Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2007/11/10

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Subject: [Leica] Img: Radioactive lens fix works
From: philippe.orlent at pandora.be (Philippe Orlent)
Date: Sat Nov 10 11:44:02 2007
References: <86E01E09-09CE-4A4A-A35C-A8DCA6E7DD5B@comcast.net> <p06230908c35b9acccc72@10.1.16.153> <d3520a2f0711101000r6f7f5764j7e1cbf04b15985bd@mail.gmail.com>

This sounds like a very plausible theory, Anders.

As I stated before, I don't doubt Len's observation. But -and as an  
answer to Henning- the 2 visual proofs of this observation were not  
were not really made in identical circumstances.
That's why I suggested to documented them in a similar conditions.
Even from his low res jpegs, I did the test, balanced them (black  
point, white point, mid gray) and put them in Lab colour -the widest  
color space as you may know- to make them comparable*.
There still is a visible difference. But at least the comparison has  
been made on a par level.

So let's not start doing critical image comparisons in different  
conditions, on different screens and with low res sRGBs if we want to  
use these a studying material.
Even if visual comparison does not give the right explanation for the  
reason of succes for this treatment.

Philippe




Op 10-nov-07, om 19:00 heeft Anders Nygren het volgende geschreven:

> On Nov 10, 2007 11:34 AM, Henning Wulff <henningw@archiphoto.com>  
> wrote:
>>> For those of you interested in the Pentax 50mm yellowing problem,
>>> Here are photos taken before and after 116 hours exposure to UV
>>> light to reverse the yellow cast problem due to the radioactive
>>> element Thorium in one of the lens elements.
>>>
>>> Before photo. Lens has brownish, yellow cast.
>>>
>>> <http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/LeonardT/Pentax/ 
>>> Takumar_50_2.jpg.html>
>>> <http://tinyurl.com/233emd>
>>>
>>> Here is a photo taken after only 116 hours of being exposed to UV
>>> light. The exposure was to 16 hours of sunlight and 100 hours of UV
>>> from a blacklight.
>>>
>>> <http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/LeonardT/Pentax/ 
>>> Takumar_116hrs.jpg.html>
>>> <http://tinyurl.com/2bx7do>
>>>
>>> I did not expect any improvement this quickly if at all. I'll
>>> probably keep the lens in front of the blacklight for a few days
>>> more to see if there is any further improvement.
>>>
>>> Thanks for your interest.
>>> Len
>>
>>
>> Very impressive. I'm still not clear on the actual process of
>> reversing this colour change, though. As Chris Saganich pointed out,
>> available UV radiation is too long wavelength to have enough energy
>> to boot electrons around to reverse these colour changes, as far as I
>> know. On the other hand, clearly there is enough energy in the UV
>> radiation. Something awfully low energy is happening here.
>>
>> In any case, it looks like the lens is well on its way being
>> 'filterless' (internally) again.
>>
>
> Isn't UV the recommended treatment for fungus? It sounds like a
> more probable explanation. But of course it sounds much more
> esoteric to blame the radioactive glass for the colour change.
>
> /Anders
>
> _______________________________________________
> Leica Users Group.
> See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information
>


Replies: Reply from henningw at archiphoto.com (Henning Wulff) ([Leica] Img: Radioactive lens fix works)
Reply from len-1 at comcast.net (Leonard Taupier) ([Leica] Img: Radioactive lens fix works)
In reply to: Message from len-1 at comcast.net (Leonard Taupier) ([Leica] Img: Radioactive lens fix works)
Message from anders.nygren at gmail.com (Anders Nygren) ([Leica] Img: Radioactive lens fix works)