----- Original Message ----- Subject: Shooting thru less-than-perfect glass
> Hi All... > Over the last few years I've acquired/rescued a few bodies thru > pawn-shops, yard sales, low-ball e-Bay auctions,etc.. Oftentimes > these come with lenses which I haven't used 'cause the front > element has a scratch. A post here a short while ago has been > haunting me.." If you were to stick a small piece of post-it note or > such to your front element and look thru the viewfinder, you can't > tell the difference "...My question is..Do any of you guys shoot > with lenses with small defects without incident? Or do you feel > using a lens thats not at 100% somehow compromises results... > I'm refering to 3-4mm scratches as on a 35-105 SMC-A f 3.5, not > a fungus-and-haze basket case... > OK guys...fess-up All of my lenses have absolutely pristine glass. I would accept no less. Neither should you. It is especially important to have perfect glass with the miniscule 35mm format. Bad glass = poor enlargeability. If you are wise enough to use a 6x7 format camera, then this attention to perfect glass is much less critical from a photographic viewpoint, but much more critical from an equipment esthetics POV. Seriously though, you can have a pretty awful looking scratch on a lens, and not have any noticable image degradation from it. Filling the scratch with India Ink pretty much makes it go away. Brother William - This message is from the Pentax-Discuss Mail List. To unsubscribe, go to http://www.pdml.net and follow the directions. Don't forget to visit the Pentax Users' Gallery at http://pug.komkon.org .
