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[OM] radioactive camera lenses

Subject: [OM] radioactive camera lenses
From: "Brian Swale" <bj@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Sun, 11 Nov 2001 22:20:08 +1300
Hi;

Sent Blind Carbon Copy to several people:

A recent thread somewhere got me thinking -

>An interesting method of curing a yellowing of the lens...
http://www.hermes.net.au/bayling/repair.html
>but not for me. Must be the same guy that puts his drivers license on =
>his camera bodies.

I have a camera with a Voigtländer Apo Lanthar lens from the 1950s.
Such lenses have lanthanum in them.

A while back I took a 120 film from this camera to be D&P, and it came back
with a note from the laboratory saying that it was unwise to leave cameras in
the sun or in hot places for a length of time. Now, I had left this film in the
camera for several MONTHS, but never in the sun etc. Most of the film was
severely fogged, only 3 - 4 exposures came out.

Today the penny dropped.

It was the radioactivity in the lens glass that had fogged the film. During
storage, even though the film was a few inches from the lens, it was enough.

Brian
----------------------------------------------------------
Brian Swale                   e-mail      bj@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
140 Panorama Road    URL = http://www.caverock.net.nz/~bj/fern
Christchurch 8008

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