Am I suffering from Schneiderphobia?

**jb7** · 3-May-2009, 14:20

None of my Super Angulons exhibit any of the plague symptoms described-
but then again, none of them are for sale...

**mrpengun** · 3-May-2009, 14:22

While we are on the subject of lens-maladies, has anybody ever shot with a supremely "damaged" lens?
I am far from an expert at this stage, but I have never been able to spot any of my lens issues (included Massive scratching in the center of the element on an early 1900's lens) on negatives.
I had a lens with some huge separation problems covering about 20% of the front and rear elements, but unless I used a fairly large tilt, it never came into play...
So, are we all just being a little too cautious about our lens care? or do I still just have a lot to learn ;-)

**erie patsellis** · 3-May-2009, 16:56

Originally Posted by mrpengun

While we are on the subject of lens-maladies, has anybody ever shot with a supremely "damaged" lens?
I am far from an expert at this stage, but I have never been able to spot any of my lens issues (included Massive scratching in the center of the element on an early 1900's lens) on negatives.
I had a lens with some huge separation problems covering about 20% of the front and rear elements, but unless I used a fairly large tilt, it never came into play...
So, are we all just being a little too cautious about our lens care? or do I still just have a lot to learn ;-)

Sure, I used a 210 Componon for a couple of years as my wide on 8x10, had a huge chunk out of it, 5 mins with flat black paint and I never looked back:

image shot with this lens:

**rdenney** · 4-May-2009, 06:01

Originally Posted by mrpengun

While we are on the subject of lens-maladies, has anybody ever shot with a supremely "damaged" lens?
I am far from an expert at this stage, but I have never been able to spot any of my lens issues (included Massive scratching in the center of the element on an early 1900's lens) on negatives.
I had a lens with some huge separation problems covering about 20% of the front and rear elements, but unless I used a fairly large tilt, it never came into play...
So, are we all just being a little too cautious about our lens care? or do I still just have a lot to learn ;-)

I saw a thread on a small-format forum that showed a series of images of decent quality. Then, they showed the lens that made the images. It looked as though the front element had been hit with a hammer, with a chuck out of the middle of it and cracks radiating from the center out to the edges in about 10 directions. The only time the damage was really visible was when shooting into the sun. The black paint shown in the previous post would correct that for a chip by preventing the spurious reflections.

I bought a Nikkor 105/2.5, which is on of the storied lenses for the old Nikon F series, and it has a fungus bloom about 1/8" in diameter in the front group. As a result of that, I got it for about a quarter the normal going rate. If it affects the image, I can't tell it.

(Something I forgot to mention previously on the topic of Schneideritis--Zeiss Jena Flektogons also routinely suffer from similar flaws in the paint on the inner element spacers and edge treatments, and it's generally considered to be a non-issue among those who use them.)

It is really amazing how much we obsess over lens perfection.

Rick "who'll have to remember the black paint trick" Denney

**CatSplat** · 4-May-2009, 09:57

Originally Posted by rdenney

I saw a thread on a small-format forum that showed a series of images of decent quality. Then, they showed the lens that made the images. It looked as though the front element had been hit with a hammer, with a chuck out of the middle of it and cracks radiating from the center out to the edges in about 10 directions. The only time the damage was really visible was when shooting into the sun. The black paint shown in the previous post would correct that for a chip by preventing the spurious reflections.

http://www.lensrentals.com/news/2008...ment-scratches