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Got fungus in your lens? Need it serviced by Leica?


andybarton

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Leather is still in essence just animal skin - a nourishing home and food for, say, athlete's foot and - umm - less-mentionable fungus infections. Tanning protects the collagens (proteins) in the skin from rotting (bacterial decomposition), and often includes adding anti-fungal chemicals as well. But such can eventually leach out (or have been cheap and imperfect from the beginning).

 

(Leica content - a very common tanning solution is Chromium Sulfate. So inquiring minds want to know - was your leather Leica bag tanned with Silver chromium, or Black chromium? ;) )

 

Anyway, neoprene, while formed from a synthetic organic (carbon) compound, does not contain proteins as such (which themselves contain, as a sign of previous "life," amine or nitrogen compounds - nitrogen being a lovely food source, the essential element in fertilizers). Neoprene or polychloroprene is polymerized chloroprene, which contains no nitrogen, and is thus a poor "growth medium" for other life, such as fungus.

 

Additionally, neoprene, as a synthetic rubber, is naturally more water-repellent than leather, although leather can be waxed, oiled or otherwise treated to reduce absorption of water. But that treatment needs to be replenished rather often (the 1970's Leica leather bags/satchels came with a tin of Leica-branded mink oil for such re-treatment - NOT to be confused with "LEICA"-branded shoe cream currently sold in Asia!!)

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