is there anyway to safely do this on an slr lens? for some reason these canon zooms seem to be dust suckers and i have seen an increase in dust on the inside of lens. i was thinking a compressed air doodad to spray the dust hopefully to the sides. i definitely don't want to start taking apart the lenses but if it got to the point where it was affecting the image quality i would give that a shot. if anyone has any experience with this, post your solution and the results here. thanks
buy some dust away, otherwise you have two other options
take it in to get it cleaned which i dont recommend $$$$
take it apart which you already know isnt the wisest idea
Which lens is it?
The short answer to your question is "NO, don't touch it!"
For one of Canon's cheapies, it may be more reasonable to replace it. If it is a high grade one, you may be able to get it cleaned for a few hundred bucks, but who knows.
D.I.Y. lens deconstruction is certain death for the lens. If you're not in a dust free environment, you may just make things worse.
Be mindful of where you store the thing (same story for fungus prevention)
Be very careful with the compressed air cans. The liquid that is used in these cans is extremely cold and can be sprayed out with the air. Any liquid in your lense or camera can be a bad thing. Also, I've had some of the liquid spill on my fingers when cleaning keyboards, it isn't a pleasant experience!
There have been other threads about cleaning lenses, here and here
Can you actually see the specks of dust as they show up in your photos? Many lenses will eventually develop a little dust on the internal elements over time...it just happens. But I have never seen a case of dust contamination so bad that it had any visible impact on the image. In fact, I have used a couple of lenses that were clearly contaminated with fungus and still obtained great results. It all depends on how bad it is. The contamination has to get pretty bad before image quality really begins to suffer.
Can you actually see the specks of dust as they show up in your photos? Many lenses will eventually develop a little dust on the internal elements over time...it just happens. But I have never seen a case of dust contamination so bad that it had any visible impact on the image. In fact, I have used a couple of lenses that were clearly contaminated with fungus and still obtained great results. It all depends on how bad it is. The contamination has to get pretty bad before image quality really begins to suffer.
yeah it's not terrible, just a couple specks, and i know this will not likely affect image quality but i live in a basement and dust seems to just travel through anything i try to cover the lens with. i think i can live with it
