Does fungus in a lens alter it's value to you?

Simple question. Does fungus (mold/mould) in a lens alter it's value to you and your willingness to buy it compared to the same lens without fungus and, if so, by how much?

I'm genuinely curious to know how others think/feel about this particular condition and if it affects their willingness to buy a lens.

Even if you bought a lens with fungus, thinking you could send it in and have it cleaned out, I'd be worried about remaining spores that would make it easier to reoccur.

Not worth it to me.

LV Moose wrote in post #17505732
Even if you bought a lens with fungus, thinking you could send it in and have it cleaned out, I'd be worried about remaining spores that would make it easier to reoccur.

Not worth it to me.

...or somehow spread through the rest of my collection...

... or to my toe nails

it really depends...i haven't bought a lens with fungus...but if you were to offer me a 70-200f2.8II for $100, i'd buy it...if you took $300 off the normal price, i wouldn't touch it...

all lenses still have some value...i think newer lenses with fungus take much more of a hit than older MF lenses with fungus...those older lenses are easier to take apart, and clean without having to deal with electronics

but no matter what the value of the lens is going to go down...

I'd maybe pay $20 for a lens with mold in it, so I have something fun to take apart with my kids. I'd never dream of using it as a lens though and if it ever should happen to one of my lenses I'd do the same thing, take it apart with my kids.

But is this really a common issue? I read about it here and there, but can't imagine that this happens even remotely often.

I'd also never buy a used lens unless it's from a store/place that I can trust and they checked it out to be 100% ok and back it with a warranty and generous return policy. But that's just me, I don't like buying used things, I rather save longer or simply don't have it. Books in perfect condition excluded. I do buy those used. Well, and the occasional movie or CD. But nothing technical. I don't even like used cars, I rather stick with my 11 year old Tacoma for an other decade

fungus lens = $0.00

Just not worth it. No need to take a chance of it spreading to anything else in your bag.

Heya,

Of course it does. It's not a good thing.

But I will buy cheap old fungusy lenses for dirt, or free, often. Just for fun. I don't worry about spores and stuff. I don't plan on being buried with this gear. I use 8+ year old cameras mostly (5D, 1D2, etc) and some modern APS-C's. I don't spend a lot, but I also don't really care about some fungus, as long as you don't leave it in a dark damp place, it's not going to do much. Here in Florida, it's bright and my stuff is always out in the sun, and I don't care really.

So I like to play with fungusy stuff sometimes just for the heck of it.

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/nFAs​kx

Fungus etches the glass. It can be cleaned, but the etching remains. If it is just a trace, it should be OK, but in a bad case the surface would be ruined.

I'm pretty sure remaining spores in an infected lens are not an issue, because there are fungus spores everywhere in the air. The spores will grow in any lens if the humidity is high enough and there is enough time.

It definitely happens, I can attest to that. One time I put my camera bag containing my gear away after a winter shoot. I didn't notice there was a bunch of snow stuck to the bottom of the bag. It melted and the water permeated the bottom of the bag. A couple of weeks later I opened the bag and was shocked to see it full of white filaments, with the worst concentration at one corner where my 28mm prime was. The fungus had gotten deep into that lens and it needed to have the glass replaced. Fortunately the other gear was OK, just needed to have the exterior cleaned.

Perhaps the lens could be cleaned and repaired at a reasonable price and you wind up with a good deal. But it's also likely that the cost to repair could exceed the value of the lens. My assumption is that the seller got an estimate to repair the lens and determined it wasn't worth the cost. Of course, it's also possible that the seller was just too lazy to get an estimate. In either case, the risk would be too great for me to consider.