Tried cleaning a lens with just a microfiber cloth and scratched my front element

I was working on a 1970s Nikkor 50mm f/1.4 last week, and there was this stubborn smear that wouldn't budge with my usual lens cleaner. So I figured, hey, just a dry cloth and some elbow grease should do it. Big mistake. Now there's a faint 3mm scratch right in the center of the glass, and I can see it in bright backlit shots. Has anyone else had luck buffing out light scratches on older coatings, or is it a lost cause?

2 comments

2 Comments

parker_bell1mo ago

Toothpaste has mild abrasives that can actually strip coatings faster than cloth friction, so @sarahsullivan you might have swapped one scratch for a cloudy patch over time. Most vintage Nikon coatings are single-layer and pretty delicate, so any buffing usually does more harm than good. Best bet is to accept the scratch and shoot stopped down a bit where it blends into the background.

sarahsullivan1mo ago

Man I did almost the EXACT same thing on a 55mm Micro-Nikkor from the 80s. Spent an hour with a dry cloth trying to polish out a haze spot. The scratch is tiny but shows up like a beacon when the sun hits it at the wrong angle. I got desperate and tried a bit of toothpaste on a q-tip for five seconds. Honestly it made the haze worse but the scratch is less visible now. Maybe not worth it though. I just shoot around it now but it still bugs me every time I see it in the viewfinder.