Mark in a Lens

Hey,
I bought a 17-55 2.8 IS on eBay yesterday, still with 5 months of warranty left so fairly new.
As the seller was packing it up s/he noticed a mark on the rear element. I asked for pictures and they sent one.
They say it's on the element just inside and not on the surface, what do you think it could be?

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Might be a grease or water mark, have they cleaned it with a lens pen or quality cloth and cleaner to see if they can remove it? If it is actually inside it may well be a bit of dust or debris, the 17-55's aren't very well sealed after all. I'm not sure I'd like something on the rear element being so close to the sensor plane.

Yeah that's what I'm thinking. They must have tried to clean it as they determine it's inside. I'm probably going to get my money back.

....it isn't covered under warranty as you're not the original purchaser (unless you have the original sales receipt) but, in any case...
It won't affect any photo

kitacanon wrote in post #9698410
....it isn't covered under warranty as you're not the original purchaser (unless you have the original sales receipt) but, in any case...
It won't affect any photo

I would tend to agree that it won't affect any images.

I bought a brand new Olympus SLR with a 50mm lens sometime in the late 1970s...the night I got it I notiticed what appeared to be a small air bubble in the glass that looked like it was in the rear element.

Next day I called the camera store and they assured me it would not affect anything and was not that uncommon. I took the camera back anyway and the owner who was obviously (to me) quite knowledgeable took a look at the lens and also checked out the camera. He had no concern with the lens "bubble" but he did notice (from experience alone) that the meter was slightly off. He told me he would replace both the camera and the lens, but he wouldn't have another one for a week or more. In the meantime, I could keep the camera until he got new inventory. So I was in a no lose position. But I was still anxious.

Fortunately, the Olympus service center was less than 20 minutes from where I lived at the time (Long Island). He told me I could take the camera there and they'd might have a replacement, but they could certainly fix the metering issue while I waited...so rather than wait I just drove over there, had them check out everything, and sure enough, they had to adjust the meter a fraction of a stop. But they assured me that the "bubble" in the lens was a non issue.

I still have that lens and I recently I got an EF adapter for it on Ebay for about $10. It's not easy to focus without a split focus screen like on a camera made for manual focus lenses, so I don't use it on moving subjects. But for still subjects when I have the time to focus and even take of couple of shots becauses wide open (f 1.4), it's common that I need a few shots to get one in perfect focus, But when it is in focus, it is the sharpest lens I have. This is on my 40D. (With the 1.6x crop factor, and the f 1.4 aperture, it makes a very nice portrait lens)... The other lenses I have are the kit 28-135 IS USM, a 300mm IS F4 L and a 70-200mm IS f2.8 L - the old OM 1.4 manual lens is often available for not much money on Ebay, but the IQ is just unsurpasssed by even the 300 L prime. And the bubble is still in the glass! It's been over 30 years and that "bubble" has never been an issue.

Peace,
D.

I would guess that it's a small piece of dust (that lens is known for dust). I doubt that it would ever cause a problem or show up in a photograph. If you got a decent price on the lens, I would say keep it.

He examined it and it's somehow a crack in the element, don't know how that's even possible if it's internal, maybe dropped i guess. He took recent photos with it and it shows up as a halo. I got my money back.