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How to Remove Dust From Nikon 24-70mm Lens • Landscape Photography
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BY NASIM MANSUROV | 21 COMMENTS
LAST UPDATED ON OCTOBER 28, 2020 • Portraiture
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I often get plenty of dust behind the rear element of my Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8G
lens. While for the most part it does not affect my images, after my last trip to
Utah, I ended up with a large dust particle that somehow made it into the lens.
RIGHT NOW
Nikon only removes dust from lenses if you pay for the service, because the
Is The Decisive Moment
normal lens warranty does not cover dust removal. I did not feel like waiting for a
couple of weeks and paying a hefty sum to get mine cleaned, so I decided to do
it myself. In this video, I will show you how to remove dust from the rear element
of the Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8G lens in less than 5 minutes.

WARNING: Opening your lens will void your warranty if Nikon finds out you did it.
This video is NOT for beginners. Do not attempt this if you have a couple of small
dust specks in your lens. See my “what to do with dust inside lenses” article for
more information.
DISCLAIMER: I take ZERO responsibility for any potential damage that you might
cause as a result of opening the rear lens element. DO THIS AT YOUR OWN
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RISK.

Now for the brave souls that decide to do this: the process is actually fairly
simple. Start out in a clean, dust-free room. All you need to do is remove three REVIEWS

screws from the rear wall of the lens mount, then gently lift the rear lens element • Camera Reviews
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and use a rocket blower to remove the dust from it. You can also remove the dust
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from the next lens element that sits inside the lens. Just zoom out to 24mm so
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that the element moves down towards the rear, then blow off the dust from it
using the same rocket blower. Be very careful during the process and make sure PHOTOGRAPHY TUTORIALS

not to touch any lens parts or lens elements from the inside. When using the
blower, keep a safe distance, so that you do not accidentally hit anything. Do
NOT try to blow off the dust with your breath or canned air – use Giotto’s Rocket
Blower instead. When putting the screws back, don’t over-tighten them. PHOTOGRAPHY LANDSCAPE
BASICS PHOTOGRAPHY

Here is the video with full details:

How to remove dust from Nikon 24-70mm lens

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About Nasim Mansurov

Nasim Mansurov is the author and founder of Photography Life,
based out of Denver, Colorado. He is recognized as one of the
leading educators in the photography industry, conducting workshops,
producing educational videos and frequently writing content for Photography
Life. You can follow him on Instagram and Facebook. Read more about Nasim
here.

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21 COMMENTS Newest

Rob H
December 28, 2016 2:45 am

haha what an adventurous soul! a single element removed! now do the rest of it. the screws
are JIS, not phillips so use the right driver. pull the grips up to expose the screws, remove the
name plate and front elements then really disassemble the lens and clean the elements. a
silly little blower wont remove dust that’s caked onto the lens or grease and grime. isopropyl
alcohol and microfibre pads will do it. it’s solid glass, dont worry you cant ruin it unless you
try to clean it with sand paper or coat the lenses in lint from a tissue. if you’re really
strapped, get a pack of sensor cleaning pads and use them. it will cost an entire dollar for a
sealed swab to clean all the elements.

-1 Reply

john gallagher
May 31, 2016 3:35 am

Hi All
I just want to add a little advice for those who have already opened up the rear of a lens and
those who are may be reading this article as they have a intention to open up the rear of a
lens.
The small lens screws are easy to DAMAGE by stripping the heads when the “correct fit”
screw driver is being used.
It is possible that certain screws are tightened better than others or a loctite type compound
is being used.
A remedy to overcome the tightness and make the screw easier to undo is quite simple and
requires applying a little heat to the screw head in a controlled manner. A soldering iron is
ideal for this, for those without access to one, there are 8W USB ones available from the
Internet for $5. A small outlay when compared to the frustration caused by a few stripped
screw heads.
I write this from personal experience, when attempting to fit a chip to a AIS lens

1 Reply

'Tis Moi
April 27, 2015 1:32 am

Hello Nasim,

I see this is an older post but hoped you might still be around to answer a quick query? My
daughter’s Fuji FinePix S4000 (*fixed lens) always took sort of “soft” images, which we
chalked up to the model. Recently, I had a look at it with a flashlight & there’s a LOT of dust
inside the lens? Now, though the camera is a couple of years old, it isn’t used much- she
mainly likes to take photos of friends at sleepovers & parties, etc. So, we’re talking about 15-
20 times a year maybe. Not dusty environments by any stretch.

Fuji wants me to pay to ship it in & “wait for a quote”. If there’s a way to open it to flush the
dust out, I’m happy to do so myself. I do IT work for a living & have a clean room I use to
open hard drives.

Cheers!

