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Odds of scratching Camera Lens if going naked?

H

htownmade1984

macrumors regular
Original poster
Aug 5, 2010
182
0
I have an Otterbox Defender on my 4S. Never drop my phone though, so it's big and bulky for no reason...

I want to just scrap the case, but I am worried that the camera lens will get scratched if I set the phone down on a table.

Any advice?
 
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0_1 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Mobile/9A405)

I would have to agree. My iPhone 4 was unscratched except for the camera lens.
 
My lens has a couple small scratches from sliding on tables, if your worried about losing picture quality from scratches you won't I looked at the picture and there is nothing
 
I had mine naked for a long time, I normally put it down on the table face down cuz there is a screen protector on the front. But i also had it on the back a lot too. But mine never scratched. As long as you're not sliding it across the table you should be fine. And make sure it's a clean surface you're putting it on. I'm pretty sure the ring around the lens is slightly raised as well to protect it so you'd really only be at risk if you have a lot dirt in your pocket or on the table you're putting it on, I'd think. Good luck, but I'd recommend getting a Sena ultraslim leather pouch for when its in your pocket/on the table to be safest. I have one and it is really nice and protective.
 
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Thanks for the feedback everyone! I am going to look for a leather pouch today and just not set it down on anything unless it's in the pouch.
 
mpossoff said:
I believe they're are back protectors that also cover the back camera lense?
Click to expand...

I'm looking for one but couldn't find any.

But I believe even if I can find one and install it, the picture quality will be worse than having it naked with scratches.
 
Genius bar comments

An apple genius told me that the biggest cause of most lens scratches are keys in the same pocket as the iPhone. He mentioned that he's seen scratches on phones that had cases and it didn't really make a difference whether there was a case or not.

It is hard to notice but the back of a naked iPhone does have a raised lip along the entire outline of the phone so that when it is placed on a flat surface the back, including camera lens, does not come in to contact with the surface. This helps avoid unnecessary scratches.
 
I went naked with my iPhone 4 and the glass itself was fine, no scratches, but the actual lens itself had a few scratches. I believe that the glass on the lens is not as scratch resistant as the rest of the face plates. Based on that I'm still going naked with the iPhone 4S but I'm using a leather sleeve and trying not to lay it on it's back.
 
mrdm said:
An apple genius told me that the biggest cause of most lens scratches are keys in the same pocket as the iPhone.
Click to expand...
If the lens is glass (I have no idea if it is or not) then keys will not scratch it. Material A has to be harder than Material B for Material A to scratch Material B. Keys are not harder than glass.
 
takeshi74 said:
If the lens is glass (I have no idea if it is or not) then keys will not scratch it. Material A has to be harder than Material B for Material A to scratch Material B. Keys are not harder than glass.
Click to expand...

According to the apple employee I spoke with the lens cover is *not* glass. It is the only part of the back that is plastic because the optics inside wouldn't work through the glass black.

I believe this to be true because the example I saw had noticeable scratches while the rest of the back of the iPhone was very clean - no scratches.

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ntrigue said:
Just go naked and install a backplate with new lens and diffuser for $25 in a year.

http://applepartsstore.com/index.php/
Click to expand...

Completely agree. Using the iPhone without a case is worth the *possibility* of having to buy a $25 back cover in the future. I could buy two backplates for the cost of some cases ;-).
 
iPhone12 said:
My lens has a couple small scratches from sliding on tables, if your worried about losing picture quality from scratches you won't I looked at the picture and there is nothing
Click to expand...

I'm afraid that's actually that's wrong. I had the iPhone 4 for the full two years and unfortunately, my camera lens became so scratched that the pictures would have a fuzzy/blurry look to them. You might want to keep a case on. I don't take my case off my iPhone 5 at all now. If you want to see some pictures, look up my Instagram, username is brohammad. You can see some of the pictures I took with my iPhone 4 before I got the 5.
 
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iPhone12 said:
My lens has a couple small scratches from sliding on tables, if your worried about losing picture quality from scratches you won't I looked at the picture and there is nothing
Click to expand...

Depends on how bad the scratches are!!! I had an iphone 4 with scratched lens and it blurred all my pictures. It was a hassle replacing the back glass.
 
If its a 4 or 4S, the back can be replaced for $29 at Apple Genius Bar.
 
This is not the best solution, but if you have a spare screen protector around and a hole puncher, the size of the hole produced is the same size as the camera lens. But it'll probably come off after a while and you might obstruct the flash.
 
I would say....likely? I've never had it happen any one of my iphones in the past but it has happened to my friends phones...
 
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