Dust inside lens. Can I fix this on my own?

[matseski]

I have a Tamron 17-50mm f2.8 Canon and have managed to get some specks of something (maybe sand from the beach?) inside my lens and under certain lighting conditions they show up on my images. I realize that the lens is not sealed so I should probably should have been more careful changing lenses where there is a large among of dust in the air, but as an afterthought, its a little too late for that. I do not use the lens enough and almost never use it for any critical shots, so I cannot justify paying to have it professionally cleaned at this point. There are only a few and I can pretty easily edit them out, but it is annoying. I am fairly comfortable taking electronics apart and putting them back together, but do no know enough about lens construction to know if I can put it back together again and have the optics work properly. Do I need to worry about lining up any of the elements or are their locations defined enough by the structure so that I can successfully take it apart, clean the pieces and put it back together without any additional aligning? Has anyone done this? thanks

 

[Markw]

I cant help you too much, but it would be nice to see some example photos.

Mark

 

[table1349]

Post and example or two. Dust in a lens usually does not show up on images. Dust on the sensor is the most likely cause if you are seeing it.

 

[Markw]

+1

 

[Renol]

I suppose where the dust is in the lens would determine if anything would show up, but it would be minimal. There was an example of a lens with a front element that had cracks in it that only served to make a shot that seemed like someone just missed their focus point. If they didn't tell you it was broken...you'd never have known.

I even have dust on the inside of one of my lenses but it doesn't affect picture quality. I do have dust on my sensor though. I would have it cleaned somewhere, but last time I did that (through best buy's service under the free plan) they somehow managed to break the camera.

 

[KmH]

All lenses have dust in them, particularly zoom lenses. Even weather sealed lenses.

If you see dust in images made at small lens apertures you are seeing image sensor dust, not lens dust.

It is possible to see lens dust in an image that is on the outside of the lenses rear most element.

Your lens has 19 separate pieces of glass in it in 14 groups, and would require some special tools to disassemble.

Re-assemble could be problematic.

 

[djacobox372]

Like the others said, unless it's a huge grain of sand, you won't see it on your images--most likely your seeing sensor dust.

Not worth messing with.

But, if you must, how hard it is depends on the lens and location of the dust. Some lenses are a breeze to take out and clean the front element. But you'll need a spanner wrench of some sort.

Of course I would never do this for dust, only fungus and hazing is worth cleaning.