topic Dirty lens experiment in EF & RF Lenses

Dirty lens experiment

kvbarkley — Sat, 09 Feb 2019 15:01:57 GMT

How progressively worse dirt and damage affects image quality:

http://kurtmunger.com/dirty_lens_articleid35.html

Re: Dirty lens experiment

BurnUnit — Mon, 11 Mar 2019 03:21:55 GMT

Thanks for that. I've always suspected as much. I guess I won't even bother knocking a bit of crud or a smudge off my lenses with a shirt tale anymore.

Re: Dirty lens experiment

RobertTheFat — Tue, 12 Mar 2019 15:10:20 GMT

Well ... yeah. But it's pretty obvious that the lens being destroyed was old. Very few modern lenses turn while they're being focused.

The bottom line, which I think we all knew, is that you can get away with a dirty lens if it isn't too dirty. (I was once photographing the meet 'n greet session after a lecture and accidentally dangled my Sigma 50-150mm f/2.8 into a bowl of sour cream dip. And didn't notice it until the shoot was almost over. But my pictures came out OK.) But a clean lens is still better.

It's also true that cleaning a lens can do more harm than good unless you're careful. The best idea is to keep the lens from getting dirty in the first place. That's what lens caps are for.

Re: Dirty lens experiment

kvbarkley — Tue, 12 Mar 2019 16:15:35 GMT

I have heard of putting vaseline on a lens, but sour cream is a new one!

8^)

Re: Dirty lens experiment

BurnUnit — Tue, 12 Mar 2019 17:17:40 GMT

@RobertTheFat wrote:
..(I was once photographing the meet 'n greet session after a lecture and accidentally dangled my Sigma 50-150mm f/2.8 into a bowl of sour cream dip. And didn't notice it until the shoot was almost over. But my pictures came out OK.)

LOL! Thank goodness it wasn't guacamole...

Re: Dirty lens experiment

ebiggs1 — Tue, 12 Mar 2019 21:32:42 GMT

:...dangled my Sigma 50-150mm f/2.8 into a bowl of sour cream dip"

As long as you didn't double dip!