Toothpaste to the rescue

After getting my new phone last year, an HTC Desire, I’d been having great fun taking loads of photos with the camera, it rocks... I haven’t used my real camera since getting the phone, but then just before Christmas disaster struck.  Okay, maybe more of a minor inconvenience than a disaster, but I have a cure that others may not know about.

The basic hardware layout of phones means that the camera lens cover is very prone to scratching whilst it’s in your pocket, and the phone is in my pocket all the time whilst walking the doggy duo.   And yes, I do have a scratch cover on my phone but for some reason, none of the covers go over the bit that really needs scratch protection, anyhoo.. one day I took a photo and oh noes, the image was in soft focus and somewhat blurry due to a scratched lens cover.  No more of the super clear, super resolution photos which look awesome.  I was sad.  L

After a month or so of no more picture taking and quite a bit of searching on the interweb for a product that would fix the scratches, I mentioned to my Dad that my camera lens was scratched and that I was thinking of getting a new back cover for the phone; Dad told me how they used to fix camera lenses in the ‘old days’ using toothpaste.

Now toothpaste, for those of you who maybe didn’t realise this, is a mild abrasive.  It’s such a mild abrasive that it turns out it’s great for fixing scratched lenses.   As my lens couldn’t get any worse I figured I’d give it a go and report back.

Here’s a step-by-step guide to restoring your camera-phone to minty fresh, gleaming photo goody goodness:

1. Take the cover off the phone – water and electronics are not a good mix – put the bits that don’t like water somewhere dry.
2. Squirt some toothpaste on your finger.
3. Apply toothpaste to the outer cover of the phone where the scratches are – kind of pointless rubbing the other side.
4. Rub gently in a circular motion for a wee while.
5. Rinse under running water, make sure you get rid of all the toothpaste or you’ll still have soft focus on your photos.  You may need to use a fingernail to get it out from the edges.
6. Dry thoroughly and leave it on a windowsill in the sun for a short time to make sure it’s properly dry.
7. Stick cover back on phone.
8. Check out the new scratch free photos you can take.