how to get rid of scratch on lens

[cn15]

I scratched the front end of my 24-105mm F4L and after cleaning it with a lens cloth, the scratch is barely visible and is seen only when viewed at a certain angle.  So far I don't see any visible effect on the final image, even when enlarged on the monitor.

Is there anyway to get rid of this scratch or I will just have to live with it?
The lens is brand new and the thought of a scratch on it hurts.

[DiaAzul]

I scratched the front end of my 24-105mm F4L and after cleaning it with a lens cloth, the scratch is barely visible and is seen only when viewed at a certain angle.  So far I don't see any visible effect on the final image, even when enlarged on the monitor.

Is there anyway to get rid of this scratch or I will just have to live with it?
The lens is brand new and the thought of a scratch on it hurts.
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Is it the actual lens or the coating which is scratched?

The cheapest way is to send it back to Canon and get the front lens element replaced. Any other option is likely to be more expensive.

[Slough]

I scratched the front end of my 24-105mm F4L and after cleaning it with a lens cloth, the scratch is barely visible and is seen only when viewed at a certain angle.  So far I don't see any visible effect on the final image, even when enlarged on the monitor.

Is there anyway to get rid of this scratch or I will just have to live with it?
The lens is brand new and the thought of a scratch on it hurts.
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You'd be surprised what amount of damage you can get away with. Anyway, the main effect of scratches is loss of contrast, and flare/ghosting. One scratch will probably have no observable effect on contrast and flare, except for certain lighting. If it is as you describe, I would not worry. The only way to get rid of it is to replace the element.

[CJL]

The scratch would have to be pretty bad to affect anything other than resale value.

[sergio]

Dirt and scratches really show up as flare in backlighting situations. If you use front lighting you can get away with a lot more. If it is minor, I wouldn't suffer for it.

[Ken Bennett]

Start using your lens hood all the time. The primary issue with scratches on the front element, as noted above, is lens flare and loss of contrast. This mostly happens when you have a strong light source in the image or just outside. The hood will help prevent any strong side-lighting from catching the scratch and giving you an odd light artifact in your final image.

Back in the bad old days of small-town newspaper photography, we never used lens caps, we cleaned our lenses with our shirt tails, and my front elements had many small scratches in the coating. We just used a higher contrast grade of paper for printing. No big deal.

A scratch in the rear element is more problematic.

[ErikKaffehr]

Hi,

Make a couple of exposures with small aperture (like f/22) on short focal length. Shoot some pictures with sun just outside the frame. If you don't see the scratch, don't care.

Erik

Start using your lens hood all the time. The primary issue with scratches on the front element, as noted above, is lens flare and loss of contrast. This mostly happens when you have a strong light source in the image or just outside. The hood will help prevent any strong side-lighting from catching the scratch and giving you an odd light artifact in your final image.

Back in the bad old days of small-town newspaper photography, we never used lens caps, we cleaned our lenses with our shirt tails, and my front elements had many small scratches in the coating. We just used a higher contrast grade of paper for printing. No big deal.

A scratch in the rear element is more problematic.
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[grepmat]

An old trick to deal with a scratch is to fill in the scratch with black paint. That reduces flare from the scratch, but so long as the scratch is not very large your images will never notice that missing bit of surface area.

[Truckman]

An old trick to deal with a scratch is to fill in the scratch with black paint. That reduces flare from the scratch, but so long as the scratch is not very large your images will never notice that missing bit of surface area.
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This sounds similar to the reasons for using old newspapers to clean windshields and glass windows...The ink fills in minor imperfections and makes the glass shine...Ben

[Paul Kay]

An old trick to deal with a scratch is to fill in the scratch with black paint. That reduces flare from the scratch, but so long as the scratch is not very large your images will never notice that missing bit of surface area.
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I used this technique on an old 135mm Takumar with a very bad scratch on it - actually deep and visible as a distinct white scratch - to excellent effect. It was perfectly (very) usable but pretty well worthless as the black filled scratch put everyone off!

[Yoyo Szeto]

I guess optical adhesives like Norland's (https://www.norlandprod.com/adhesives/NOA%2061.html) may be useful. The refractive index of the coating is similar to glass.
yoyo

[telyt]

Don't sweat the small stuff.  The damage has to be much more extensive than a barely-visible scratch to have any noticeable effect on the pictures.  I have a 300mm f/4.5 Nikkor ED (pre-IF) that the TSA scratched pretty badly and there is no visible effect on the pictures.