Scratched Lense
 

Ok so I scratched the lense to my camera, it's never really noticeable until i start getting some play in the highlights, but still it bothers the crap out of me. is there places that will buff out dings and or scratches? or is the lense caput and I'm SOL?

It depends-----on how deep and long the scratch is and how close to the lens center. Is it an expensive still camera or a low-cost camcorder? Give us all the details and you'll get some recommendations about whether it will float or sink, cost-wise. Next time, consider a protective UV filter. You won't find many repair places that do work on lenses, especially not glass-polishing. The usual solution for low and mid-priced equipment is to chuck a damaged lens and install an entire new one. You might talk to an eyeglass maker about special polishing cloths and rubbing compounds, to minimize the scratch yourself. If this lens is coated, that would make this difficult.

I'm in a similar situation. Fortuantely it's the UV Filter on my Z1.

It has a tiny scratch on it. I have no idea how it got there. I am so careful, to the point of absurdity.

I discovered it because I was watching the footage I shot tonight and saw a weird, out-of-focus dot in the same spot on every single shot and suspected dust.

I took the hood off and the UV Filter off and sure enough, there is a miniscule scratch.

So how am I to know if that scratch is causing the weird out-of-focus dot? Unfortunately, the dot remains prominent and is right in the centre of the screen.

I guess in many ways this proves to me that a UV Filter is a good investment, but I feel like it's going to be more like a regular investment, as I buy new ones for each time I scratch them...

Polishing isn't going to solve the problem. Modern lenses are coated so that the shallowest scratch is going to take off coating - not glass. If you try to polish the scratch out you will only take of more of the coating which will make the lens performance worse still. The only option is to fill the scratch with something that has the same index of refaction as the surrounding coating. Probably only the manufacturer can do that and no guarantee he can. Deeper scracthes i.e. those that go through multiple layers or down into the glass itself are probably impossible to repair other than by replacement of the scratched element.