Canon glass is sturdier than I thought
Who Will Win canon nifty fifty vs The Hammer Smackdown? Glass vs Metal; Engineering Beauty vs Crude Tool… want to know the truth? watch this video!
Does Canon 50mm f/1.8 mkII stand a chance vs The Hammer?
I always thought that a glass of a lens is flimsy, that a slight bump into something and you have a scratch. I never worried about image quality, scratches don’t effect final product at all, but I do usually worry about resale value of my equipment – and with scratches it goes down the drain. (This is when you are a seller, but if you are in the market as a buyer going for a nice used lens, low resale value is not necessarily a bad thing; *hint: run on eBay and buy scratched L glass for half the list price!)
This video besides showing unusual cruelty towards nifty fifty, also demonstrates how sturdy canon Len’s front element actually is. As for me, I’ve to stop babysitting my gear!
Bored, so I decided to see how fragile Canon glass was. The lens is a canon 50mm 1.8 II, and the front element is actually quite alright, I only managed to scratch some of the coating off in the last part. Also note that larger, heavier lenses with larger front elements are probably easier to crack/break than the 50mm 1.8, which was already broken anyway.
-
You might also like...
There are 9 comments on this post.
Trackback URL | Comments RSS FeedIncredible video! It takes some cruelty to do something like that to a poor lens :S
Wow! I never thought it was that resistant. Heh and those stupid sellman in camera store wants to sell us overpriced neutral filter for the so called “protection”. Hell if the hammer didn’t even do anything it’s not like if th wind or my finger would hurt.
Thanks a lot for this video.
I would still go with a filter, better be safe than sorry.
Actualy it may even be worse with a filter as staten in a article I’ve read a while ago on Internet because the glass from a filter is much much less resistant than the one from ur lens so if it breaks then ur gonna have a lot of sharp glass directly on ur camera lens and you sure don’t want that to happen! Think about it, it’s really not dumb what he said about useless protection filters.
Hey,
You are absolutely right. I agree with you. Though I prefer to clean filters rather than the front element of a lens.
I only use polarizer filters. The only effect you cannot imitate in photoshop this days
Me too it’s pretty much the only filter I use. Definitely the one I use the most but I like to carry in my bag a ND (Neutral Density) filter just in case. It’s particulary useful when you want to make a long exposure during the day and there’s no way you’ll be able to go up to 60sec without blowing the lights if you don’t have a 10x ND. A good example of cool stuff to take during the day with slow shutter is waterfalls.
@PanzerIV
Always wanted to try waterfall with ND filter, but unfortunately there is none in my area… There are allot of model types though
Have to laugh, just about EVERY site says that the scratch won’t matter…BS! I do almost all outdoor photos, seems to me that the sun is out there too. Flare or a shadow that looks a foot long on the photo. The scratch I have is from the EV Filter, camera fell and the filter took it headon, then the lense of the filter put a 3/16 scratch on the lense. People keep saying that it will cost anywhere up to $500 to get a replacement, these people have to be put in a box and hidden under that bed…shop via Google and you can find a CANON replacement for $129.. Some say use black ink, a very fine line might not show up in shot, or get “Scratch Out” that might remove scratch, but it will also remove and coating on the lense, if that is what you can put up with, go for it. BUT, please do not say that a scratch will not effect the picture if small, unless you are one of those that takes pictures at night without a flash…
Dennis » depends on the scratch. in my article I was talking about minor ones, the scratches you get from everyday use… not scratches you get from head on collisions. anyways, thanks for sharing your story