Old lenses worth saving?

ryan0480 · Sep 17, 2008

Hey everyone, I have been lurking around the forum for a bit and have definitely learned a lot from reading about different issues and whatnot people have posted about. I have had a recent interest in photography and want to buy myself a DSLR to learn more about shooting manually! I am saving up for it, but am not there yet! I have decided I want to get either a Nikon D40 or a D60 (depending on how long I save for), and I have some lenses that go with a Nikon FG my father gave me, and it looks like they probably have fungus (they have been in storage in the dark for several years). Is there any way to salvage the lenses? I have a 28mm and a 135mm lens that both seem pretty nice, and I certainly wouldnt want to toss them if I didnt have to!

I can try to take some pictures of the lenses to show what they look like, but can they be fixed?

Big Mike · Sep 17, 2008

You could send them into Nikon service, or to a repair shop. They would hopefully be able to give you an estimate for cleaning/fixing them.

ryan0480 · Sep 17, 2008

Awesome, thanks for the quick response. I tried to do a google search, and found a lot of people out there saying if a lens has fungus, its dead, just toss it. I will take them to a shop and see what they say. Are cleanings/repairs like this typically expensive? Or it it something like 30 bucks a lens? Just trying to get a ballpark, not exact figures.

Another related question...I have heard people say fungus is very very contagious, as in, you use a lens with fungus on it on your camera, and then any other lenses you use on that camera will be infected as well? This seems outlandish, but I really have no clue as to the validity of it.

djacobox372 · Sep 17, 2008

One thing to keep in mind is that a d40 and d60 won't meter with older non-cpu lenses.... if you want aperture priority mode and/or light metering with old lenses you have to step up to a d200, d300, d700 or d3.

Dao · Sep 17, 2008

I read that the fungus will damage the coating of the lens. So it cannot be cleaned.

ryan0480 · Sep 18, 2008

djacobox372 said:
One thing to keep in mind is that a d40 and d60 won't meter with older non-cpu lenses.... if you want aperture priority mode and/or light metering with old lenses you have to step up to a d200, d300, d700 or d3.

I was aware that there would be limitations, but I did not want to throw out a useable lens if I could avoid it, you know? But thank you for mentioning the cameras that can do it.

Dao, not to be confrontational, but how can you know the coating is damaged for sure? Several places on the net have mentioned that the coating can be damaged as a long term effect, but that does not always happen. Some people have said that it is possible to clean and (if needed) recoat lenses.

What I am curious about is how much something like this would cost? Has anyone had a lens successfully cleaned of fungus, how much was it? I dont need specific numbers, I am just looking to see what kind of damage I am looking at to the wallet, and if it is worth the potential gain.