Do You Repair Or Replace Damaged Nikon Lense

In that location is one heart-stopping moment for every photographer.

It happens when the prized possession that they spent hundreds or thousands of dollars to buy falls to the ground.

If you lot've always experienced it, you know the gut-wrenching agony and how the seconds feel like hours until you pick up your camera and brainstorm to examine it. You know the cold chills of fear as y'all plow information technology over to come across if the lens is okay…

What if the unthinkable has happened? Can you repair a camera lens? What are the limitations?

Information technology really depends on the type of impairment your lens sustained. Small-scale scratches tin be buffed out and replacing a cracked front element is achievable. However, replacing elements or repairing internal harm is and then expensive that in many cases it makes more sense to buy a new lens.

Let'due south interruption it downward and see when it might make sense to try to repair a lens and take a look at the limitations of repairing camera lenses.

Anatomy of a Camera Lens

Commencement of all, permit'due south have a moment to empathise the anatomy of a camera lens. With a good idea of how lenses are put together, you can meliorate understand if the issue your lens is experiencing is fixable.

Your lens is made up of a lot more drinking glass than y'all might realize. These pieces are used to bend light and focus the rays on specific points in gild to take a abrupt image.

How the pieces work together is very complex and we won't go into all of it here. However, suffice it to say that people who design camera lenses are incredibly intelligent, especially the ones who create the impressive lenses nosotros are seeing today. To acquire a picayune more than almost what goes into building lenses, check out our post on why wide-angle lenses are so expensive.

The anatomy of a specific lens volition vary co-ordinate to the type of lens that it is. The number of elements and lens groups can vary quite a fleck, only let's only stick with a basic explanation for our purposes.

Elements and Lens Groups

Take a look at your lens. On the front, you'll see a piece of drinking glass that is called the front chemical element. There is as well one on the back inside the lens mount that is referred to as a rear element. Within the lens, at that place can exist several more lenses, some of which are fixed together. Single lenses are sometimes referred to equally elements and lenses that are stock-still together are usually called a lens group. When counting lens groups, a unmarried chemical element is considered a lens group too.

For example, the Canon seventy-200mm f/4L IS has xx elements and fifteen groups. This means there are 20 private pieces of drinking glass and some of them accept been fixed together to form only 15 groups.

The number of elements and groups in a lens can vary significantly. More doesn't e'er hateful better considering the more pieces of drinking glass that are in the way, the more possibility for distortion and aberrations. The build quality of the lens is a stronger deciding factor.

What Should Yous Do When You Drop a Lens?

First off, relax and take a deep breath. Not every dropped lens is destroyed. First matter is to option it up and see if there is any visible impairment.

Examine the housing and check the forepart chemical element for scratches or (God forbid) cracks or gouges. If it looks okay, that'due south a good thing, but y'all're non out of the wood yet.

The impact can disrupt the positioning of elements inside the lens, causing the focus to go off-center or other issues. Virtually optical problems astringent plenty to bear upon your images will be immediately noticeable when you take a few test photos.

To be extra certain, set up your camera on a tripod directly facing a brick wall. Take a few shots, paying particular attention to the corners and watching for distortion. To check that the diaphragm is still working, shoot the wall at unlike apertures, adjusting the shutter speed to compensate. If everything is working okay, the photo should come out exposed the aforementioned each time.

Effort using all the moving parts to see if they still perform correctly. Activate the autofocus, use the manual focus, plough on the IS, fiddle with the aperture band — whatever features your lens possesses, run through them all to see if they piece of work.

If all that comes out okay, you tin exhale a sigh of relief and tell your wallet to relax. Your camera lens survived the mishap.

Can You Repair Your Camera Lens?

What if your camera didn't survive unscathed? Should you lot exist preparing yourself for a hefty repair beak?

Non just nonetheless. There are some types of lens damage that you may exist able to repair yourself and at a lot lower price. Keep in mind that, in general, even an easy ready at the repair shop will cost you a couple of hundred dollars so it is definitely worth your time to troubleshoot a bit on your own commencement.

