DPReview.com is closing April 10th - Find out more

'Crystals' inside my Canon EF 100mm Macro USM Lens

Started Apr 28, 2015 | Discussions thread
nightfly Contributing Member • Posts: 567
Re: 'Crystals' inside my Canon EF 100mm Macro USM Lens

I agree with you in not thinking it's fungus. That just doesn't happen in a jiffy.

I don't know what it is but I have an idea, even if it might be a long shot.
It could be salt crystals left by evaporation. If I understood correctly, you said that small droplets form when you take the lens into the sun. There is definitely some humidity in the air within the lens. Out in the sun, this air will warm up more quickly than the glass elements, possibly allowing the air to condensate. This condensation would start to gather around the crystals before spreading to the sleek, uniform surface of the glass (provided that there's enough humidity there to do so).

Does it show in the pictures you take with the lens? If not, and if it doesn't get worse, I'd probably just ignore it.
If it is affecting the images you could send it to Canon, asking them for a quote first before they do anything. You can then decide what you want to do.

-- hide signature --
 nightfly's gear list:nightfly's gear list
Canon EOS 60D Canon EF 50mm F1.4 USM Canon EF-S 15-85mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM Sigma 105mm F2.8 EX DG OS HSM Tamron SP 70-200mm F/2.8 Di VC USD +1 more
Post (hide subjects) Posted by
(unknown member)
(unknown member)
(unknown member)
(unknown member)
(unknown member)
Keyboard shortcuts:
FForum PPrevious NNext WNext unread UUpvote SSubscribe RReply QQuote BBookmark MMy threads
Color scheme? Blue / Yellow