I received the $6.50 Zuiko 50/1.4 in the mail today. Upon inspection it
looked like there was a mild case of fungus internally... it looked like
little spider webs. So I decided to take it apart and started with the rear
elements. It was fairly easy to remove the chrome and black rear rings and
then unscrew the first rear element by hand. Unfortunately, the fungus was
between the next element and the front element group. So after cleaning the
rear element and reassembling I attempted to disassemble the front of the
lens.
The front of the lens was a bit of a challenge. I fashioned a spanner out of
a metal cpu remover tool and with a bit of effort, removed the name plate.
After removing the name ring and a few other parts that came with it
(including the ball detent), I noticed that the front element group was held
in by a ring with 2 slots so I again tried my custom tool but no go... it was
a bit snug. So then I taped the end of a small screw driver, put it in one
of the slots and carefully applied pressure in the direction to loosen the
ring. Success! The fungus was on the back of that group as well as on the
front of the lens by the aperture. I gently cleaned each surface with a mild
solution of vinegar (I read somewhere this would kill the fungus but one of
you will no doubt inform me that it will slowly dissolve the entire lens over
time 8-) ) and then with lens cleaning fluid. I reassembled and everything
seems to work OK and the optics look great.
Thanks Chuck for all the info you sent to my personal email account. :)
Richard
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