17-55 dust removal surgery

[Tobers]

My Canon 17-55 F2.8 IS lens had accumulated a bit of dust on the inside of the front element. I came across this pictorial guide to removing the front lens element for cleaning on here and decided to give it a go.

Simple as anything. Took about 10 minutes. As the guy says, the dust is lurking behind the front lens element. Removal of the seal is very easy (and looks like where the dust gets in), and as long as you have a decent mini-screwdriver, the screws come out very easily too.

The front lens element then falls out as you tip the lens into your palm (covered in a lens cloth in my case), and you can then clean off the inner surface, and blow the dust off the inside of the lens body.

Result!

All back together and still working in 10 mins. Top stuff.

Now to get a 77mm UV filter or such like to stop the dust getting in again.

Tobers

[allymac123]

Cheers for that Tobers. I've got a bit of dust in mine but it isn't causing any problems. I was thinking about sending it back to Canon for a clean before my year warrenty was up but if it's that easy a job I may just do it myself.

[Tobers]

My dust bits didn't affect the image quality whatsoever, but it was just getting to me a bit.

You'll probably void your warranty by doing this. I wasn't overly bothered as mine is a Kerso special with a USA warranty card which may or may not be valid. But I didn't want to spend a few weeks without my 17-55 so 10 mins of fiddling is a much better alternative in my mind.

[Bursar]

You're a brave man! Not sure I'd dismantle a £600 lens to clean out some dust that wasn't affecting the image.