24-105mm Lens Cleaning

Question

I've recently come back from a caving trip where there was quite a bit of (surprise surprise) mud and dirt around me. While I did try and take care of the camera (I carry all my gear in Pelican Cases) as good as possible my fingers were unavoidably dirty and some of that dirt appears to have gotten into the Lens' focus ring. When manually focusing now, it makes a scratching noise under the rubber ring. I took the lens to a camera shop nearby and they suggested that since no deterioration in image quality was apparent and the function of the lens was not reduced, that there was no need to open the lens to clean it. I would, in future, like to sell this lens and replace it for one of the new 24-70mm canon lenses that have come out recently however i believe this would make it more difficult to sell. Is it possible to clean this? Do i need to get it professionally serviced? How much is it likely to cost?

Hope you can help.

Regards,

Answer 1

This happened to me with the same exact lens, except I wasn't caving, a friend had borrowed the lens for some hurricane shooting. Got some salt water in, salt inside the lens.

I had my shop take it in, all they did was send it to Canon. I believe it was about $150 and the lens came back perfect and quickly. I felt the need to do it soon since salt was inside, but I'd just bite the bullet and do it.