My experience agrees with you completely, Chuck. What I have found is
that a
sizeable amount of dust inside the lens can decrease contrast when
shooting
into the sun, but we are talking a *lot* of dust. But otherwise, stuff
on the
front element has no effect.
My absolute, all-time favourite best lens ever (I believe I have
ranted about
this before) is the Mamiya Sekor-C 65mm f/4.5 wide angle lens. My copy
has a couple of
nasty scratches on the front element (I got it for next to nothing)
and yet this lens,
pointed into the sun, if high-contrast and flare free. It couldn't
possibly perform
better, and it's in pretty rough shape.
Damage to the rear element is much more pronounced though, is it not?
I've never
personally used a lens with rear element damage, so I have no idea.
On 05 Jun 2009, at 3:43 PM, Chuck Norcutt wrote:
> Keep in mind that a chip or other large defect on the front element
> can't transmit any image badness as long as it's blacked-in.
--
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