a few days ago i found a pair of russian (USSR made) komz 6x24 binoculars listed on internet auction site, i'de heard a few good things said about these so bid and won them for £33 including postage. first inspection showed them to be in good cosmetic condition and collimated with a wonderfully sharp and wide angle view they are little gems! focus is smooth and firm and construction is solid, they are wonderful to hold and look through!
now for the down side... checking them internally i notice quite a few patches of fungus and its the spidery type, the glass is still very clear but i can see they will need attention.
i phoned a company called "Kay optical" for a quote to have them cleaned and serviced explaining the fungus problem and was quoted around £100 for the job which would bring the total expense for these up to £135 ish.
what im asking is has anyone had this kind of work done before or used Kay optical? i dont know if its worth sending them away but i would like to as they are superb little binoculars, is it even possible to clean fungus like this off the prisms and lenses without removing the coatings? they seemed pretty confident it could be done.
thanks Mark
Worst case scenario with fungus is that it eats right into the glass pitting it and damaging it beyond repair resulting in a dim view. Best case is you just wipe it off and it only leaves a little staining on the glass which has no perceptible effect on viewing. If your view is clear right now, the fungus doesn't sound too bad and they might be correct although some small areas of coating would most likely show stain marks.
[QUOTE=mark22c;2239712] is it even possible to clean fungus like this off the prisms and lenses without removing the coatings? they seemed pretty confident it could be done.
thanks Mark[/QUOTE]
i think i've lost a little contrast with the fungus but the image is still sharp, looking a little closer i can now see the prisms are a little hazey as well. trouble is there's a little bit of fungus on every surface spread randomly its like looking at a hubble picture of a bunch of galaxies, effectively its almost like viewing through a net curtain.
i hope it can be cleaned off? would be a shame to see these lost, i havnt seen many around.