Our precious lenses. We collect them like rare jewels, and with each new lens announcement, we pore over the specs, reviews, and real world tests, always considering if that’s the next piece of gear to add to our collection. Many photographers, myself included, will rent a lens to try it out for a few days before making the final purchase decision and pulling out our wallets.

At LensRentals.com, they rent out hundreds of lenses (if not thousands) a week and with frequent use, requires frequent cleaning. No one likes a dusty lens, and though it does not affect picture quality at all, the team at LensRentals works diligently cleaning about a hundred lenses each week. Sometimes they find interesting items inside a lens during cleaning – such as a spider who had made its web inside – and the other day, as reported on their blog, they found a fly deep inside the caverns of a Canon 24-105mm f/4.

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[REWIND: LENSRENTALS UNCOVERS MAJOR ISSUE WITH CANON T6S/I SENSORS]

Though this camera is weather sealed, that did not prevent the fly to make its way into the middle of the lens and get trapped. Now…how to get it out? The process actually took 4 hours of careful lens surgery to extract the doomed fellow. Taking apart the entire lens was the only option, disassembling the “autofocus and mechanical system, leaving the inner optical elements in the helicoid barrels.” If you’ve ever wondered what the inside of a lens looks like, well, here you go:

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Well, hello little fly...
Well, hello little fly…

Using needle nose forceps, the technician was able to pull the fly out. They then had to reassemble the lens, recenter and optically adjust it for the next renter. Lens Rentals did point out that before the removal, the fly did not affect the use of the lens, as when they tested it, taking dozens of images, no sign of the fly was present. So you needn’t worry about dust particles getting into your weather sealed lenses. They are just fine with a dust speckle or two.

But if you do happen to get a fly in your lens, or a dust particle, DO NOT try the above lens surgery at home. That should go without saying, but you never know. You can read the full blog post on the LensRentals.com site here.

CREDITS: Photographs by LensRentals.com are copyrighted and have been used with permission for SLR Lounge. Do not copy, modify or re-post this article or images without express permission from SLR Lounge and the artist.