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Anyone have any ideas what this is? (1 Viewer)

S

stevebaker24

SteveB
I have a pair of Nikon HG 8x32 (originals) that I have since replaced with Swaro's but got them out of their box again to keep near the back window to watch garden birds on our feeders.

I noticed some speckles on the inside of the objective lens or maybe even further in as it is difficult to see the lens construction.

It doesn't look like dust, may be some sort of fungus?

Anyone had the same problem?

Whatever it is, can it be prevented as I don't want the same happening to my swaros, they already have a 1 single dot inside the objectives.
 

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stevebaker24 said:
I have a pair of Nikon HG 8x32 (originals) that I have since replaced with Swaro's but got them out of their box again to keep near the back window to watch garden birds on our feeders.

I noticed some speckles on the inside of the objective lens or maybe even further in as it is difficult to see the lens construction.

It doesn't look like dust, may be some sort of fungus?

Anyone had the same problem?

Whatever it is, can it be prevented as I don't want the same happening to my swaros, they already have a 1 single dot inside the objectives.
Click to expand...
Believe it or not I see something very similar in my 7X42 Ultravid. There were minor discussions about this years ago but I cannot find references.

In my case, if I shine a light into the objective I see the "speckles". However, looking through the objective at a light source results in a crystal clear view. Also, nothing but a clear view is seen when looking through the eyepiece.

I have no idea what these "speckles" are but I see no degradation in the image delivered to my eye. I believe they are reflections of one sort or another that will require a better explanation than I can offer.
 
Pileatus said:
Believe it or not I see something very similar in my 7X42 Ultravid. There were minor discussions about this years ago but I cannot find references.

In my case, if I shine a light into the objective I see the "speckles". However, looking through the objective at a light source results in a crystal clear view. Also, nothing but a clear view is seen when looking through the eyepiece.

I have no idea what these "speckles" are but I see no degradation in the image delivered to my eye. I believe they are reflections of one sort or another that will require a better explanation than I can offer.
Click to expand...

I cannot persuade myself that those are reflections, unless the photos were taken outside at night in the heart of a globular cluster.
 
I think it is a fungus. Camera lenses often times get it growing on the inside of the lenses. Also, Yorkshire has a very humid climate which could be causing it. I don't think two binoculars would both have faulty coatings. I would get them professionally cleaned. You might have to store your binoculars with some dessicant or find a drier place to keep them. Storing them in the box is worse than keeping them out because the humidity builds up. I would get them cleaned soon also because some types of fungus can etch glass. If it was reflections why would the Nikon HG 8x32 have a lot of the spots and the Swarovski's only have a single dot?

"Avoid lens fungus by always storing your photo equipment in a cool, dry place. If you live in a humid area, then store your equipment in airtight containers with small bags of moisture-absorbing silica gel (those white bags that were packed with your lens when you bought it). You may need to buy some at your local camera shop. Remember to periodically change the silica, as it loses effectiveness as it becomes full of moisture over time. Some types of silica gels packs are re-useable after drying in a low oven. With the camera and lenses packed airtight with moisture-absorbing gel, they should be safe. Remember that it’s important to let your equipment dry out as much as possible prior to sealing it all up. Fungus will grow on your lens in less than a week if you expose it to damp, dark, and warm conditions, so please avoid these at all costs".
 
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Thanks for all the replies. I am still leaning towards it being a fungus. The only other thing that it looks like is maybe internal fogging \ condensation that has dried into little spots of residue but either of those would mean that they are no longer sealed as they are supposed to be nitrogen filled and o-ring sealed to prevent this.

As they are outside their 10 year warranty this would probably be very expensive to have them put right.
Will take it as a lesson learnt and look after my Swaro's more, even though I never really abused the Nkon's and were never left in a damp place. All my camera equipment and lenses are kept in the same place and are all fine.

One thing I will do is buy some new silica gel packs as the ones I have are probably no good due to age.

Here are a few more pics taken with my DSLR for for future reference incase anyone else has this problem.
 

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Hi,

while I concur that this looks like fungus it is quite astonishing to see this on the inside of two different pairs of supposedly waterproof and nitrogen filled binoculars... there should be no moisture in there for fungus to grow.

I would document the spot on the swaros and send them off for warranty if this gets worse. With the Nikon you're probably out of luck if the warranty on these was 10 years only in the UK.

I would expect my Nikon porros to show fungus after a longer stint in the tropics, but not waterproof roofs.

Joachim
 
stevebaker24 said:
I have a pair of Nikon HG 8x32 (originals) that I have since replaced with Swaro's but got them out of their box again to keep near the back window to watch garden birds on our feeders.

I noticed some speckles on the inside of the objective lens or maybe even further in as it is difficult to see the lens construction.

It doesn't look like dust, may be some sort of fungus?

Anyone had the same problem?

Whatever it is, can it be prevented as I don't want the same happening to my swaros, they already have a 1 single dot inside the objectives.
Click to expand...

There are ~3.5 million types of fungi. But, of the 2.25 million I am familiar with ... (yeah, right!) this does not appear to be one. Examples are too uniform in size and spacing. I would be pleased to know what you find.

Several years ago, just at the time when working with Nikon west bino repair was transitioning for heaven to hell, I received a shipment of inexpensive binos that, when viewing a bright sky appeared to be 3 or 4 times as speckled as your objective. With the specks transparent and so well in focus, I knew the location and cause.

Tightening down the tiny retainer on the field lens-in which there was too much lubricant-caused that lubricant to spray out in microscopic droplets which landed on the front surface of that lens.

