I know I know, wear marks give lenses their own characteristics. But to hell with that, like it makes my photos look any different. I care more about client presentation that some romanticized imagery of a battle hardened pro with beat up gear – So I decided to pick up a bottle of Canon touch up paint.

My 400mm f/2.8L IS arrived in great condition save for a few wear marks mostly concentrated on the foot. After sticker bombing the hood with my logo, I looked online for methods other used to cover up the ugly wear marks. A few people praised the Tamiya XF-55 deck tan model paint but after picking up a bottle, I found it to a bit too brown and dark. Canon has a tiny can of their OEM paint going for $50 but since i’m not going to restore entire portions of the lens, I opted for the fairly cheap Canon White touch up paint from NEPhoto for $18.

Here’s the foot before painting.

Then after –

I cant even there it’s there. I went hog wild and covered up every brassing I could find on the body. The thing looks brand spanking new! Even under direct sunlight, I could barely tell the difference except for the areas that weren’t textured due to paint chipping. Oh whale.

This gets 4 thumbs up from me *throws feet in the air*