Dust inside lense of Panasonic DMC-FZ20

On 11 Apr 2007 08:33:38 -0700
"Mel" <mricflo.TakeThisOut@dr.com> wrote:

> I was casually admiring my DMC-FZ20 and I noticed a speck of something
> on the lense. I swallowed and blew on the lense. The speck seemed to
> be stuck there, so I got some lense paper and cleaned the lense. Much
> to my horror, it turns out the speck is on the inside of the front
> lense.
>
> How do I get the lense off to blow out that area?

The more interesting question would be, "How did anything get inside
the lens?" The lens on the FZ20 is not designed to be "taken off".
You're likely stuck with this speck for the life of the camera.

It would be interesting to hear if any other owners of this camera
and its relatives (FZ10 and FZ15, for example) have seen FOD in their
lenses.

Paul Allen
 >> Stay informed about: Dust inside lense of Panasonic DMC-FZ20 

On Thu, 12 Apr 2007 08:45:48 -0700, Paul Allen wrote:

>> How do I get the lense off to blow out that area?
>
> The more interesting question would be, "How did anything get inside
> the lens?" The lens on the FZ20 is not designed to be "taken off".
> You're likely stuck with this speck for the life of the camera.

It may be a speck that got into the lens or it may be a lens
imperfection, only just noticed but there since it was manufactured.
It's extremely unlikely that it will make any noticeable difference
in the images that the lens creates. If there were dozens of
similar imperfections you might notice some loss of contrast, but
lenses, even excellent, expensive lenses have from time to time had
flaws, such as bubbles in the glass that didn't reduce the quality
of their images. As one of the regulars here remarks from time to
time, on noticing small chips in their lens's front element, good
photographers don't replace the lens. They simply fill it in with a
black marker, which is certain to be much more noticeable than the
OP's lens's speck. I'd also guess that the tiny amount that the
speck degrades the len's images is far less than the average sample
to sample differences in quality found in seemingly flawless lenses.

It might be worth trying to figure out what kind of shot (max.
aperture, min. aperture, etc.) and subject (white card/gray card?)
would be most likely to maximize the noticeability of any image
degradation that the speck might cause. Then see if it's possible
to take pictures that would demonstrate degradation in any images.
I doubt that the lens flaw will produce any noticeable image flaws.
 >> Stay informed about: Dust inside lense of Panasonic DMC-FZ20 

On Thu, 12 Apr 2007 08:45:48 -0700, Paul Allen
<paul.l.allen.DeleteThis@NOSPAM.comcast.net> wrote:

>> How do I get the lense off to blow out that area?
>
>The more interesting question would be, "How did anything get inside
>the lens?" The lens on the FZ20 is not designed to be "taken off".
>You're likely stuck with this speck for the life of the camera.

As the lens zooms, doesn't it change interior volume, drawing air in
and expelling it again?
Dust possibly got in that way.

--
THIS IS A SIG LINE; NOT TO BE TAKEN SERIOUSLY!

Hillary Clinton visited a veteran's hospital
in Syracuse Tuesday and promised better care
for wounded veterans. She's wounded her share.
Whenever the Commander-in-Chief used to walk
into the Rose Garden with a black eye, you
knew he was having a good week.
 >> Stay informed about: Dust inside lense of Panasonic DMC-FZ20 

"Mel" <mricflo DeleteThis @dr.com> wrote in news:1176305618.159288.191790
@p77g2000hsh.googlegroups.com:

> I was casually admiring my DMC-FZ20 and I noticed a speck of something
> on the lense. I swallowed and blew on the lense. The speck seemed to
> be stuck there, so I got some lense paper and cleaned the lense. Much
> to my horror, it turns out the speck is on the inside of the front
> lense.

> How do I get the lense off to blow out that area?

If you did that, You would probably have more specks when you are done.
Why open a relatively sealed chamber to the elements to remove something
that causes perhaps a 0.001% loss of contrast or transmission?

> The speck is about 1/4 the size of the head of a straight pin, and is
> a light color -- maybe a light beige.

There is no direct correlation between locations in the focal plane, and
locations on the outermost element, with normal lenses (there is with some
screw-on wide-angle adapters). The light for all areas of the focal plane
pass by your speck, and its effect is only a slight increase in diffraction
and diffusion, that you probably couldn't even measure.

My Canon 100-400 zoom lens has dozens of such specs on several element
surfaces, and hasn't degraded noticably in quality because of it.

--

<>>< ><<> ><<> <>>< ><<> <>>< <>>< ><<>
John P Sheehy <JPS DeleteThis @no.komm>
><<> <>>< <>>< ><<> <>>< ><<> ><<> <>><
 >> Stay informed about: Dust inside lense of Panasonic DMC-FZ20 

"Mel" <mricflo RemoveThis @dr.com> wrote:

> I was casually admiring my DMC-FZ20 and I noticed a speck of something
> on the lense. I swallowed and blew on the lense. The speck seemed to
> be stuck there, so I got some lense paper and cleaned the lense. Much
> to my horror, it turns out the speck is on the inside of the front
> lense.

This is normal. I'd be inclined, as others suggest, to live with the speck
of dust unless it shows up on your actual images. Lenses "breathe" from air
temperature changes, and as someone pointed out, zoom lenses are like little
bellows, drawing air in and out so that dust is inevitable. Your camera has
a 12x zoom, and may be particularly prone to this. Think of it as a battle
scar of an old reliable friend.

Photographers are often a bit on the fussy side when it comes to their
equipment, and find even the slightest imperfection intolerable. If this is
the case for you, I'd suggest seeing what it would cost to have your camera
cleaned by a professional. In some cases the front element may be removed
relatively easily, though this is less likely for a camera such as yours
with non-interchangeable lenses.
--
Mike Russell
www.curvemeister.com/forum/
 >> Stay informed about: Dust inside lense of Panasonic DMC-FZ20