quietlife.net

reflections

28 Jul 2006

I am getting weird reflections like this on longer exposures with my camera. Any ideas what would cause this? Is it reflections off of a lens element? Is it normal? Does it mean my lens is just crappy?

These were both taken with a Canon EOS D30 with a Canon EF 35-70mm f/3.5-4.5 lens
Pictures below:

UPDATE: Kenny was right – it gets better as I stop down the aperture. Example pictures here.

UPDATE 2: The consensus (minus a minor flame-war) on photo.net agrees with everyone here – that it’s just a common problem with cheaper lenses, made worse by the UV filter.

CMT

f/3.5, 35mm, 1.3s shutter speed

weird reflection

f/3.5, 35mm, 2.5s shutter speed

Comments

Kenny — July 28, 2006 at 18:49 · reply

Try a smaller aperture that is about 3 stops from wide open and get back to me in the morning.

Bamf — July 28, 2006 at 21:24 · reply

I’ll vote for crappy lens.

Ozy — July 31, 2006 at 17:55 · reply

It’s lens flare. Worse with more lens elements, wider apertures, and non-coated lens elements. The reason you’re seeing it so badly is that you’re taking exposures of very high-contrast subjects, and the bright parts (e.g. the CMT sign) are bright enough that even a dim, shitty reflected image of it is bright enough to compare favorably to the rest of the subject (the sky).

See if you can borrow a better lens, hopefully a prime lens, for comparison.

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