Fungus on 165 Super Angulon ? If not, what is it?

[Daniel Grenier]

I recently bought a very nice, used, 165 Schneider Super Angulon for my 8x10. I just spent a good 10 days with it (and all my other gear) at my cottage and photographed extensively. All was good until yesterday when I noticed on my 165 three small clusters of white spots on the inside of the front element (nothing on the back). These clusters are a few mm in size and have severals white spots. This is on the edge of the glass around the perimeter of the lens.

Questions: What are they? How did they get there? And how do I get rid of them?

My other 4 lenses are perfectly fine so this is specific to my 165 (for now)...

Thanks.

[David A. Goldfarb]

Most likely the black paint on the edge of the front element is flaking. This is very common on older lenses, and is particularly visible on Schneider and other wide lenses, because of the way the element is beveled. Do a search on "Schneideritis" and you'll find a number of threads on it. It's a minor defect and shouldn't be particularly detrimental to image quality.