks. Just deciding which lens spanner to buy. They all seem very similar unless you pay 5 or 6* as much for a really expensive one.

 

[vtecsilver]

Bought the single bar dual tip tool from Amazon as preferred the fact that the sliding bar was rectangle in section rather than round. Seems sufficiently rigid though the ends can move in and out a little bit after tightening. Just used the flat ends to remove the front cover from the Helios 44-2 and it worked well so currently they would get my recommendation. They might be harder to use with larger lenses and the slight play might be more of a problem with larger lenses.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00J5F6ZI2

 

[goinggreynow]

Many thanks for the reply and photo - really helpful. I was moving towards buying one of the single bar varieties.