Scratched coating on lens, can it be removed

paulc

paulc

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I cant find an answer to this and have googled it, I have scratched the front glass on my lens and it seems to be the coating that is damaged but it is showing on my images now as a blurry mass and effecting my pictures, anyway, my question is has anyone ever removed the entire coating on a lens glass by polishing it off and if so was the lens still usable and the images sharp?
I can find info about removing the coating on eyeglasses with nail polish remover but nothing about a camera lens.

my lens is a 10-20mm sigma Nikon mount

 
I had a lens where the surface coating was removed in a small area. Thereafter there was a colour cast on the pictures. I believe the coating is there for a specific purpose and if you could polish it all off you will find it does impact on the colour balance and the lens might be more prone to flare. You might be better advised to have the front element changed.
 
Thanks for the reply Grumps, the image shows a white area that is unfocused and washed out were the scratched area is. I have looked for spare parts on ebay etc but to no avail as yet.
 
Are you sure it's scratched on the outside? Looks a bit like lens fungus.
 
Nawty said:
Are you sure it's scratched on the outside? Looks a bit like lens fungus.
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it is definately the outside of the lens, i fell over when i did it.

EdwardL said:
Can it be sent off for repair?
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To be honest it needs more than the front glass because the body is cracked and the zoom doesnt work either but I have just been using it on 10mm and it has been okay until the scratch, so a repair may be more than a second hand replacement.
 
That looks more like cracked glass after a heavy impact, rather than just the coating. But either way, the only option is to replace.

It might be covered under your house insurance.
 
Thanks for the reply Hoppy but I was hoping for a remedy or DIY repair by replacing the glass or removing the coating completely, the lens is old and probably not worth the insurance excess, it is definately not cracked but just scratched and it does just look like the coating is scratched.
I may just bite the bullet and polish the coating off, kinda suck it and see what happens.
I was hoping that someone may have done similar with decent results.
 
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It's usually only the ultra wide lenses that are seriously affected by scratches unfortunately. I am surprised that it's having such an impact though, if it's just the coating, where I would have expected a drop in contrast only.

Is the blurry bit the same in each image, regardless of aperture used?
 
wow, the guy says to cover it with black paint. Do you not have insurance on your camera and lenses to cover it? I had John Lewis add camera coverage to my policy for around £30. Never used it but well worth the peace of mind when going abroad. I make sure the sd cards are in the safe even if my camera and lens wont fit in there. Can always buy more gear!!!!
 
Afraid you won't be able to remove the coat yourself and if you can feel the damage with your finger nail it is very likely that the lens is also damaged, not just the coating. Going by the picture, I'd say its replacement time. Insurance?
 
manualfocus-g said:
It's usually only the ultra wide lenses that are seriously affected by scratches unfortunately. I am surprised that it's having such an impact though, if it's just the coating, where I would have expected a drop in contrast only.

Is the blurry bit the same in each image, regardless of aperture used?
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you are correct, there is a light blurry mark in each image which although does not render the image useless it is pretty noticable on all images and yes it is the same on all apertures.

Graham W said:
Afraid you won't be able to remove the coat yourself and if you can feel the damage with your finger nail it is very likely that the lens is also damaged, not just the coating. Going by the picture, I'd say its replacement time. Insurance?
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Cheers Graham, I can feel it with my fingernail, I think that I will probably end up just replacing it, although I do have insurance for my gear with the Lloyds Bank I was after a remedy but it looks unlikely :).
 
Wide angles DO show marks on the front element in pictures - remember my Tokina 11-16mm's blob that drove me insane? It was inside the front element group, I had it cleaned off but it came back about 6 months later.

Stick that lens on ebay, someone will buy it for parts.
 
paulc said:
Thanks for the reply Hoppy but I was hoping for a remedy or DIY repair by replacing the glass
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Replacing the front element is possible, but it sounds like your lens is more of a parts donor based on the other faults.

You might be surprised what "spares or repairs" parts donor lenses can sometimes make on eBay.
 
Thanks for commenting Alan and Alastair, I have been looking on ebay for bits and never thought of putting mine on there as a donor, it may come to that and I may invest in an 8mm...thanks again :)
 
if it's a smudge, try 1 part alcohol to 10 part water and rub with microfibre cloth. I had it on my 70-200 II lens on its 1st day of use (friend scratched it by accident putting the lens cap back on) and I managed to remove it. Goodluck!
 
muscleflex said:
if it's a smudge, try 1 part alcohol to 10 part water and rub with microfibre cloth. I had it on my 70-200 II lens on its 1st day of use (friend scratched it by accident putting the lens cap back on) and I managed to remove it. Goodluck!
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He can feel it with his finger nail.. it's not a smudge.
 
Probably the best solution is to ebay it 'as is'. Some crafty person will have another broken in a different place, and sell on once fixed.

Then get yourself something a little sharper and perhaps use that UV filter.
 
Bit of an update to this thread, after months of being astounded at how much scrap sigma 10-20mm lenses go for on Ebay, I finally got a broken one for £105.00 that had a good front element that I needed, so I took it to bits and swapped over the front element into my own lens and all is well again, it was money well spent, however I could not find anything on the internet about how to dissemble this particular lens so I made a short video of how it was taken to bits.
Butchery I know but it may just help someone else in a similar situation.
 
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