dome port scratches suddenly visible in sunny water!

for reasons we don't need to get into here I have a number of scratches on my sea-n-sea compact dome port...I haven't seen them in any of my photos though...

keep in mind I usually shoot in deep or murky water in california...

well, for the first time since the port got scratched up, I shot in clear, sunny, shallow water. I didn't see the scratches in every shot, but in the clearest, sunniest, shallowest water near the surface, BAM - they showed up , looking very wide in the photo.

so is this because of the clearness of the water, or because of the glare from the sun? I'm guessing its the glare. well its too bad, they would have been nice photos

I still got lots of nice photos from the dive, just not the ones in sunny water..

so has anyone else experienced this? Im just curious if this has happened to other people... I guess I'll eventually have to scrub out these scratches or get a new dome port...

Scott

I also got some flares when dining in shallow water in sunny days.

An half hour of working and all gone, see the thread 'Removing scratches from a dome port' in top of this forum.

I also got some flares when dining in shallow water in sunny days.

An half hour of working and all gone, see the thread 'Removing scratches from a dome port' in top of this forum.

ah, good to know I wasn't the only one.

I'm going to try removing the scratches with the mesh kit. they are on the inside of the port, due to me trying a lens that was too long for the port. hopefully I can still get them out!

scott

It could be that you are using a higher F number and therefore, because of increased DOF, the surface of the dome is now in focus. Or it could be the bright light is refracting off the scratches and causing them to become visible. It may be a combinationof both.

I use a Micro Mesh kit to polish out the scratches. It's a little elbow grease intensive but when I'm finished my dome looks like new.

well, thanks to Rogerc who loaned me his micro-mesh kit, the dome is as good as new now!

It was the glare from the sun that was causing the issue.. no problems now.

my scratches were all on the inside of the port. it was a little harder to sand the inside of the port down (I had to use my fingers), but I did it, and it came out great. the scratches weren't too deep, so I started with 3400 instead of with the coarsest paper.

thanks for everyone's replies

scott