Interesting side by side images from scratched vs. unscratched front lens elements

[bleirer]

Bottom line, it doesn't make that much difference.

How Front Element Scratches Affect Your Images

We have a lot of gear in our inventory, which means we also have a lot of broken gear in the middle of repairs. When it comes to lenses, one thing we see a lot in the repair department is front element scratches. And that makes sense, when a lens is mounted, it's the single [...]

www.lensrentals.com

 

[bjanes]

Bottom line, it doesn't make that much difference.

How Front Element Scratches Affect Your Images

We have a lot of gear in our inventory, which means we also have a lot of broken gear in the middle of repairs. When it comes to lenses, one thing we see a lot in the repair department is front element scratches. And that makes sense, when a lens is mounted, it's the single [...]

www.lensrentals.com

Bill,

Thanks for the link to the lens rental site. Even though a scratched front element may not affect image quality that much, it certainly will decrease the resale value of your lens. A lot of us are moving to mirrorless and may want to trade in our old dSLR lenses and having used a filter may have been a good investment. It is interesting to note that Roger Cicalla initially provided a UV filter with rental lenses, then omitted it, and finally went back to supplying them with his rentals. After Steve posted an article with his experiments on the amount of protection from impact damage afforded by a UV filter there was a lot of discussion on the pros and cons of a filter.

Personally, I use B+W filters on my lenses but with using a lens hood and with reasonable precautions I have not damaged the protective filter on any lens and conclude that those expensive filters didn't save me money on resale of old lenses. Nonetheless, I still feel more comfortable with the filter in place and Roger seems to feel the same.

Bill




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