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Is fixing scratched lenses worth it or should we just embrace the haze?
I was talking to my buddy Dave at the Oakland camera swap meet last Saturday and he said he never bothers repairing scratched glass, he just shoots it and calls it character. Meanwhile I spent 3 hours with polishing compound on a 50mm f/1.8 and it came out maybe 10% better, but now I'm second guessing if the time was worth it at all. Some folks treat lens damage as a creative tool, others see it as a defect that kills sharpness and contrast, and I genuinely don't know which camp makes more sense for a hobbyist. Where do you draw the line between a happy accident and a ruined shot, especially when replacement glass runs $80 or more?
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nancyd8514d agoTop Commenter
Dave's got the right idea honestly, that "character" thing is just code for saving $80 and learning to work around a flaw. I spent four hours on my old 35mm and all I got was a slightly less blurry shot of my cat, so the math never works out for a hobbyist. If the haze is bad enough to ruin a photo, you'd be better off cropping or shooting wide open than chasing a fix that barely moves the needle.
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