Anyone else had issues with scratched lens elements on Olympus lenses?

[lemalk]

Hi all -
I have an E-P2 with the Oly 17mm pancake and the kit 14-42mm lens and I've noticed two disturbing things - the front elements and the rear glass seem to scratch very easily.

I made the mistake of carrying the lenses in my satchel with a couple of M lenses and the plastic Oly lenses didn't make it out without some rubbing marks on the elements. I've tried to clean them or buff out the scratches, but now I just have flarey pictures due to the scratches.

Anyone have any recommendations as to how to get rid of the scratches?

(...and yes, I do realize putting caps on both ends wouldve solved the issue..., I'm just not used to having plastic lenses instead of glass...)

 

[ywenz]

The new 14-42 I have seems to have some buff marks on the front element after a week of use on a road trip. I have not noticed any flares.

I'm pretty sure you're screwed. Those lenses have coating on it. Buffing the scratch out will surely also buff out the factory coating. Small marks on the front element shouldn't affect your image that much.


EDIT: WAIT! I lied.. I just went over the front element with my lens pen and the marks are gone! I had previously used a Zeiss cleaning kit with the spray and cloth wipe... and the marks would just NOT come out. So I assumed it was a permanent mark.. Give the lens pen a try!

 

[lemalk]

Awesome, I will. Is it the Nikon lenspen or the original lenspen? I don't have any experience with it...

 

[ywenz]

I have the Sima Lens Pen.. although I think they are all the same.. the one have I have is at least 5 years old.. still works like a charm. I was so happy with the result last night that I bought another one on Amazon right away.

I just hazed up the element with my breath and dug into it with the graphite end of it.