Repairing a Scratched Forepart Element

What if the forepart element got scratched? It's okay, this doesn't ever mean your lens is toast. Believe it or non, some scratches on the front element aren't noticeable in the photos. Of course, others appear as a whitish smear or add a ghosting event to the image. The effect is usually virtually noticeable at night, calculation halos around lights or creating a foreign brightish spot in the image.

Take a bunch of exam photos in dissimilar lighting environments and of unlike backgrounds. Examine them closely to see if there are any noticeable furnishings of the scratch on the prototype quality.

If the scratch's effect is noticeable, don't worry, all is not nonetheless lost. You lot may be able to buff out the scratch yourself.

Check out how The Virginia Stew removes scratches from photographic camera lenses of all types in this video.

What If the Scratch Is Too Deep?

If the scratch is too deep to vitrify out, it'southward probable that y'all'll need to replace the forepart element. Unfortunately, while this sounds similar it shouldn't be an expensive fix, information technology is. Front elements can end up encompassing a quarter or fifty-fifty a third of the entire price of the lens. Add to that the labor to replace it, and it oft makes more sense to buy a new lens instead.

If yous scan YouTube, yous'll find videos of people explaining how to replace a front element or make other repairs on a camera lens. Information technology'due south best to look for one for the specific lens yous're dealing with. If y'all feel inclined to buy a second-hand lens (cleaved in some other chapters so you can get a good price) for the part you need, you may be able to repair it yourself following the video.

However, keep in mind that the slightest mistake can result in more damage. Not to mention that the almost inevitable dust particle getting inside your lens may mess up the optical quality anyway. We simply recommend this route if the lens is inoperable as is and you lot can become a cheap replacement function.

Repairing a Lens Mount

Sometimes the lens mount can get knocked out of whack when you drop the lens. Thankfully, replacing the lens mount is unremarkably doable. It'southward not a complicated repair and y'all may be able to do it yourself, plus a replacement lens mount typically isn't expensive.

Here are instructions for how to supersede the lens mount on a Nikon lens.

Can a Photographic camera Lens Be Repaired?

You may accept noticed that all the bug we've talked well-nigh here are relatively minor. If yous're staring at a lens with a broken piece of glass or with suspected internal damage, you're still waiting for practiced news with a sinking feeling in your stomach. You're commencement to suspect at that place isn't an easy (i.e. inexpensive) solution to your trouble.

Well, unfortunately, you're right.

Call up what nosotros talked about in the anatomy of a camera lens? There are simply as well many parts in there. Taking it autonomously and putting information technology back together is almost more than work than building a whole new lens. Plus, all this work must be done in a special, dust-gratis environment to ensure no specks of dust get inside the lens.

All that said, the short reply is that yes, many types of lens repairs are possible. Unfortunately, they are often not practical or economically viable. It often turns out to be less expensive to purchase a new lens than accept your broken one professionally repaired. Fifty-fifty if repairing information technology is slightly cheaper, it may not exist worth spending that money on an one-time lens. Yous might equally well buy a new one (or a gently used i).

Where to Take Your Camera Lens to Be Repaired

If y'all're not sure how expensive fixing your lens might be, take information technology to a repair shop. They will be able to requite you an estimate of how much information technology will price to fix the lens. From there, yous can decide if you think it's worth it.

Nonetheless, be conscientious where you take your lens. Always take your equipment to a repair center authorized by your camera manufacturer. You'll take a better hazard of getting somebody who knows what they're talking most. Plus, they may have parts on mitt and may even offer a warranty on whatsoever piece of work they practice.

Repairing Your Camera Lens

If your camera lens has suffered a tragedy, first of all, let us mourn with y'all for a moment. We know what an awful feeling that can be when y'all see your thousand dollar lens take a tumble.

The good news is that in some cases the harm can be repaired and y'all might even be able to practice it yourself.

Interested to learn more well-nigh how DSLR lenses work? Click the link.

Source: https://photodoto.com/guide-repairing-camera-lenses/

Posted by: moorewitherrom.blogspot.com

Share this post