Numerous very fine scratches in the front lens

[getalifeagain]

How do I get rid of numerous very fine scratches in the front lens of a Leica lens?
(If it is possible).

Thank You.

 

[polyglot]

Scratches can't really be removed without heavy industrial equipment to recoat the lens. If you've ever ground a lens before (and don't start with a camera lens!) you probably have the tools to regrind the front element but that will result in it being uncoated and probably flaring worse than with the cleaning marks.

 

[John Koehrer]

And it's mucho BIG bucks to have it done.

Excess of $300 IMO= Big bucks

BTW, Unless it's really bad it won't have any practical effect on the lens. A little more flare.
Don't shoot into a light source and use a lens hood.

 

[herb]

There are folks that do regrinding and re coating, in Colorado, name is Focal Point or something like that.
I had a Leica lens re cemented and it is like a new one. Not cheap.

 

[ic-racer]

How do I get rid of numerous very fine scratches in the front lens of a Leica lens?
(If it is possible).

Thank You.

Sell it on e-bay

 

[semi-ambivalent]

In the early 70s the Nikon School came to my town and I "enrolled". I remember the man saying that Nikon would mix and match elements, some under-spec and some over-spec such that the entire group would perform as desired. If you damaged the front element Nikon could replace it but would have to grind an element to match the damaged one's specific curvature. Very expensive, but Nikon did offer the service.

This was probably just a shill to boost sales of Nikon's filters, which were a good bit more expensive than the competition's, but I took it to heart and *always* kept an L37c on the front of the four lenses I owned at the time. Eventually some of those lenses looked terrible but the glass was still perfect, (unlike most of my pictures).

 

[Gerald C Koch]

There are people who clean their lenses at the first sign of dust. They usually do more harm than good. I like the car commercial where the next owner is telling the original owner how to care for "his" car.

 

[Mustafa Umut Sarac]

If lens repair plus postage expenses are a small part of your lenses price , just order a repair. But for 350-400 dollars repair range , you can buy a new lens easily. Check keh prices.

 

[BobD]

They're called "cleaning marks"

 

[ic-racer]

I once had a Componon-S 240mm in which the prior owner cleaned the front and rear surface with a Brillo pad. I came across another with excellent glass and a beat up, slightly different body. So, I swapped out the good glass and put the scratched pieces in the beat up barrel.

 

[2F/2F]

I would just forget about them. The lens is likely still sharper than one would need.

 

[Fotoguy20d]

Is it a coated or uncoated lens? I have a 50mm f1.5 Xenar which looks like someone cleaned it with sandpaper, and a big black fleck of paint internally. The latter is no big deal at all. The former is so bad that it makes it a soft focus lens and little else (not that it was sharp focusing to begin with). Depending on how bad, scratches will cause a loss of contrast, maybe some loss of sharpness, maybe a bit of flare (see loss of contrast above). I'd suggest, as others already have, just leaving it alone.

Dan