Canon G11 - scratches lens

[Badger UK]

This has happened to me before. In fact, twice before.

The front element of the lens of my G11 has a small (but significant) vertical scratch on it. This same thing (vertical scratch) happened to a G9 and a previous G11.

At £150 it's not economically sensible to get the lens replaced and I really don't want to have to buy another camera if I can avoid it.

So...

I've read that it's possible to considerably reduce the effect of the scratch by filling it in with black ink.

Has anyone here tried it? What were the results?

 

[drexyl]

First of all. What effect does it have on your final images?
There is a video on some site showing a completely smashed front element & this was showing virtually no effect in the final image.

Not sure about the black pen thing.
I'd be more concerned about how many times its happened to you. You're going to have to stop kicking it around.

 

[Badger UK]

I'd be more concerned about how many times its happened to you. You're going to have to stop kicking it around.

The effect on the photos is very little in many photos, but with a wide aperture, and facing anywhere near a light source (usually the sun) it causes so much flare the pictures are pretty much unusable.

I think I'm going to give the black ink job a go. It makes sense to me. As you say, there are examples of lenses with pretty much smashed front elements that work quite well, so I can't see a tiny black spot causing too much drama. It should however, stop the jagged edges of the scratch refracting so much light. I'll see what happens.

As for kicking it around, I never touched it govn'r, honest I didn't. If you Google scratched lenses on the G series you'll see that it seems to happen a lot and many say it's caused by the lens cover as the blades open/close.

 

[bobgreen]

I have a G11 with precisely the same problem: vertical scratches appearing on the lens for no apparent reason, and we're not alone.
A search of the web showed a fair amount of discussion regarding this issue on DPreview and similar sites. Like you I can't detect any issues in front or side illuminated situations, but I haven't been too creative lately.

My first digital camera was an Olympus SX5060 which I gave to my son when I upgraded to my first DSLR. It too lacked a reasonable sun shade (but had a lens cap) and flared similarly. I found an old lens shade that pressure fit over the entire barrel and it worked just fine most of the time! Just remembered that filters and a lens shade can be fitted to the Canon Conversion Lens adapter. It causes a bit of corner clipping at 28mm but might be useful otherwwise. I noticed a site in Seattle that claims to have an adapter that works better.

Just curious: did the black ink solution work? My guess is that since the lens is so close to the sensor, the damage would have to be really significant before it shows up in your images.

Bob Green

PS My wife has had a Canon Elf for years with no problems. Ironic that the "enthusiast" camera doesn't work as well.