i used to live near the seashore and all my cameras lenses are kept pretty mold-free inside a small electronic dehumidifier for years. No way can i store my 12s2 within that small dehumidifier anyway ...

I was kept busy with my work for the last year and seldom did I turned on the machine. Well...the inevitable has happened. I just found 2 tiny spots on the front elements of the Minolta lens assembly on the S2.(sort of spiderweb-like spot and i'm pretty sure they are fungus). I am pretty sure they don't do much harm to the projected image at this moment but once they are there i supposed it won't take too long before they are everywhere with the lens assembly, causing degradation of the image quality eventually.

I just want to have your opinion on what i should do at this juncture.

1/ forget the mold, regularly turn on the machine to let the heat kill the fungus and stop their growth

or

2/ Ask my Marantz dealer to clean the lens assembly... I'm afraid to know how much they would ask for that anyway

Thanks,
wil

I also live at the beach and have similar problems. Go for option 1, fungus requires two things to grow: moisture and darkness. Take either of these away and you'll be spared the shock of finding your prize Marantz lens with spiderwebs or spots growing on the lens surfaces. Heat and UV light both kill fungi. The projector when on puts out both. If it affects the picture or it appears to be getting worse send it in. I'm assuming the mold is inside the lens assembly. If it is outside the lens use some lens cleaner to remove the spots. Do a google search on camera lenses and mold and you'll find lots of advice on care and feeding of your lenses. Fortunately for your projector that 150 watt SHP bulb is a great fungicide.

In addition, at the beach, all of your electronic equipment is corroding before your eyes. I leave a light bulb on in my equipment closet to slightly elevate the temperature an lower the relative humidity. Another problem is corroding cables. I have copper speaker cables with clear plastic jackets, after about 5 years use the copper is turning green, fortunately I ran my speaker cables through conduit so I can easily replace them.

Mdputnam, thanks a lot for your advice.

For the time being , i will just place the S2 beside my TV. The heat and light there hopefully can keep the fungus in check. I should have a permanent installation with a ceiling-mount at the very beginning.... I am very unwilling to send in the machine for lens cleaning. I believe they will do more harm to the anti-glare coating on the lens than the fungus alone >-<

To make sure the fungus is dead I would just turn on the projector for say 30 minutes to make sure the the lens gets nice and hot. Probably no need to hook the projector up to anything as long as light is coming out of the lens. If the output is blank with no input, just unplug your computer monitor and plug it into the Marantz during the burn in.

use stuff like rubson packs that collect humidity. very efficient.

Just let me know where you beach houses are, i think i may re-specialize in free "home inspections" :)