Front lens cleaning marks...

[cmo]

On my desk there is lens that is critically ill, a non-AI Nikkor 1.4/50mm. This is not an expensive lens these days, but I fell pity with it.

It suffers from cleaning marks, and it's somewhat blotchy. It does not look so bad, but there is a problem, and it does affect contrast on the images.

I know this can't be fixed, but are there any dirty tricks to make it work better? What is the best way to clean the front lens if a first try with a lenspen fails to remove the 'blotchyness'?

 

[ic-racer]

Get a junk lens with frozen focus or damaged aperture blades and swap the front and rear elements. In my opinion that is the best fix. Re-coating is never a financially sound option and more cleaning can just make it worse.

 

[paul ron]

Check KEH "AS IS" bin to see if you can find an inoperative lens for $5 n use the front element?

There is a little trick we use on scratched lenses.. blackening. If the scratches are deep enough just wipe some blackening over the lens surface n wipe it clean leaving the blackening in the scratches, they won't defract as much as an open scratch will n not show in your pics either.

I've never tried it on cleaning marks but worth a try since you have noting to lose.

 

[cmo]

Paul, what kind of blackening do you use?

 

[paul ron]

It's a flat black enamel paint.