I finally tried to save money on a used camera lens for astro shots

It had a tiny scratch I thought wouldn't matter, but it ruined every long exposure with weird flares. Anyone know a good place to get a used lens checked before buying?

3 comments

3 Comments

faith_thomas2mo ago

My buddy's 50mm had a hairline crack and did the same thing lol.

jade322mo ago

Classic 50mm luck right there. It's like those lenses are secretly made of sugar glass. One tiny crack and suddenly every photo looks like it was taken through a greasy car window. My old Nikon did that and I spent a week blaming my editing skills before I noticed the fracture.

lewis.charlie27d ago

And then you start second guessing your whole process. I did the exact same thing @jade32, went through three different lightroom presets thinking it was my white balance going haywire. What got me was the weird flaring around streetlights at night, looked like I was shooting through a jar of honey. Took me two weeks and a friend borrowing my lens to finally look at the glass close up. Found a tiny crack near the edge you could barely see unless you caught the light right. Now I check every lens with a flashlight before I even mount it.