Crushed glass on lens any ideas

colman242003 · Jul 13, 2011

I felt so stupid that this happened, but, after searching online, I am not the only unfortunate soul who's had this happen. I took my Canon zoom lens out of my camera bag only to find that the lens cap was lodged in my lens at an odd angle. Well, thankfully I use a UV filter because the filter glass was absolutely crushed. Now I have powdered, crushed glass on my actual lens. I have done absolutely nothing to clean it, I know rubbing it at all will almost positively scratch the lens. Any advise for cleaning this off?

Kerbouchard · Jul 13, 2011

I would use a vacuum and a detailers kit that has those really soft bristles.

You should take it into a professional camera repair shop.

colman242003 · Jul 13, 2011

Kerbouchard said:
I would use a vacuum and a detailers kit that has those really soft bristles.

You should take it into a professional camera repair shop.

Thanks, I thought of a vacuum, too, I just don't want to touch the lens. My sister said unfortunately I may not be able to find a shop in our area that actually would help me on they spot, almost all of them send out. But, I will be on the phone calling as soon as a place opens today!

Kerbouchard · Jul 13, 2011

Which lens is it?

No, most shops probably won't touch it since they won't be able to see what the existing damage is already, and they won't want you to blame any scratches on their cleaning process.

colman242003 · Jul 13, 2011

It's the zoom lens. I'll try to call a shop when they open.

PJL · Jul 13, 2011

I had a filter break in my bag on my 28-105, which got fine glass grains in the zoom mechanism and on the two outermost elements. The glass in the mechanism eventually worked itself out, and I've done prints up to 11x14 from film with that lens (some from significant cropping) and there's no loss of image quality. You could also try compressed air to blow the glass granules off the lens. But even if you did end up with some small scratches on your external element, it won't effect picture quality.

tron · Jul 13, 2011

Take a deep breath and blow the crushed bits of glass off then use a fine (FINE) sensor cleaning brush to get the remaining stuff off. Or if you dont want to risk getting spittle on the glass then go to a friends house that has an air compressor. Blow glass off, brush clean, and be done with it :thumbup:

Diddy2theJJ · Jul 13, 2011

colman242003 said:
It's the zoom lens. I'll try to call a shop when they open.

LOL...there are more than one kind of zoom lenses

Sorry to hear about that, I hope they can fix it.

colman242003 · Jul 13, 2011

Thanks to all your responses. I think I've ended up using bits and pieces of all of your advice! I'll share what I did in case it helps someone else feel better about a scary episode!
first, I used an attachment to a vacuum and sucked up as much as I could, careful not to touch the lens with the vacuum at all. Then I used a brush for lens cleaning to get the particles off (This was a fine dust). As some of you stated, this in and of itself made the lens look 100% better! I will then use an air compressor (just can't get to it right now)--The camera guy said dusting with brush should be done BEFORE compressed air because the pressure of the air could press the glass bits causing scratching.

THanks all of you for helping.

PJL Thanks for making me feel better, it looks as though there are tiny bits internally, but those could have been there before the break. ALso, you make me feel confident that photo quality won't be impacted. I take family photos and mostly my kids playing sports with the zoom lens, so even the tiniest scratches shouldn't be a major deal.

colman242003 · Jul 13, 2011

Sorry very amateur photographer here!

tron · Jul 13, 2011

good job :thumbup: blowing the crushed glass would not scratch the surface because there is virtually no pressure that will smoosh the crushed glass onto the lens face.

Garbz · Jul 16, 2011

A lenspen is also a good idea. Not the pen bit but the really long microfibre bristles would do the job. I've had this issue before and while I would reach for the lens pen at the time all I had was a cleaning blower brush from a tape deck repair kit. I think it may have been rabbit hair or something... hare hair

? Did the job wonderfully and aside from a slightly damaged thread you'd never know the lens smacked a cliff-face.

Sharksledge · Jul 16, 2011

Garbz said:
I would reach for the lens pen at the time all I had was a cleaning blower brush from a tape deck repair kit. I think it may have been rabbit hair or something... hare hair ?.

lmao hare hair