I've had some small scratches in my Sea & Sea fisheye dome for a while. Looking through the viewfinder, everything looks small and distant at 10mm, so I keep shoving it into rocks trying to get closer to subjects. Until now it hasn't been an issue. The scratches never showed. While in Bali, I went on a couple of dives in pretty strong current (not drift) and had to rock hop with one hand. Meanwhile, the sail---er, housing---in my other hand was bashing against rocks left and right. I got some huge scratches while traversing the reef without bashing coral.
Naturally the next dive was at Manta point. I used some toothpaste on it the night before, but these were huge scratches and whenever I was facing the Sun the pictures show them big time. I spent hours cloning and spot removing in Photoshop to make them presentable.
I wasn't sure the dome could be saved, but I headed for WalMart and bought a Meguiars heavy duty headlight repair kit. I think it was about $23 and you can get them at any auto supply store as well. I spent the day today polishing. The kit comes with a foam handle with velcro on one end, a 1000 grit velcro-on pad, a 3000 grit pad, a polishing wheel for your drill and some liquid plastic polish as well as a liquid anti UV coating.
It took me about an hour with the 1000 grit pad to get to the bottom of the big scratches, polishing side to side in a consistent pattern from one edge to the other to avoid flat spots. It took about another hour with the 3000 grit to get the sanding scratches out and leave a kind of foggy finish. My wife asked "How are you going to take pictures with that, it's all cloudy?" After another half hour or so carefully polishing with the drill and buffing pad using the Meguiars polish, it looks like new. My son said he could see some swirl marks, but I don't think you'd ever notice them.
Thank you Meguiars for saving me $500 bucks for a new dome. Of course, now I can't say, "Gee honey, I guess I'll have to find the money for that Zen 4" dome."
PS: Only works for acrylic domes. Don't try this on glass, take it to an optometrist or something.
Naturally the next dive was at Manta point. I used some toothpaste on it the night before, but these were huge scratches and whenever I was facing the Sun the pictures show them big time. I spent hours cloning and spot removing in Photoshop to make them presentable.
I wasn't sure the dome could be saved, but I headed for WalMart and bought a Meguiars heavy duty headlight repair kit. I think it was about $23 and you can get them at any auto supply store as well. I spent the day today polishing. The kit comes with a foam handle with velcro on one end, a 1000 grit velcro-on pad, a 3000 grit pad, a polishing wheel for your drill and some liquid plastic polish as well as a liquid anti UV coating.
It took me about an hour with the 1000 grit pad to get to the bottom of the big scratches, polishing side to side in a consistent pattern from one edge to the other to avoid flat spots. It took about another hour with the 3000 grit to get the sanding scratches out and leave a kind of foggy finish. My wife asked "How are you going to take pictures with that, it's all cloudy?" After another half hour or so carefully polishing with the drill and buffing pad using the Meguiars polish, it looks like new. My son said he could see some swirl marks, but I don't think you'd ever notice them.
Thank you Meguiars for saving me $500 bucks for a new dome. Of course, now I can't say, "Gee honey, I guess I'll have to find the money for that Zen 4" dome."
PS: Only works for acrylic domes. Don't try this on glass, take it to an optometrist or something.
