lens ruined for good?

ditchlily

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Last year I had an incredibly stupid moment and scratched one of my lenses. Bad. Real bad. Let's just say "sand". :confused: Is there such a thing as lens grinding service for camera lenses? Or should I knock the glass out and make it into a planter?
 
How badly does it affect the images?
 
Urm...I haven't tried taking pictures with it. One scratch, two? No...all over. Maybe I should have used the word "mangled".
 
I was just thinking that it may not be too bad...because the scratches will be so far out of focus that they may not show up as scratches...just cause some sort of dimming or haze. Of course, if the scratches actually catch and reflect the light, they might show up as flares...which would not be too nice... (or would it :scratch: )

I really don't know...

What is the lens? What's it's value? I've always heard that repairs are hard to do and fairly expensive...so unless it's a really valuable lens...repair might not be the best option.
 
Expensive and hard to do...that's all I needed to know. If it were a really nice lens I would have taken better care of it, but really it was just a 75-200 mm (or something like that) lens I got from a pawn shop (ahem cough that didn't come with a lens cap and I couldn't wait for one to come in the mail before I took it out cough ahem). I just hate wasting things...planter it is, then. Well...first I'll see what the lens flares are like. ;)
 
ditchlily said:
Expensive and hard to do...that's all I needed to know. If it were a really nice lens I would have taken better care of it, but really it was just a 75-200 mm (or something like that) lens I got from a pawn shop (ahem cough that didn't come with a lens cap and I couldn't wait for one to come in the mail before I took it out cough ahem). I just hate wasting things...planter it is, then. Well...first I'll see what the lens flares are like. ;)

Sorry to hear about your lens. Yeah, planter should be the solution. You can probably replace it with another one and put a clear filter on it to protect it.

There is a place I know of that offers repolishing but it's expensive and not worth.
 
I dunno. How's the center of the lens? Could you possibly scratch the devil out of the perimeter and use it as a special effect lens, or something? Perfect opportunity to experiment.
 
Scratches, even minor ones, always produce flare in a lens. They can also produce localised softening of parts of the image.
The lens can't be re-ground as it will change the lens curvature and thickness which will mess up it's ability to focus.
You could get the manufacturer - or a specialist repairer - to put in a new front element, but it would be more expensive than buying a new lens.
The technical description of what has happened to your lens is 'totally f*cked'. All it's good for now is a paperweight.
Having said that, I personally would try taking pictures with it. The photography gods might have been kind and modified the lens to produce a Holga-ish quality. You never know. Stranger things have happened.
 
By planter do you mean knocking out the glass and putting a plant in it like a pot plant?? Man that would be cool. I'm so gonna do that when one of my lenses goes belly up!

Definately try scratching it up more and trying it out..... Awww man I wanna try it, i wanna!!! Can you please do it and show us how it turns out? even if it's really crap, that way we'll know what not to do.
 
I would love to see 1) what the lens looks like now 2) What it looks like when you scratch it up (if you scratch it up) 3) The pictures taken with it once 'scratched up' 4) A picture of it as a planter box
 
fadingaway1986 said:
I would love to see 1) what the lens looks like now 2) What it looks like when you scratch it up (if you scratch it up) 3) The pictures taken with it once 'scratched up' 4) A picture of it as a planter box

Will do! I've got about half a roll of film in my camera to burn up. If I'm not blessed with a neat lens effect, I think I'll stick a philodendron in it. They don't mind drying out and even though it's a larger lens it's still gonna be a small planter. :mrgreen:
 
You should shoot a roll and see, if it is on the front element you might not have a problem. when something is that close or right on the front element it usually does not show up because it is far beyond the ability of the lens to focus on it or show up. Thats why worrying about some dust on a lens if a waste of time.

A test someone showed me years ago was put a rubber band around your camera and lens so that it is right in the middle of the lens and focus on something. you can not see the rubber band.
 

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