The HORRIFYING Truth about RADIOACTIVE Camera Lenses

I was thinking radioactive lenses were not dangerous, to test that i kept a Radioactive lens near me for a week.
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[ah-ray]

I'm more concerned of that cheese you ate ;)

[Kthomasritchie]

Guys,

All vintage lens are extremely hazardous. I'm a nuclear particle scientist, who works for a top secret organisation. Please send me all your lens, where I will dispose of them on the body of my brand new A7iii.

[jacobhoxie]

So what im hearing is that if we had 2 million lenses, we could create a death ray.

[CameraRay]

I was surprised that my old 1950s Kodak Bantam RF Camera showed a 4000 CPM count. Strong level for such a small rangefinder lens.

[jb]

Actually the THORIATED GLASS, usually used in the REAR elements of the lens, contains naturally occurring TH-232 within the GLASS element itself, NOT the coating. Thoriated glass has different refractive properties, making it more economical to design compact/cost effective lens elements necessary to achieve desired optics. The rear element should be kept away from your cornea as the decay chain for TH-232 is predominately alpha particles. These are low in kinetic energy but highly charged. The dead skin layer is sufficient to halt these particles. However, prolonged exposure to the thin cell layer of the cornea can cause permanent damage over time.

This is why thoriated glass was banned early on from use in microsope eye pieces and other similar applications. The camera housing is more than enough to shield the alphas. There is also gamma/beta in parts of the decay chain. Above background and easily detected with a geiger counter. However, these beta and lower energy gammas are not sufficient to exceed exposure limits under routine use.

Not all lenses carried thoriated glass...my Pentax Super Takumar 50mm/1.4 has it.

[sidbrun_]

"way more people will die from smoking or drinking, and that's less creative than photography" lol

[mavfan]

I have the Konica 57mm F1.2 and I haven't grown a third arm yet... I'm quite disappointed!

[blackbirdpie]

The coating isn't radioactive, Thorium is included in the molten glass to reduce chromatic aberration because it has uniform refraction across the light spectrum. So all the colors will end up focusing on the same spot. Just the opposite of what a prism does. Thorium glass would make a terrible color separating prism. It's baked into the glass.

[praetorian]

Thorium decays via alpha emission, which will not penetrate your skin. Unless you are grinding up the glass and eating it, you are good. To be honest, grinding up and eating even non-radioactive glass is going to end badly.

[bigpardner]

I wonder if any persons involved in the manufacture of these lenses suffered any harmful effects?

[RodolfoBaselli]

I'm more concerned about the CCD health if I keep the lens mounted for weeks. No one seems to care.

[MarcChep]

It is even less dangerous than you think. Because it is mostly alpha radiation, so not even standing a meter away from such a lens and you cannot even measure the radiation radiating from it.
But don't ever buy such a lens, it keeps the price down ;)

[giorgiocaron]

I have the same lenses! They are perfectly fine, they are perfect for aerial photography, you don't even need a plane, I use my new pair of wings

[miladghasemi]

I think if you shoot photos or videos with these lenses, the result will automatically look like HBO's Chernobyl.

[clementd]

To add to this video, thorium have an alpha radioactivity, witch can be stoped, by a sheet of paper, (or clothes, or anything actually). So unless you buy a thousand lenses, break it, and eat all the radioactive material... you re safe

[HoLeeChit]

I've had the same lens for about 3 months now, may be that explains why I've grown an extra toe on my right foot.

[esthervan]

I have been using an old Pantex lens on my camera for two years I heavily use my camera so I was super nervous that I would get eye cancer or something from prolonged use but if that was the case a guess we would be looking at a lot of one-eyed photographers.

[lwgl_xyz]

Hurts to see how carelessly you act.

Even on the first day the consequences are tremendously underrated: The lens was involved in a number highly critical situations, ranging from exposure to water, vapour and cheese. Day 4 hurts badly.

Poor lens!

[TheLonesomeBricoleur]

Radioactive glass is dangerous for photographers...
but pretty much only if it's in your viewfinder instead of your lens, and in that case only if you use that same eyepiece for years.
Very few camera bodies ever used Thorium or Lanthanum glass, too, so we're still good to go (though if you use a vintage body with yellowing in the eyepiece it'd definitely be wise to replace that element.)

[xavtek]

By the way, you can remove part of the yellowish color by exposing the lense to uv (with a Uv lamp or keeping it in the sun). I had mild success but my uv lamp did not last long enough to go through.