• Welcome to BirdForum, the internet's largest birding community with thousands of members from all over the world. The forums are dedicated to wild birds, birding, binoculars and equipment and all that goes with it.

    Please register for an account to take part in the discussions in the forum, post your pictures in the gallery and more.
ZEISS DTI thermal imaging cameras. For more discoveries at night, and during the day.

fungus (1 Viewer)

hanifkeru

Member
hello everybody, i have recently bought a tento 7x35 russian made binocular.its my first binocular.i saw before purchase that there is fungus inside binocular i took it easy and thought i would clean it but unfortunately i could not because i cannot disassemble it.there are not any qualified repairer in my town where i can take it to repair.so finally i have decided to wash it by water or some detergent or alcohol.is it recommended? or what else can i do please help or i would open it myself anyhow.
thank you
 
It won't get rid of the fungus, but to stop the growth, either put the binoculars in the oven at a low setting or leave out in the sun and let the light and heat kill the mold.

Even if you can get the binoculars apart the fungus can etch the glass. If it's around the edges the view might not be so bad.

Chad
 
thanks for reply,i have given my bins to a repairer he says he will clean it let us see what will happeni will get it back on tuesday then i will tell you about the progress thank you
 
If it is true fungus, the glass will be etched. As Chad has mentioned the location is important. Fungas on the prisms and/ or the lens can actually grow in a water tight environment. The U.S. Army and British found the spores in the Borneo areas to be the most troublesome (circa WW II era). Google up information on that subject. Quite interesting.
John
 
I saw a Tento 7x35 for sale for $43 a few years ago:

http://www.astromart.com/classifieds/details.asp?classified_id=461099

If the optics can be saved, it would probably cost you more than $43 to get the fungus removed.

Unless you are mechanically inclined and can take the bins apart to clean the fungus (I did on the objective of a 6" refractor once, using ROR cleaner, and it worked), and then put it back together w/out ruining the collimation (or know how to collimate binoculars), I think you will have to live with the fungus as long as it doesn't significantly interfere with the view.

Not sure how humid it gets in Ahmedabad, India. Right now, the weather map shows the humidity is 38% and 73* F with smoke (was there a forest fire?), with a high of 93* F today! Would you like me to send you some snow to cool off? I have plenty to spare. :)

If it's 93* F in the beginning of March, what is it like in July?!!! And you aren't even in the southern part of the country. Yikes.

Maybe this forecast is incorrect:
http://www.wunderground.com/global/stations/42647.html

It rarely goes below 40% humidity here at any time of year, and the humidity is usually around 70-80% when its 93* F.

But if you get monsoons and high humidity at times, you will eventually need to purchase waterproof and fog proof binoculars.

Not sure what your budget is, but I highly recommend the Zen Ray 7x36 ED2 - $375 new.

If you need a budget WP bin, try the Nikon 7x35 EX if that's the configuration you like. $100 over here, not sure what Nikon charges for this bin in India.

In the meantime, stick your bins in a tightly sealed box with desiccant to sop up the humidity when it's not in use.

Good Luck!
 
Ahmedabad in Gujarat weather pattern is subtropical and it does experience monsoons ... so it's so it's a bit different than what we expect in temperate northern climes.

See the weather data below ... average high in March is 36C climbing to 46C in May before the monsoon. Lots of rain too ... June gets more rain than most of the US gets in a year. Then July gets 2.5x that amount. The August gets 2x then September another 1.7x ;)

http://www.imd.gov.in/section/climate/ahmedabad.htm

I can imagine having a problem with fungus in optics there. A tough place for optics. Sealed optics would be a good idea but you need to keep the fungus off the exterior lenses: waterproof cases and drying agent would be a good idea.
 
Hi Brock, do you have problems with your computer? ;) (trapped in the accretion disk of a technological singularity)
 
thanx everybody,today i went to get back my bins but it has not been cleaned,he said that he tried to clean but could not. i think he didnt disassembled my bins just cleaned optical lenses. another thing that now my bins is misaligned it shows two images.i asked him to collimate i can keep it with fungus marks but it should be collimated..................thank you everybody helping me and taking interest to help me.now i will have to get a new pair of bins.
 
Warning! This thread is more than 14 years ago old.
It's likely that no further discussion is required, in which case we recommend starting a new thread. If however you feel your response is required you can still do so.

Users who are viewing this thread

Back
Top