Stuff on inside of front lens

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Hi,

I've got a limited number of lenses now, and I'm taking pics of jewellery in a studio set up. My 17-55 (I think) has 'stuff' (dust? fungus?) on the inside of the front lens which is affecting the photos - is there any easy way to get this off? Or a guide on how to do this?

Thanks!
 
Are you sure it's the lens and not the sensor? There's no way to clean the inside of a lens. :(
 
If it's fungus or that much dust then it's in the bin I'm afraid.

If the lens were worth a lot of money it may have been worth repairing but not a kit lens.
 
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Damn - there's no way to take the front element off? It's definitely on the lens. I can check the sensor but it doesn't always show up & only when there's a lot of light from the flash?

Could you tweak your lighting setup to avoid the flash 'picking up' the muck in the lens......................especially as the received wisdom is that most (all?) marks on the front element of a lens do not show up in a photograph, as evidenced by what you say, depending the influence of flash???

PS there are plenty of guides on the web but also some folk here familiar with product photography...............???
 
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What apertures does it occur at?
 
Damn - there's no way to take the front element off? It's definitely on the lens. I can check the sensor but it doesn't always show up & only when there's a lot of light from the flash?
Can you take a photo of the lens to show the mark(s)? In what way does it affect the image quality, specs, blobs, haze?
 
If the marks on the inside of the lens are obvious to the naked eye when looking into it, can you take a photograph of the front of the lens to show what they look like for 'appearance & sizes' ?

Oh, what aperture setting are you using?
 
If the marks on the inside of the lens are obvious to the naked eye when looking into it, can you take a photograph of the front of the lens to show what they look like for 'appearance & sizes' ?
^^this
 
It's the white dots - they're obvious on F16-F32, and I'm having to use that high as I'm shooting with studio lights in a very small area, so they're quite close, for jewellery shots. It's definitely those bits as they match the blurry dots...
 

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It's the white dots - they're obvious on F16-F32, and I'm having to use that high as I'm shooting with studio lights in a very small area, so they're quite close, for jewellery shots. It's definitely those bits as they match the blurry dots...
Only on the phone at the min so not the best for viewing, but looks like fungus to me in which case I’d say just bin it and buy something else.

As for shooting at that small an aperture can’t you adjust your lights to a lower power?
 
That is the lights on the lowest power. :/ As I said, TINY space (end of dining room table in a cramped room!) so the lights are close...

I've picked up a 17-70mm macro that hopefully will be a big improvement and easier for jewellery photography... Pity, though, the broken one is a Sigma 17-50mm 2.8 and I like it... :/
 
Only on the phone at the min so not the best for viewing, but looks like fungus to me in which case I’d say just bin it and buy something else.

Likewise, the look of a (significant?) fungus spread rather than simply dust!
 
Despite what the others are saying , looking at the pic of your lens I can see a notch in the inner rim ,there should be one on the other side , if you get a lens tool off of e.bay you should be able to unscrew it and remove the front element and clean it up . Then refit it’s not hard and even if it doesn’t work you might learn something along the way .
 
Despite what the others are saying , looking at the pic of your lens I can see a notch in the inner rim ,there should be one on the other side , if you get a lens tool off of e.bay you should be able to unscrew it and remove the front element and clean it up . Then refit it’s not hard and even if it doesn’t work you might learn something along the way .

I would definitely give it a go, I mean if you're thinking on binning it anyway then why not give cleaning it a try? Nothing to lose. Youtube was designed for this type of thing, there'll be tutorials on how to fix this issue out there I bet.

Quick search brought this up:
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tOZRN2mxajk


He shows how to easily remove the front element of this lens with a couple of simple tools and some masking tape - seems there's just 3 screws holding the front element in place
 
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