B+W UV-PRO Premium Anti-Fungus Light

[pico]

Advertisement (gone after registration)

I think fungus dies at above 65 degrees C? It's get pretty hot between the elements!

 

The common fungus survival factors are humidity, nutrients, temperature. Fungus requires moisture to grow. Nutrients vary  too much to anticipate. Temperatures: Fungus thrive at temperatures of 10 to 37°C depending on the kind. Sterilizing/killing fungus requires more dry heat than we would want to apply to our lenses. Spores can survive when the fungus is dead, therefore it can reproduce much later when conditions permit.

 

UV? I don't believe we can apply the ultra high frequency UV required long enough to penetrate all the glass and coating.

 

Bottom line - dry air! Low humidity. I never had it when living in the desert with humidity typically 22%, with a range of 10% to a night time high of 50%.

[Doc Henry]

Interesting... Light therapy for lenses suffering from depression from lack of use...

 

Ecar , when you destroy the genetic DNA (nucleic acids) of the fungus , no life is possible

As Pico said about spores , even spores are dead under UV

Formol vapour can sometimes be used for fungus

Bes

Henry

[Soden]

Your order might arrive first than mine, please do make a short review. If possible. Thanks. 

 

Well, I finally returned from my trip and had a look at this device.

 

The manual is in Chinese and English. It's a simple one page manual. It claims to be made in Germany and by B+W. The packaging is nice, if not overkill.

 

It's recommend (per the manual) that you use this device every 30 to 50 days on all photographic equipment and more frequently if you live in higher humidity.

 

It comes with four parts. 1) Cheap USB cable 2) Metal UV unit 3) Lens Adapter 4) Body Adapter. The Lens and Body adapter are made from looks like hard rubber like material.

 

The lens adapter is a stepped cone shape to cover between 38mm and 100mm. So it will fit most lenses. The purpose of this adapter is to "sterilize" from the front element.

 

The body adapter has two functions. Firstly to "sterilize" the camera body and secondly to "sterilize" the rear of the lens. This adapter does fit nicely the M mount.

 

The UV unit must be charged and uses an internal battery to function. It cannot be used powered from the USB cable, so the actual internal voltage is unknown.

 

In use, it's quite simple. To "sterilize" the front of a lens you place the Lens adapter on the front (after removing all filters) insert the UV unit and hold the button for two second. To "sterilize" the back of the lens you mount the body adapter on the rear of the lens, insert the UV unit and hold the button for two seconds. To "sterilize" the body you do likewise put the body adapter on the body, etc. This is where it gets strange as the image in the manual shows a DSLR, but does not mention if you should open the shutter or raise the mirror or not, it's simply omitted.

 

The blue light is similar to the Phillips Sonicare Toothbrush sterilizer that came with my Sonicare Toothbrush, except that it's much much brighter and has no safety features at all. On my Sonicare sterilizer the light is contained in a compartment and if you open the door it shuts off. There is nothing preventing you from putting the light directly in your eye. So I can see why it's not sold in the US, as consumer protection would have it banned anyway.

 

Whether or not it's effective in anyway is from my point of view is uncertain, even doubtful, but I live in a very high humidity area where it's normally 80% humidity and over 30c. I have a dry cabinet that barely is able to keep humidity down to 50%. If this device helps in any way, it's worth it...

[stevesurf]

Why not just use an Innova UV light here:

 

http://www.niteize.com/product/INOVA-X5-UV.asp

 

Yes it's 350-400 nm, but you can use RCR123s in it and leave it on indefinitely, cycling out and recharging the batteries. I use mine to find scorpions and bad hotel beds

[Soden]

Why not just use an Innova UV light here:

 

http://www.niteize.com/product/INOVA-X5-UV.asp

 

Yes it's 350-400 nm, but you can use RCR123s in it and leave it on indefinitely, cycling out and recharging the batteries. I use mine to find scorpions and bad hotel beds

As the comments say for this device "Not strong enough"

[michaelwj]

Why not just use an Innova UV light here:

 

http://www.niteize.com/product/INOVA-X5-UV.asp

 

Yes it's 350-400 nm, but you can use RCR123s in it and leave it on indefinitely, cycling out and recharging the batteries. I use mine to find scorpions and bad hotel beds

The wavelength is too long to do anything to fungus regardless of how long you leave it on for.

 

And I think sometimes it's better not to look too closely at the hotel bed if you want a good night sleep...