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Hi,

Recently found that there is dust spec inside of my 80-400VR. I can clearly see it on the internal side of rear element! Damn! Is there any way to kick it off there or should I go to Maxwell?

A problem might be that I've got it from Mr.Poon and not sure if I've got proper warranty ....

Hilop,
Dust is in the lens after few months use, is it a warranty issue?
IMHO, if your lens is bought new and first opened it, you see dust inside, it's warranty, if you have it for few months then dusts got inside, IMHO no warranty, please correct me if I'm wrong.

Birddog114 wrote:Hilop,
Dust is in the lens after few months use, is it a warranty issue?
IMHO, if your lens is bought new and first opened it, you see dust inside, it's warranty, if you have it for few months then dusts got inside, IMHO no warranty, please correct me if I'm wrong.

Hmm. I think you're wrong. I've got my amplifier dead after 20 month (2 years warranty) by electric surge. It's been restored under warranty because maker didn't protect it well. So, If Nikon didn't make lens well protectsd from dust why it shouldn't be a warranty issue? Why dust gets inside at all?

Hlop wrote:

Birddog114 wrote:Hilop,
Dust is in the lens after few months use, is it a warranty issue?
IMHO, if your lens is bought new and first opened it, you see dust inside, it's warranty, if you have it for few months then dusts got inside, IMHO no warranty, please correct me if I'm wrong.

Hmm. I think you're wrong. I've got my amplifier dead after 20 month (2 years warranty) by electric surge. It's been restored under warranty because maker didn't protect it well. So, If Nikon didn't make lens well protectsd from dust why it shouldn't be a warranty issue? Why dust gets inside at all?

My thoughts are:
Warranty issues with the lens:
- Back focus, AF motor, blurring etc... but not tear and wear
If the AF motor dead then the answer is yes.
Lenses are not made to the same quality and some with weathershields or dust shield and some are not, if you encounter dust inside your camera after few months in use, is it warranty issue?
Why don't you give Maxwell a call to get their opinion.

I would think that dust in a lens is the same as dust in the camera - something that is unavoidable. It should not affect the pics IMO

Mikhail,

The lens is not (and cannot be) airtight. Entry and egress of air is an operational neccessity for most lenses, and the 80-400 is no exception.

If the air being drawn in (through, say, a zoom motion) contains dust, then it's highly likely to find some place to eventually settle.

As Birddog says, this would be a normal service issue, and nothing more; sorry.

One the one hand, what are you saying does make a sence. On the other hand, dust in the camera is clearly understandable thing because chamber is open when you're changin lenses. But lenses aren't that open! Actually, I've never had a dust INSIDE of lens (and I had reasonable amount of lenses during the years to make an assuption) and I didn't expect such lens as 80-400VR to get it inside too quick! It's not cheap piece of glass, isn't it? BTW, Maxwell says "NO WARRANTY!!!"

Is there any way to clean it myself (like a CCD cleaning)?

Mikhail, MHD discussed this also, his conclusion was to suggest most absolute pro zoom lenses (usually 2. are IF to reduce dust entry, though even that does not stop it. As you know the 80-400 is not IF, plus it zooms quite a bit out of necessity to cover such a long focal range, so more prone to dust entry. The good news as others have said, it probably wont be noticeable on images.

Hlop wrote:But lenses aren't that open! Actually, I've never had a dust INSIDE of lens

But they do have openings to the atmosphere. As soon as you just one of those, all bets are off.

As to never having had dust inside a lens, how do you know? Many dust particles are very tiny, and it's unlikely that you'd even see them under normal circumstances.

The good point, as already mentioned, is that this is not really likely to affect your images.

Cleaning them is a workshop job.

Glen wrote: The good news as others have said, it probably wont be noticeable on images.

Unfortunately, it is noticeable when there is a clear blue sky. Firstly, I thought it's a dust spec on CCD but after few test shots with different lenses found it's a dust inside the lens This sucks

Mikhail,

I found the same problem with my kit lens recently, only after 2 months use. At first I thought about contacting Maxwell but then as I decided to drop it as it didn't affect the images.

Cheers
Alex