Molds- that's one of the scariest things to see in one's lens. That's exactly what I saw when inspecting my Tamron 60-300mm SP lens. I was thinking of having it cleaned professionally but after considering that I was pretty far from professional help, I decided to brave the task of doing it myself.I got my lens in one of the stores at Soi Yawarat, Chinatown in Bangkok almost three years ago. It was quite a bargain- two thousand baht (roughly PhP 2800)
Here's what I did to take the molds out:
First, I folded the ru
bber grip to expose the screws that hold the outermost lens. They were "sealed" by a tape and more screws were revealed upon removal of the tapes. It would be a good idea to mark a line from the tape to the lens' body that would serve as a guide when putting the lens back together.I then unscrewed the three screws in the side that apparently held the internal parts together when zooming. The screws relatively small and a micro set screw driver would come handy when doing this task. I used my Leatherman Wave's micro screw drive
r to do this. Remember to use the right tool for the job or else you'll end up messing up the delicate screws.With the side screws and the two screws hidden under the tapes out, it was easy to take the outermost lens out by just twisting the end of the lens.
With that lens out, I had full access to the molds in the surface of the lens under the outermost glass. Visual inspection revealed quite a number colonies of molds starting to spread over the surface.
The underside of the outer glass was also "infested" with stubborn
molds. I used a lenspen to clean all glass surfaces accessible. Being unsure on how to do it, I started with cleaning in light, circular motion starting from the center, progressing on to the sides of the glass.
This was as far as I dared to go. Although the innermost lenses also had molds, they were tolerable and my guts told me to stay away from dissecting the whole lens. I didn't want to push my luck too far and there's always a next time to explore deeper. After cleaning, I put everything back and viola!- everything worked as good as ever.
Maybe a DIY dry box would be a good project since I just keep this lens in a bag.