0 Reply

rajatesh
September 30, 2014 11:57 pm

Hello nasim,
Thank you for this little tutorial, I presently own a Nikon 28-80 on a dx d3200 n use another
marumi 58mm .5x wide convertor….
Although I successfully completed and closing it back agan…success , now clicking fine.
A
I wanted to ask , I got the 28-80 as a used lens , although am never able to get pictures
without grain as 3200 doesn’t have a focus funtion inbuilt . Is there n e technique I can use to
get lesser grain in pictures.I reside in India, and I am a practicing industrial designer.
Thanks

0 Reply

Rob
May 7, 2013 8:37 pm

Hi Nasim, thank you for sharing this video on how to remove dust from the 24-70mm. Could
you please tell me if you have tried the same process with the 70-200 2.8 VRII? I wonder
what the best way is to clean the rear element of that lens?

0 Reply

Larry
February 18, 2013 4:23 pm

Thanks for the video, Nasim.

I received an almost pristine Canon FD 85-300mm f/4.5 lens today, bought on ebay. I paid a
paltry $127.50 for it, probably due to the seller describing the presence of noticeable haze on
the rear element. I took it out to shoot some bird video with my GH2 and got very nice
footage, but couldn’t get the haze issue out of my head…it’s not s’posed to be there and I
didn’t want to spend more on getting it cleaned professionally than I paid for the lens itself!

I took apart a couple old, cheap, beat-up prime lenses recently and they worked fine when I
was done, so I set out to clean the haze off my lovely “new” zoom. I took picures and video
every step of the way, just in case I spaced out a set of screws, the re-positioning of a part or
the order of reassembly.

WARNING: When disassembling a lens you will likely need to remove lens elements that
usually require a spanning wrench. This will be a test of your nerve and willingness to take
the risk for this DIY repair. I’m sure most of us don’t have such tools and don’t intend on
buying them…so if you do it carefully enough there should be no issues. Look carefully at
what you’re needing to do and TAKE YOUR TIME! Rushing this, especially as a noobie, will
probably lead you into a regretable mistake. If you try to tap the piece loose you can
momentarily lose control of your tool (probably a straight blade screwdriver) and you could
scratch/gouge glass or bugger up the spanning slots. There are usually 2 spanning slots
opposing one another, They are there so equal pressure can be applied while turning the
threaded element loose/tightening it. This is where creativity/resourcefullness, utmost care
and patience will be rewarded Also, not all threaded lens mounts/elements will will be lefty
loosey, righty tighty. Just a heads-up there, too.

The haze was in-between a paired element(lens group?) in the middle of this long lens.
Disassembly of the lens was a fairly complex process and special care was taken to place all
the tiny screws and small parts into a container or onto a magnetic tray, which I heard about
after-the-fact.

It required carefully tapping apart these 2 mated pieces of glass with a wooden wedge,
cleaning off the haze very thoroughly, cleaning all lens surfaces, holding the 2 glass pieces,
inner surface to inner surface, very close together and using canned air to blow all the dust
out between the 2 glass elements before aligning them snugly together by taping the edges,
and regluing the edges with Python Glue, which is a good glass bonding glue, (but probably
isn’t what a lens tech would use)
When the glue fully dried, removed the tape, put the lens back together and looked inside
with a bright light. The lens elements, of course, have some dust, but overall are very clean.

It was fun doing it myself and I saved a lot of $$$, but it took a few hours, really…I was being
VERY anal, because I really like this metal vintage lens, built to last a few lifetimes and
bought for a fraction of the price of one in excellent condition. This one is now also in
excellent condition.

I’m curious, Nasim, why didn’t you clean the glass element(s?) you removed from the back of
the lens in the video when you had the chance? Yes, you blew off the dust, but after time a
thin film of airborne “stuff” is likely to accumulate? Just wondering.

Thanks again.
Larry

0 Reply

paul
October 24, 2012 10:06 am

Nazim, do you have an instructional on removing dust from the front element? Thanks.

0 Reply

Tom Parker
October 24, 2012 8:59 am

A zillion thanks for the tutorial. I had a little curlicue of dust inside my lens that always
showed up on images with a lot of undetailed backgrounds–sky, bare walls, etc–and I had no
idea what to do until I came across this video. Five minutes and I was done! Thanks for
sharing your knowledge.

0 Reply

joe borg
October 20, 2012 10:16 am

Hi Nazim
I just purchased a Nikkor prime lens 105mm f/2.5 AI and I can see a dark speck on the rear
element inside.
I am trying this out once I find a small enough philip screwdriver!! lol is that a special
screwdriver?
1 more question; can I brush it off should the dust particles be stubborn to be removed?

Thanks in advance ;)

0 Reply

Alvin
September 25, 2012 1:57 am

Hi Nasim
Great video!
Btw I have a similar dust situation but this time inside the 85mm 1.4 G
Just wondering, will I be able to use some of the step in the video to clean the inside
element?

cheers
Alvin

0 Reply

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