Lenses are vulnerable to fungal infections. These fungal infections can be dangerous enough to damage the different coatings that the manufacturers give the lenses. The damage is cause usually by acidic secretions that these fungicides make in their normal biological cycle.

Fungal infection in the initial stage is not as serious a problem as it is portrayed in many places. Only in rare cases are lens damaged to irreparable or economically unjustified to be repaired conditions. This is mostly due to sheer negligence from the owners side. There are a lot of different type of fungicides, each with their own characteristics. For us the characteristics that matter is the secretions they produce. There are that produce very corrosive substance and that produce non at all.

Luckily, these very corrosive fungi are not the most common fungi to attack lenses, though the fact that many fungi are difficult to clean off the lens surface makes many  believe that  the opposite is true. Fungus growing into the lens cement is more problematic, as the elements have to be separated in order to clean them, and then re-cemented. Usually a job for a professional.

There are too many different variety of fungi that can affect a lens. Thus it is not justifiable to be generalizing their behavior and the damage that they  cause.

Let us get to know them better:

Know them better will give us an understanding of how to deal with fungal infections, the damage they can cause, and most importantly, how to prevent fungal infections.

They do not photosynthesis, and cannot manufacture their own sugars, or amino acids from minerals in the way green plants do. Like animals they are completely dependent on other organisms for food. Fungi require a source of organic material to grow on.

They do not  derive much  nourishment from the glass or its coatings, but live mainly off organic material  found on lens surfaces, such as oil films, or dust, and in the materials used in the construction of lens assembly.

In older lens the substance used to cement lens together have natural origin unlike the modern lens and fungi tend to thrive on these natural organic diets.

The fungi consist of fungal cells called hyphen, which form webs of white fibers in the infected materials. These are the white strands that we see on an infected lens surface. These fibers go into the substance of the infected area, where they produce enzymes and other chemicals to digest the material. These secretions, and the byproducts are  the corrosive agents which cause the damage.  The amount of these secretions and there corrosive all vary from variety to variety and the common fungal infections are from varieties that produce less or no corrosive by products.

Some lens repairers do not take lens with fungal infection because they are worried whether the spores from the infected lens will infect other lens. This is actually meaningless because the shop will already have enough and more spores.

They also require a little  moisture in order to grow. Some variety, such as the dreaded ‘dry rot’ in buildings, can synthesis the water they require from the oxygen in the air, and hydrogen found in the attacked organic material. Non however has spores which have this ability, and so fungal spores cannot germinate without moisture.

Tips to prevent Fungal Infection

• Keep lens surfaces clean, that is do not let them have any residue. Keep the surface as clean as possible using a proper cleaning kit. Prefer sterilized cleaning cloths.
• Keep you bags and carrying cases dry, even if they get wet on a shoot, dry them. This will ensure that they are not damp inside and they provide a dry environment for the lens.
• Keep you lens in a clean dry and well lit place, it is advised not to keep your lens in the carrying case as the environment inside it mostly supports growth of fungi even after taking a lot of care.
• Do not keep any thing other than your camera equipment in your kit bag, because they could be a source of nutrient for the fungi.
• A dry box could be a very good option in very humid areas.

• Do not use too much silica gel as they could dry out the lens lubricant, but do have some granules in your dry box or the place where you keep your lens for storage (as said before this shouldn’t be your kit bag).
• Sunlight, make sure your lenses are exposed to sunlight as often as possible as this is the best prevention one can take against fungal attacks.
• The most important tip would be to keep using your lens, take photos as often as possible as this itself can prevent fungus because when they are exposed to sunlight and when they are constantly in use the chance of a fungal attack is drastically reduced.

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