Lens Maintenence question

K

kubalsky

Active member
Disaster struck yesterday. I was filming with my Ex1 in a park and all of a sudden the sky went dark and a freak dust storm moved through that left a fine layer of dust on everything including the camera which I didn't have time to cover. After carefully cleaning it I've noticed there are two small specs of dust within the inner lens. It only shows up when in Macro mode or the camera is pointed at the sun and I was told by the shop that to remove it needs to be sent in to sony and will cost me big time.

Has anyone else had this happen with their EX or any other camera? if so what was the outcome and cost? I'd really appreciate if anyone could share their experiences with this kind of problem.
Im wondering whether it can be cleaned or I may have to get the whole lens replaced?

Man, Im sure learning camera care the hard way.
 
Last edited:
I don't know, but I am really surprised by that. I wonder how the dust got in? The lens should be pretty well sealed.
 
Yes...
Hmm.
It makes me wonder if this was not there in the first place.
Sony should fix this no cost.
 
My first EX1 had some tiny metal particles inside the lens too. I think it is from manufacture. Is it an early serial number?
 
Its a Japanese serial number 300036. Bought it last November so would be of the first batch. Maybe the particles were in there from the beginning? Ill go through my early footage and check. Thanks. Will keep you posted.
 
Same thing happened to me today except it was a pretty large piece of white fuzz. (Imagine you broke the corner of your fingernail off your little finger - about that big).

I took off the hood, removed my UV filter and then unscrewed the ring on the inside of the lens. After that, I was able to remove the glass lens from inside the lens assembly and blow the fuzz away. I Was able to put it all back together pretty easily.

I used 2 awls in the little holes to remove the lens ring being very careful not to slip and scrape them across the face of the lens.

So the good news here is that it's pretty easy to clean the backside of the lens and if you ever really scratch it up, it seems like a pretty easy piece of glass to replace if you can get sony to sell you a new one. The bad news... something got into my lens. I hope it was there all the time and something brought it to the front and it stuck to my lens.
 
WestView Digital said:
Same thing happened to me today except it was a pretty large piece of white fuzz. (Imagine you broke the corner of your fingernail off your little finger - about that big).

I took off the hood, removed my UV filter and then unscrewed the ring on the inside of the lens. After that, I was able to remove the glass lens from inside the lens assembly and blow the fuzz away. I Was able to put it all back together pretty easily.

I used 2 awls in the little holes to remove the lens ring being very careful not to slip and scrape them across the face of the lens.

So the good news here is that it's pretty easy to clean the backside of the lens and if you ever really scratch it up, it seems like a pretty easy piece of glass to replace if you can get sony to sell you a new one. The bad news... something got into my lens. I hope it was there all the time and something brought it to the front and it stuck to my lens.
Click to expand...

Wow, you managed to open it yourself. Thanks for the tip. Im tempted to try this myself. Could you post an image of the place where the awls went in? Ive got an idea but want to be sure. One thing that worries me is that when its opened, even though you can clean it other particles may enter as you reseal it.
 
Last edited:
West View,
I looked at the front lens and it looks like there are four small holes about a mill wide and at top, bottom and either side around the front glass piece. I imagine you lock into atleast two of these on opposite sides and twisted ant-clockwise? I dont have the right tools to do that (or the courage) so i might bring it into a shop later in the week. The good thing about this is Im living in Tokyo and am within walking distance of Akihabara( Tokyos camera geek central) Maybe someone there has the right tools or a device designed to open this. Well, one can hope.

Stevet, you might be right about the particles being there from the beginning. They also seem like tiny metalic particles which corresponds to what Basspig found in his first Ex.

Hmmm.
 
Yes, you're looking in the right place. There was about 1/4 inch of little blue-tinted sealant along the edge of the ring with the 4 holes. I just ran an exacto knife around the edge. It was pretty hard to get started but once it started urning, it came of pretty easily and went back on just as easily.


After the ring was off, I just rubbed off any flaking sealant.

You're lucky to be in a metro area, where I live you have to be able to try to service your equipment a little yourself.

Wasn't too long ago, I had to completely crack open my XL2 to replace a stripped tripod mount screw hole.
 
that's amazing. I think its good to have that kind of knowledge around the workings of the cameras and not be at the mercy of the device and/or repair fees all the time.
awesome.
 
I took my Ex in to Sony Repairs on Friday and they said that removing particles on inside of lens will be done within a week, free of charge. It does seem like the particles were there from the beginning and I just didn't notice it until i cleaned the lens after that dust storm last week. Sony people were very helpful and apologetic that it happened. I also asked them to check for vignetting ( Ive seen very slight darkening in low lit room between 8-25 but wonder whether its within spec) and also a slight stepping on very slow zooms that Ive noticed at times. Will see how it goes next week when i pick it up.
 
I picked up my camera from Sony today. For anyone who was following this story-there were a couple of small particles in the lens. Probably since assembly. I also had very slight vignetting and a stepping problem on very slow zooms.

Sony said they couldnt see any particles but replace the front lens anyway. This left me feeling confused. If there was nothing in there why replace the lens? Well, cant complain. looks good to me.

Vignetting has been fixed. They said they had to re-aline the focus to dead centre, etc.
I wonder if that moves again over time?

My 3rd request was to fix the stepping effect when slow zooming. Their answer to that was shoot in 30p or interlaced.

Well two outa three aint bad.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top