Inking lenses

[Ed Eubanks]

Not too long ago someone recommended that a shooter use black ink to fill in the scratches on the front element of his shooting lens; as I thought about it, this made some sense and I began to wonder if the same would apply to an enlarging lens? I have an old Wollensak 135mm lens that has some scratches on the front (or "bottom") element. Can I put ink in these scratches and expect it to print fairly OK? If so, how would I go about doing that? Thanks for the help.

[Ernest Purdum]

Whether a shooting lens or an enlarging lens, filling in scratches will eliminate their ability to scatter light where it doesn't belong. There will be a slight loss of effective aperture, but unless the scratches cover a large area, the loss would be too small to notice.



As to how to do it, that's another matter and I hope someone better qualified than I responds to your query. All I can suggest is to use genuine India ink and a brush resembling three eyebrow hairs. Having the solvent (denatured alcohol?) handy in case of the ink migrating out of the crack would seem appropriate.

[Jim Rice]

I would thin a technical pen (i.e. Rapidograph) would be just the ticket. Go to the art-supply store.

-j

[Kevin Crisp]

The extra fine Sharpie's do the trick. Not that I've ever dinged up a lens or anything....

[David R Munson]

Rapidographs are handy, but Microns cost a lot less and are probably a much better choice if you're just going to use it for blacking out scratches.