Is such a thing even possible?

[Shadow Blaster]

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I bought a new 50mm Summilux last June and it didn't have any visible defects at the time. I was looking at it recently and noticed what looks like a piece of lint on one of the interior lens surfaces.It's a little jagged, 1-2mm, small and hasn't seemed to affect my pictures (almost exclusively slides). As I mentioned, it looks like lint or (yikes) a small crack - is it even possible that either could happen without harsh treatment? I hate to send it in and be without the lens for however long it would take Leica to check it out. Has anyone heard of or experienced anything like this?

 

Thanks in advance.

 

John S.

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[ho_co]

John, my answer is twofold:

1) It isn't affecting the pictures, so don't worry about it. That's the practical answer.

 

2) It shouldn't be there, it's visible and it bothers you; definitely have it looked at while the lens is under warranty.

 

It's not a crack. Possibly lint. Definitely unusual.

[Shadow Blaster]

Thanks, Howard, I think I'll do that. John S.

[razerx]

A perfectly clean lens can get dusty after a day's use. Leica M lense are not sealed and they "breath in" everytime you focus. Don't worry about it. The worse you can do is to look at any Leica lens (or any lens) under a flash light. I stopped doing that after my first seizure.

[vertekijker]

I had it happen with my Noctilux last year - it looked like some kind of shavings or even a crack. It bothered me even though I don't think it affected the quality of my pictures. I sent the lens back to Leica. It came back looking clean, but then within hours even more stuff started to show up between the lenses. I was not amused. The lens went back again and months later I had a truly clean lens. I was without my Nocti for more than half a year...

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Frans

[Shadow Blaster]

Thanks, Frans. That's just what I was afraid of - being without for such a long time. The post just above yours suggests that Leica lenses aren't sealed, which I recall reading before. Did Leica "seal" your lens and have you had a recurrence of the contamination?

 

John S.

[vertekijker]

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Thanks, Frans. That's just what I was afraid of - being without for such a long time. The post just above yours suggests that Leica lenses aren't sealed, which I recall reading before. Did Leica "seal" your lens and have you had a recurrence of the contamination?

 

John S.

I have not had any problems since, John. But I'm not sure that it was a case of sealed lenses or contamination - I really think that it was more a problem with dirt that was left inside.

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Frans

[wizard]

Did Leica "seal" your lens and have you had a recurrence of the contamination?

 

John S.

 

You cannot seal these lenses. What you can do is to remove all particles that may be present in a lens for whatever reason at a given point in time. You then have a clean lens, but if you use a lens, particles will eventually be present in the lens again. Some of these particles, notably dust, will simply enter from outside during use of the lens. Others will eventually be produced internally by wear of e.g. the aperture blades etc.

 

Andy