Learned the hard way that old Canon FD lenses have radioactive thorium glass in some elements

Found out from a retired Kodak engineer's blog post last month that those yellowed front elements aren't just age, they're literally emitting radiation, and now I'm wondering if I should wear gloves when I polish them out.

2 comments

2 Comments

david_rivera43d ago

Man, I gotta push back on @hugo_bennett here. Yeah sure the levels might match a banana but I'm not strapping a banana to my camera body for years of daily use. That glass breaks down over time and you're breathing that dust into your lungs every time you change lenses. Hard pass from me.

hugo_bennett3d ago

I've read about this before and it's really not that serious. The radiation levels from these lenses are lower than what you'd get from a banana or a flight across the country. Polish away, just don't grind the glass into powder and snort it.