While shooting one recent morning, I lost my grip on my Symmar-S 210mm and watch ed helplessly as it tumbled down a rock and dirt hillside. Upon inspection of th e aftermath, I found three small, parallel scratches (looked kinda like the hash marks left by Arnie Saknussem to lead future explorers in "Journey to the Cente r of the Earth"), perhaps a mm or less long. Being a 210mm lens with quite a bit of distance between the rear element and the film plane, I was heartened to not be able to detect any transfer of the defect to the subsequent shots. My questi ons are:
Are there situations I should be wary of, i.e. shooting into or towards the sun, that will show the defects?
If I wanted to replace only the rear element, is that even possible? Are front a nd rear a matched set? Does the out-of-production vintage of the Symmar-S line v oid the possibility? I'm inclined to think that I'd have to replace the whole le ns, unless I could find someone who might have scratched their front element and are just looking to unload a rear element from a lens that's otherwise worthles s to them.
All thoughts appreciated!
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