Glass Buffering your Century Xtreme (and MK1)

[JoeyButterfingers]

I seen the OG Mike Crook recently glass buffering Xtreme & MK1 lenses to smoothen over any annoying scratches and marks.
It seems pretty good to an extent. It removes a layer (or few depending on how much he buffers) AR (Anti Reflective) coating from the lens itself. the AR coating is 100% needed in still photography to help with lens flare, but obviusly as anyone filming would know, lens flare, glare and sparkles can't be helped.

What are your guys thoughts on this process? Will this help people in the longrun? as we all can't afford to spend over 5-8 thousand on a new Xtreme, or 1.5k + on an MK1.

Here's the video to his story, what are your thoughts? Good, or bad?
Watch the entire story below for photos, before and afters, and the video of the process.

https://www.instagram.com/stories/highlights/17984984593751274/

[MikeCrook]

Feel free to ask questions to me here too, I'm curious on your thoughts or concerns on it.

To speak on the AR coating, there is 4 total, each side of each piece of glass, this process removes 1 of the 4 AR coating sides. The results are barely noticeable to increased flaring.

The guys lenses I just finished in those story highlights are going to get some clips soon to get some end result footage as well.

[green]

I bought a deeply scratched xtreme in 2017 and did the same, more or less just took off the front element and hit it with the circular buffer + chrome polish until the ar coating was fully removed, then spent a little more time smoothing out the gouges in the glass. Highly recommend if you’ve got a damaged lens — and I think the raw glass makes your colors slightly richer/deeper too.

You can see how it looked here:

2:28

[barreldistortion]

Feel free to ask questions to me here too, I'm curious on your thoughts or concerns on it.

To speak on the AR coating, there is 4 total, each side of each piece of glass, this process removes 1 of the 4 AR coating sides. The results are barely noticeable to increased flaring.

The guys lenses I just finished in those story highlights are going to get some clips soon to get some end result footage as well.

You think this process would work with a Canon 8-15mm?

[Jordan Wiens]

Expand Quote

Feel free to ask questions to me here too, I'm curious on your thoughts or concerns on it.

To speak on the AR coating, there is 4 total, each side of each piece of glass, this process removes 1 of the 4 AR coating sides. The results are barely noticeable to increased flaring.

The guys lenses I just finished in those story highlights are going to get some clips soon to get some end result footage as well.

[close]

buffing century lenses is only worth it because finding replacement elements is hard/century doesnt fix them. i would send your lens to canon for repair.

You think this process would work with a Canon 8-15mm?

[barreldistortion]

Expand Quote

Expand Quote

Feel free to ask questions to me here too, I'm curious on your thoughts or concerns on it.

To speak on the AR coating, there is 4 total, each side of each piece of glass, this process removes 1 of the 4 AR coating sides. The results are barely noticeable to increased flaring.

The guys lenses I just finished in those story highlights are going to get some clips soon to get some end result footage as well.

[close]

buffing century lenses is only worth it because finding replacement elements is hard/century doesnt fix them. i would send your lens to canon for repair.

You think this process would work with a Canon 8-15mm?

[close]

I'm pretty sure that Canon would just do a front element replacement. Which costs almost as much as getting a new lens. I don't think they buff out anything unless I'm mistaken

[MikeCrook]

Expand Quote

Expand Quote

Expand Quote

Feel free to ask questions to me here too, I'm curious on your thoughts or concerns on it.

To speak on the AR coating, there is 4 total, each side of each piece of glass, this process removes 1 of the 4 AR coating sides. The results are barely noticeable to increased flaring.

The guys lenses I just finished in those story highlights are going to get some clips soon to get some end result footage as well.

[close]

buffing century lenses is only worth it because finding replacement elements is hard/century doesnt fix them. i would send your lens to canon for repair.

You think this process would work with a Canon 8-15mm?

[close]

[close]

I'm pretty sure that Canon would just do a front element replacement. Which costs almost as much as getting a new lens. I don't think they buff out anything unless I'm mistaken

Jordan is right on this, the Canon lens is far more complicated than a simple 2 lens system the century lenses have. I just helped someone with this same advice a few weeks ago, they spoke to canon and was $300 usd for a replacement element installed. This is far more worth it.

Buffing lenses is hands down the last option, this is only if you cant get a replacement and you have nothing to lose trying it.