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bob stanton
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, June 03, 2004 - 10:18 pm: | 
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I am considering buy a canon 600mm 4.0 but it has a few light scratches on the front element. the owner claims no impact on images, but i am wondering if he is right. also, is it possible to replace the front element on lens like this? it is about 9 years old and in otherwise great shape, and the price is low. |
Winfried
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, June 04, 2004 - 02:04 am: |
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Scratches on lens elements mainly affect the price. Maybe the Canon service would be able to swap the front elements but I am afraid this will be quite costly. |
Ezio
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, June 04, 2004 - 05:57 am: |
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Problem is, "scratches" can describe a lot of different things. Have you seen the lens? Does the seller offer a return? If not, you might consider suggesting him to let you try the lens - with the provision that if you then decide to keep it, you will pay, say, 15-20% more than originally agreed. It worked for me in a couple of transactions (kept one lens, given back the other), although these were not on ebay which made the procedure simpler. |
rick oleson
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, June 04, 2004 - 07:10 am: |
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the effect of scratches on the glass tends to be in proportion to the surface area affected: one or two deep scratches can be less harmful than an overall pattern of very light cleaning marks. I'd guess that the front element of a 600/4.0 (about 18,000 square millimeters in surface area) would have to have quite a few scratches on it to have a big effect. the nature of the effect is generally to reduce contrast, which may not be a big problem in exchange for a significant cost savings. |
M. Currie
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, June 04, 2004 - 08:16 am: |
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I don't know how Canon does it (and haven't, in a casual search, found an answer), but on some Nikon "big glass" lenses, there is a protective flat glass front element that isn't so hard to replace. If Canon does this too, it might be worth trying even if the scratches are bad (and the price is right). |
Jan Dvorak
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, June 04, 2004 - 11:55 am: |
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I believe Bob states that the scratches are light. That might mean just miniscule scratches in the coating - those would have absolutely no effect on the results, even in strong backlight.
Good luck,
Jan |
bob stanton
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, June 04, 2004 - 10:12 pm: |
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thanks all for your responses. my take away is that i need a 30 day return period, then go out and test it in different light. as described, there are just a few minor ones, which seemed to me to be okay--i tend to shoot surfing in bright light, so i doubt it will be a big deal--but none-the-less, i will test it. it will save me a lot, on a lens that gets used only a few times a year. |
bob stanton
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, June 11, 2004 - 01:55 am: |
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well, i received the 600. shot it into the sun as well as against. shot it at dusk. tried different background. blew the shots up large on my big screen monitor, and can't see any scratches. they ended up being just two very tiny ones--a few mm at most. rest of the glass surface was pristine. so far so good. the usm motors seems to be working (9 yrs old), but i'm going to watch it closely for a few weeks as i hear this is a major expense. so i saved about $1000 off what comp. ones are going for. thank you all! now if I can find a beat-up used shade for it--cheap. anyone got an extra? |