This was at a time when I was no longer allowed to speak to a tech but had to speak only with the "manager" (who shall remain nameless). I was asked to send the lot back. I did.

Those instruments were returned to me without ANY of those droplets. Instead, each lens was coated in dozens of swirl marks indicating that the AR coatings were not meant to be touched and were unreasonably fragile. Representing the merchant, Captain's, I complained again. It was either that or knowingly sell my customers inferior products. All I wanted was the level of performance from Nikon west with which I had long been familiar.

Years earlier, I had thrown my hat into the ring for doing Nikon's west coast binocular repair work. This gave the frustrated manager an "out." He insulted me severely and said I was just trying to "leverage" my way into getting Nikon's bino repair work. But, of course, it is much easier to artificially place blame than it is to own up to mistakes that could get you in trouble with your boss. This could be the reason why Yelp gave the customer satisfaction rating of 2.5 out of 5 stars. I had hints that fellow was running a separate repair business under the Nikon "umbrella" and that he is no longer with the company. Amen! :cat:

Bill
 
Hi SteveB,

Have you tried to view these 'spots' through a 10x or preferably a 20x powered loupe to see if the spots have any 3D dimension or are they 'in' the coating layers ?

Doug......
 
Doesn't look like fungus to me. These all look like sharply defined spots on the lenses. Fungus would typically have fine structures covering larger areas. This looks more like some "dirt" (perhaps some paint or some lubricant?) coming off some parts of the binocular.

Also, the fact that your camera equipment doesn't suffer from this "condition" is quite a good argument against these spots being fungus. Camera equipment is IME far more susceptible to fungus than (sealed) binoculars.

Hermann
 
It doesn't look like fungus to me either.

As it happens my Zeiss 8x32 FL had the same problem but on the eyepiece end. The spots were fairly deep into the eyepiece on both barrels and looked exactly like these photos. Very uniformly scattered. At the time I thought it might be defective cement on an eyepiece doublet.

Zeiss sent them back to Germany where both eyepieces were replaced but I never got an explanation about what went wrong. I should have followed up but didn't. Somebody knows, that's certain.

I've never seen anything like it on any of my other binoculars.
 
Are we saying that the uniform (spots) equally spaced were always there, but over time have shown their presence. By the way, the deduction of the culprit is why I for one love this forum, many here providing great knowledge. I have never seen fungus like that, in two prisms I have seen it through an objective, the growth starts in one area then spreads out in a radial shape.

A.W.
 
dries1 said:
Are we saying that the uniform (spots) equally spaced were always there, but over time have shown their presence. By the way, the deduction of the culprit is why I for one love this forum, many here providing great knowledge. I have never seen fungus like that, in two prisms I have seen it through an objective, the growth starts in one area then spreads out in a radial shape.

A.W.
Click to expand...

I have probably had them around 12 years maybe longer and have only seen this after getting them back out of the their box a few days ago. They had been stored in their original packaging for about 6-8 months. It's possible that it was there before as the specs only show up if either direct sunlight or a torch is shining straight into the objectives. Even bright overcast light doesn't show them up.

I am a bit of a perfectionist and a bit OCD about keeping optics clean so I do notice any minor imperfections inside or out on all bino's I have had and I would have noticed these spots while cleaning the objectives over the past years. Definitely something that has accumulated over time.

Anyone know if the focusing mechanism (which is grease based on these) is open to the internal optics?
 
Fungus on optics takes several forms, but I have not seen fungal growth as in the photos.
I have seen fungal growth on hundreds of lenses and perhaps a hundred plus binoculars. Also telescopes and mold in bags and cases.

I think that it is a coating problem, maybe chemical droplets eating into the coating but not spreading.
What is confusing though is that some of the fainter spots seem to be out of focus, they could be reflections of the brighter spots.
It could be defects in the coating since new but only slowly showing up.

Strangely, although I would not use such a binocular because of the way it looks, it may perform almost as new, as the area of the spots is probably less than 10% of the glass area.
Lens hoods might prevent any possible glare.

I have had lenses with hundreds of bubbles in the glass, but this doesn't look like bubbles.

Close inspection with a lupe might show if this is surface problem or not. Coatings are very thin.
 
I agree with Bill above. The spots are too well distributed and uniform in size to be a fungus.

My experience is fungus is more patchy and larger and uneven, like a spider web.

I would just use the binoculars, it may not get any worse, and yes it can be cleaned up by a
qualified tech. Nikon should cover this under their warranty, I would check there first.

Good luck.

Jerry
 
Binastro said:
Fungus on optics takes several forms, but I have not seen fungal growth as in the photos.
I have seen fungal growth on hundreds of lenses and perhaps a hundred plus binoculars. Also telescopes and mold in bags and cases.

I think that it is a coating problem, maybe chemical droplets eating into the coating but not spreading.
What is confusing though is that some of the fainter spots seem to be out of focus, they could be reflections of the brighter spots.
It could be defects in the coating since new but only slowly showing up.

Strangely, although I would not use such a binocular because of the way it looks, it may perform almost as new, as the area of the spots is probably less than 10% of the glass area.
Lens hoods might prevent any possible glare.

I have had lenses with hundreds of bubbles in the glass, but this doesn't look like bubbles.

Close inspection with a lupe might show if this is surface problem or not. Coatings are very thin.
Click to expand...
Don't you think that it would be unlikely that both the Nikon and the Swarovski would have the same coatings problem? We have spots forming on both binoculars. That is what makes me think it is something in the environment like the high humidity in Yorkshire causing the spots. I sent the picture to Swarovski to see if their tech's have any idea what it is.
 
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