FUNGUS! Advice sought with Paypal claim / learnings for everyone!

[gordon_l34]

Evening All, What are your thoughts on what I am using. At present the humidity is 68% but my gear is stored at 42% in a Wonderful drying cabinet.

Regards,
Gordon.

[Tricky]

From my (limited) understanding of fungus, if the humidity is kept at the sort of 42% level you mention, then there should be no opportunity for fungus to start growing.

What does the cabinet look like - do you have any pictures? And what did it cost? What is it primarily intended for?

[Wantone]

Congrates Tricky, i didn't think you had a strong case esp because it's an ebay purchase. One of them buyer beware things.

The Wonderful dry cabinets looks interesting, i've been thinking of getting one too from http://www.cameras.net.au/index.php?cPath=36 , i'm currently using silicon bags but they don't last very long.

[DanNG]

Im using a wonderful dry cabinet - works a treat and is good peace of mind.. humidity up here gets crazy... changes dramatically from day to day. The cabinet keeps it nice and stable and is a doubles as a nice safe place to keep gear.

[Tricky]

Im using a wonderful dry cabinet - works a treat and is good peace of mind.. humidity up here gets crazy... changes dramatically from day to day. The cabinet keeps it nice and stable and is a doubles as a nice safe place to keep gear.

Out of interest, where did you buy the dry box? I think Photocontinental has them, but couldn't see them listed on their website. Thanks.

[Kym]

Humidity... My weather station was showing 15% on the w/end. Got up to 40% at one stage. Adelaide - good place to keep cameras!

Great news on the outcome!

[Paper_Mache_Man]

I'm surprised there isn't some additive they can include in the lens that kills off fungus. It wouldn't need to be on the glass, it could just be a coating on the body/aperture blades + other non optical parts.

If we can make agent orange surely we can kill some fungus spores.

[DanNG]

Out of interest, where did you buy the dry box? I think Photocontinental has them, but couldn't see them listed on their website. Thanks.

from cameras.net.au - freight was not to expensive, the cabinets are quite small.

[Tricky]

from cameras.net.au - freight was not to expensive, the cabinets are quite small.

Thanks Dan, I'll check them out.

[gordon_l34]

Good Morning,

I have a Wonderful AD 108 as shown on page 16 of the current Photographoc Trader. Wonderful's address is www.drycabinet.com.au Photo Continental are the Brisbane agents.

I have had fungus removed from a Pentax M 50mm f1.4 lens by f16 at Margate. Their address is www.f16cameraservice.com.au

Regards,
Gordon.

[kwokask]

I also have a Wonderful dry box - I dealt directly with them and they even gave me a discount without me asking for it!

[peterb666]

ECS in Sydney sell the 27 litre Wonderful Dry Cabinet for $275...

Wonderfule Dry Cabinet from ECS

I did lose 1 lens (a Nikkor 35mm lens from memory) to the fungus. Actually sold it on eBay but it's condition was declared in big letters. It wasn't very bad and still took great photos but unfortunately, it wasn't economic to have cleaned. I was getting rid of my Nikon gear and would not have made back the cost of cleaning.

I have contemplated getting the above cabinet but with the current humidity in Sydney, I would want to crawl into it myself.

[Tricky]

Thread lives again

Nine months on, my own approach to safe storage of equipment:

- Craftech air / water tight hard case from bunnings ($60)

- Re-useable silicon beads in a metal case ($20) which turn from blue to pink as they soak up moisture. Once pink, 3 hours in the oven at 150'C dries them out and back to blue again.

[peterb666]

Thread lives again
- Re-useable silicon beads in a metal case ($20) which turn from blue to pink as they soak up moisture. Once pink, 3 hours in the oven at 150'C dries them out and back to blue again.

From where did you get your silicon beads?

[Tricky]

From where did you get your silicon beads?

Can't remember where I bought mine, but here is a link to one I found through a quick google. The silica desiccant is generally marketed as the Pelican 1500D - you'll find lots of other places to buy online if you google 'Pelican 1500D silica'.

http://www.professionalequipment.com...500d/tool-bag/

[peterb666]

Can't remember where I bought mine, but here is a link to one I found through a quick google. The silica desiccant is generally marketed as the Pelican 1500D - you'll find lots of other places to buy online if you google 'Pelican 1500D silica'.

http://www.professionalequipment.com...500d/tool-bag/

Thanks. I did a search and checked them out and they seem ideal. Better than that, I found the same units not repackaged as Pelican 1500D here... http://www.silicagel.com.au/prod1.htm

Little more than half the price of most of the Pelican ones.

If you want to buy 2 or more, it works out cheaper on eBay ... eBay Store

[Tricky]

Thanks. I did a search and checked them out and they seem ideal. Better than that, I found the same units not repackaged as Pelican 1500D here... http://www.silicagel.com.au/prod1.htm

Little more than half the price of most of the Pelican ones.

If you want to buy 2 or more, it works out cheaper on eBay ... eBay Store

Yeah, mine's not branded Pelican either. Can't honestly remember what I paid, but at less than $15 they are indeed ideal for the job. Coupled with one of the cheap yellow bunnings hard cases (Pelican knock-offs) you've got primo anti-fungal digs for your lenses for less than $75...

[peterb666]

That's the sort of thing I am looking at getting. I am going to use the money I was going to put into a larger and fancier flash and then after 4 attempts of ordering the flash from BHPotovideo the price has gone from USD159.95 to USD199.95 plus a minimum USD41 postage. I use a flash so little that I am going to go for a cheaper item or wait and instead deal with my storage issues.

The above case looks very much like the Kincrome ones.

BTW, how long does the pack last before you need to recharge it in the oven?

[Tricky]

The above case looks very much like the Kincrome ones.

As I recall, when researching the Bunnings 'Craftech' case, I came across some branded 'Kincrome' that looked very similar. I suspect these Pelican knocks-offs have had more branding aliases than a Samyang / Vivitar / Rokinon / Bower / Polar / Sakar fisheye

BTW, how long does the pack last before you need to recharge it in the oven?

Surprisingly short period of time. With regular opening and closing, they last literally two or three weeks before turning bright pink (of course it depends quite a bit on the prevaling weather). I can offer only one insight into how long they last with no opening: I had a three week busy period at work when I didn't open the case at all; when I eventually did, the silicon was still pretty blue (but not oven-fresh dark blue).

The fact that a (relatively) big pack of silicon like that only lasts 3 weeks indicates one thing pretty clearly: the usual crappy little silicon beads in paper bags which I've often seen photographers use in the bottom of their bags (myself included, not that long ago) are doing absolutely nothing to remove moisture... they will be fully saturated already and are probably acting as a humidifier in your bag...

[tim71]

G'day Gordon,

how much did f16 charge to remove fungus from your Pentax M 50mm? I have few of my Grandfather's old Takumars to clean. Probably cheaper to buy another lens but its the sentimental value as well.

cheers,

Tim