Cleaning lens fungus

[Animaniac888]

What methods would you suggest to clean lens fungus? I ordered a lens on Adorama that had "fungus spots on the rear element", which hopefully means nothing inside the lens. I was thinking of using rubbing alcohol, but I read elsewhere that it could corrode the lens coating...

What are your ideas?

 

[KmH]

Acetone is typically the solvent of choice for cleaning purposes in the laboratory. Acetone is also miscible in water so it can be rinsed away by dilution.

The rear lens element is the last place you want fungus to be. Hopefully, the fungus is young enough it hasn't had time to etch the glass.

 

[Animaniac888]

I think my sister has some nail polish remover, which I believe is acetone...

The rear lens element is the last place you want fungus to be. Hopefully, the fungus is young enough it hasn't had time to etch the glass.

Great... now I'm scared... it's a thirty year old lens.

 

[Animaniac888]

Crud, my sister's nail polish remover is a non-acetone remover.

Any other ideas?

 

[scorpion_tyr]

Throw it away. Been a while since I looked into it, but there used to be several methods including using UV lights or leaving it out in the sun, chemical cleaners, etc, but after I researched it for a while I found that none of those seemed to work all the time. You may want to try it, but what I would be worried about is the fungus spreading to your other lenses, even if it's so small it's not visible yet...

 

[Animaniac888]

The lens just arrived a few hours ago via UPS. I cleaned dust and possible fungus off of the rear element and it's been sitting on the windowsill in direct sunlight for 2-3 hours or so. Could the fungus be dead by now?

Also, the lens is a 50mm f/1.8 E series AI-S lens, in case that provides any relevant information.