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Dust particles inside new lens


Guest camera man

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Guest camera man

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Today I wanted to purchase a new 90mm APO but on close inspection I could see dust particles trapped within the lens elements glowing like far off stars in the universe. For a lens costing £2,600 GBP it's no joke. I came away depressed with Leica and not for the first time!

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Guest camera man

Today I wanted to purchase a new 90MM APO lens. But what do I find when looking down the barrel on two brand new APOs ? a universe of dust particles trapped inside the elements,twinkle twinkle! Leica yet again make me feel depressed.

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You found a dealer with TWO new 90 mm Summicron's, both with visible dust. Very lucky and unlucky on the same day. I waited 7 months, but pleased to say perfect lens.

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If you watch some of the Leica lens assembly videos, they clearly aren't assembling them in completely dust free environments so the occasional dust particle is bound enter even new lenses. A "universe" of dust particles is something different and perhaps a bit more menacing in terms of dealer honesty; these lenses will give you photos like a new one with zero particles, but perhaps they are demos being passed off as new

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Since the lenses aren't hermetically sealed, just the action of focussing will draw a little new dust-laden air into the lens and expel the same amount. All lenses except Nitrogen or Argon filled binoculars suffer from this to a greater or lesser extent. Certainly it's not something I'd hope to find in a new lens but I wouldn't let it stop me from buying it. With a new lens it's unlikely that it would occur to me to look through the lens into a point light source anyway.:o

 

Pete.

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Dust in any lens is a fact of life. It is inevitable. I decided long ago that backlighting a lens and looking thru it is pretty much pointless and a sure way to heartache, craziness and triggering my photographer's OCD. :D

 

As someone else observed, dust in a lens does not affect image quality. If you are looking at a factory fresh lens and there's enough dust inside it that you can see it without backlighting the lens, I'd think twice before buying the lens. Any dust that is not visible under normal viewing conditions is not worth worrying about in my view.

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Guest camera man

No backlight used, just my eye ball looking at the front element. A lens costing 2,600 GBP and just out of the box,a universe of dust particles no thanks!

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Guest camera man

I don't have an habit of taking a photo of a brand new lens! The dealer said that he would be returning the lens to Germany.

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How much dust affects IQ is dependent from the lens design. Most lenses I used a few dust particles had little effect but dust on the rear element of the Elmarit 28mm R (last version) was clearly visible on the image.

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