Small scratch on my 70-200, what do I do??

I was out on a shoot this morning, and half-way through the shoot I noticed 2 small spots on my Canon 70-200mm f/2.8 Mark I lens. I tried cleaning them on-site but they didn't totally disappear. When I got home, I cleaned it more, using a LensPen, a micro-fiber cloth, and also the trusty breath and cotton t-shirt method.

When I looked at the spot closer, it turned out to be a scratch on the front element, in a triangular pattern, maybe 1/8 of an inch or so.

After recovering from the shock of having a scratch on my VERY expensive lens, I put a filter back on it, but was wondering what my options were to get it fixed. It is WAY out ofmwarranty, and I got it from a POTN member and know I received it without the scratch. So will I pay a huge amount to Canon tomget it fixed, or should I not worry about it?

I haven't had time yet to see if it shows up in pictures yet, but is there a good way to try it, like shooting a particular subject, color, or pattern?

I baby my gear, and always use a hood on my 70-200, and I am still vry upset that this happened.

Any help would be GREATLY appreciated!!


Ken

It will not show up in the pictures. It takes some major surface damage to show up.

I could be wrong but it has always been my understanding that the very front element of the lens is basically a filter of sort and not TOO expensive to replace. Granted you have to send it back to the mothership for the replacement.

That said... you need a LOT of damage for it to really affect the IQ so best just keep the UV on and not stress over it.

It may cause flaring in some situations. Google it but I remember an article about taking a black marker and filling in the scratch.

As said, it won't show up in images.

Curious how it could have happened with the hood on.

PWard wrote in post #12705103
It may cause flaring in some situations. Google it but I remember an article about taking a black marker and filling in the scratch.

Black marker?? Really?? Don't mean to be silly... But I am talking about the front glass, not the lens body... Not sure what you mean...

One link that show how much a scratched lens affects the image is http://www.lensrentals​.com …0/front-element-scratches . Your's is not even close!

bohdank wrote in post #12705108
As said, it won't show up in images.

Curious how it could have happened with the hood on.

Yea, so am I!! I shoot running races, and I was shooting this morning, and imwas able to take a break for a few minutes, and I put the camera down, and that's when I saw the spots, but at the time that's what it looked like, spots. Guess one spot was hiding the scratch. And it wasn't even windy today...

mjww wrote in post #12705128
One link that show how much a scratched lens affects the image is http://www.lensrentals​.com …0/front-element-scratches . Your's is not even close!

HOLY CRAP!!! Yea, guess it's not that bad...

kenjancef wrote in post #12705129
Yea, so am I!! I shoot running races, and I was shooting this morning, and imwas able to take a break for a few minutes, and I put the camera down, and that's when I saw the spots, but at the time that's what it looked like, spots. Guess one spot was hiding the scratch. And it wasn't even windy today...

I guess "something" was kicked up. As mentioned earlier, the front element is the cheapest repair their is, I believe, never having done it myself.

ignore it until it starts impacting IQ, then get it fixed, or sell it and replace it.

For fun get a post-it note (they leave no residue on the lens) and cut it down so it is just the sticky part (because this works best if it is all tight against the lens). Cover part of your 50mm lens with the post-it note (avoid the dead center if you want to retain AF). Then take some photos (or just look around in live view) at f/1.8. You should see little to no affect from the post-it, depending on the lighting.

Just don't stop down too far.

You wont notice it in photos unless you shoot into lighting giving some nasty flare. I'd just leave it alone and enjoy the idea of shooting with the lens and no longer freaking out about damage to the front element.

As for repairs if you want to go down that road, cost will probably come down to the specific lens build. I highly doubt the front element of a 70-200 is purely a protective one, so it wont be super cheap. The difficulty of the labour and cost of part(s) depends on the design, as some lenses have a single piece of glass on the front and others have a more complex group at the front.

kenjancef wrote in post #12705119
Black marker?? Really?? Don't mean to be silly... But I am talking about the front glass, not the lens body... Not sure what you mean...

As I said... Do a google search on it. And yes, I was talking about the front element and not the body.

The only thing the scratch will affect is resale value unfortunately. I got my 24-105L for like $600 due to a small scratch like this - that has no effect on image quality.