A scary schneideritis.

[Rob_6274]

Look here, lower left pic: http://198.63.62.23/ebay/lg/jan200.jpg
I've never seen schneideritis like that.

[Frank Petronio]

I've seen others that bad. What is scary is the serial number is 14 million, meaning it is not that old a lens.

[Emre Yildirim]

Yep, I was just about to comment on that. Actually though 14,100,000 was manufactured in January 1985, so it is kinda old compared to say 14,400,000 which was manufactured January 1991.

[Alan Davenport]

I've heard the term, never knew exactly what it meant... is the paint flaking off the inside baffles?

[George Stewart]

I have a Schneider 150 G-Claron that I purchased new a little over five years ago that is now beginning to look pretty bad. Optically, this lens still performs, but it shouldn't be happening. I hope it doesn't happen to any of my other lenses and especially the XLs

[Juergen Sattler]

I stay away from Schneider lenses for exactly that reason. I find it unbelievable that Schneider is not capable of resolving this issue and it is not just the Schneideritis they have issues with. They had a serious Fungus problem as well. I prefer Rodenstock, Nikkor and Fuji lenses - never had any issues with those. LF lenses are too expenisive to run that kind of risk.

[Rob_6274]

My 150mm (sn 130xxxxx) and 240mm (sn 140xxxxx) g claron are free from schneideritis. My componon-s 135mm has slight schneideritis. Both my repro-clarons (305 and 420) and makro symmar hm 120mm (sn 144xxxxx) and xenars have none. Many of the schneider plasmats that I saw on that auction site had schneideritis and it did not appears to be related with the lens age, some of the newer one had it, some of the older one have none. Also, is schneideritis related with SK plasmat construction?

[Emre Yildirim]

At least all their lenses (except the Apo-Tele-Xenar HM, Super-Symmar XL, and Xenar) come with a lifetime warranty. George, I think your G-Claron is covered by this warranty as well, and you could probably get Schneider to replace them once it gets really bad.

[neil poulsen]

I find it difficult to believe that Schneideritis of any significant degree doesn't affect image quality. (Let alone, the kind of gross Schneideritis that Rob's 300mm shows.) Question is, how much. Depends on how much light gets reflected into the cameras chamber and onto the film.

Has anyone seen this affliction on their wide-angles? It seems to be more prevalent on their plasmat type lenses.

[paul owen]

I had an exact same lens for my 10x8 Dorff. The Schneideritis was "overwhelming" - every mm of every internal surface front and rear was covered - but the lens was "free" so I tried it out - nothing to lose? Took some b&w negs with it and same scenes shot with a 240mm Symmar-S (no Schneideritis) ..... no difference (that I could see) between both sets of pics! I was expecting "something" bad - but never happened! I also have a (1980s) 120mm f8 Super Angulon that is developing this "disease" - still using it without problems. To me it appears to be cosmetic although I had expected some deterioration in image quality. I've not tried shooting straight into the sun - but wouldn't do that anyway! Weird!

[GPS]

You would be hard pressed to see any effect of this defect on the film if it exists at all.. The reason is that it is very difficult for light to reach the effected area without beiing bend by the lens in the right direction. Even if the light reaches the area it is difficult for it to leave it in a direction that could reach the film. What you see as white area is the light that doesn't reach the film - it goes to your eyes instead. If you try to see it from the other side of the lens you won't see the same thing at all. Use of a good lens shade or not is much more important, yet photographers think that using a dark slide as a shade is enough, because they do not see the flare light that goes on the film. The psychology of our vison is very deceptive in these cases.

[Dan Fromm]

That ain't much, you should see some of my Boyer lenses.

If if pleases you to be that way, don't happy, be worry.

[Capocheny]

I have a couple of old Symmars (210 and 360) that are perfect... no signs of Schneideritis at all! (Knock on wood...)

Had a newer Rodenstock 90 Grandagon that developed separation in spite of being coddled. Pleased me to no ends!

Also have a couple of Nikkors (150, 240) and a couple of Fujinons (90 and 300T)... no problems at all! (Knock on wood,,,)

Win a few, lose a few.... life can be SOOO unpredictable. :)

Cheers

[bglick]

Why could possibly be unique to Schneider lenses vs. other makers lenses to cause this fungus?

Makes you wonder if there was slow growing fungus in the plant where they were made?

[tim atherton]

it's not a fungus

[Dan Jolicoeur]

If you look closely at the shutter it also looks like it has been spray painted black?

[bglick]

Tim, then can you please elaborate??

[Dan Fromm]

wg, PMFJI.

Lens makers paint the rims of lens' elements with black paint to reduce reflections from those air-glass interfaces. For some reason, a number of makers including, in alphabetical order, Boyer, Rodenstock, Schneider, and Zeiss have used and those in operation may still use paint that adheres poorly to the glass. Or may use a pre-painting surface treatment that doesn't do what's intended. In any event, the paint slowly separates from the glass.

That's Schneideritis. Fungi aren't involved. Its not unique to Schneider. On that point, why do you think I named Boyer, Rodenstock, and Zeiss as well as Schneider? Because I have lenses made by them that have Schneideritis. All that Schneideritis seems to affect is lenses' resale value.

Take my advice to the original poster. Don't happy, be worry.

[bglick]

Dan, thanks for the explanation.... so was this paint noticed at some point in time, and then not used anymore by the lens makers? If so, when? Why is some of the Schneider lenses immune to this, such as the ones mentioned above, only because they are newer, and the offending paint was no longer used?

[paul owen]

For what its worth I seem to recall (but don't hold me to this!!!) that the problem is a type of oxidisation of the paint - hence the reason that it doesn't flake off and coat the inside glass with thousands of specks! A good anology was given that it is like the crazed surface of an enamel mug!

[Frank Petronio]

I don't know what Schneider's warranties are, but if everybody that had this problem complained it would surely hurt thier business. But amazingly people don't. I know I would think twice about before plunking down $1000 plus on some superwunderoptic, whether or not it really has any effects on film.