Lens Fungus Removal on a Voigtlander Bessa 1 - vintage camera fungus repair and lens disassembly

If you have a lens that is showing signs of fungus, don't despair! Fixing it is not too complicated! You can do it!

In fact, by far the most complicated bit of the job is getting at the fungus in the first place. It's often buried deep in the lens, on one of the inner groups or elements. These are the ones that don't get reached by standard cleaning, and can remain untouched and undisturbed for years, giving them lots of opportunity to grow a thick covering.

I picked up a 70 (ish) year old Voigtlander Bessa 1, medium format folding camera, shooting 6x9 frames on 120 film. It was obvious straight away that there was fungus in the lens somewhere.

I didn't know much about the construction of the lens, so I was working it out as I went along. But that's often what happens when I look at lenses... because only very rarely do you find two lenses that are constructed the same. What tools you need and what you need to do to disassemble a lens really varies, and unless you can find a tutorial online, you're basically flying blind.

But have no fear... because as long as you follow certain rules (such as making sure you don't scratch anything and paying VERY close attention to which way around each element sits in the lens) then the job doesn't require masses of skill. It's more about patience, and taking care with it (IMO).

So I took this Bessa lens apart, cleaned each section with ammonia and hydrogen peroxide, and put it back together again, and it looks a million times better. Great result!

You'll see in the vide that there was an element that I couldn't get free from its housing. I tried a few ways, but in the end decided to simply clean it carefully in its barrel, rather than risk damage to the glass by continuing to attempt to free it. That's entirely up to you, it's your choice how you do these things, but there is ALWAYS a way!

In this lens I had to remove the focus ring to get at the front element. At the end I go through how to re-calibrate the focus ring to ensure the lens markings are accurate.

Drop me a comment below, let me know if you have any questions about what I did, or of course tell me if you think I did it all wrong!

And watch out for the next vide - the Voigtlander Bessa 1 review and shoot. Coming VERY soon.