Hello. I should mention off the bat I'm relatively new to SLR photography, so I"m not sure if this is common or not. I recently bought a Canon EF 24-105 L Lens for my SLR. I took about eight rolls of film with the camera on my first outing, which was either night time or indoors. The day after, I was going out to take some pictures outside, and noticed there were some specks of white on the coating of the lens. They only seemed to show up in sunlight, not indoors. I wasn't sure if this would affect the picture or not, so I took it to a local camera shop. They said that something was already eating away at the lens coating. Whatever it is did not show up on the photos. I'm not sure how accurate the guy was at the camera shop, because this is a brand new lens. I've noticed these specks appear on my B & W filters as well, with seemingly no effect on the image. Is this something normal, or should I send it back to Canon to have some kind of repair? Thanks.

Have you tried giving it a wipe with Iso-propyl alcohol and a lint free cloth?

I sure did. No effect. I think whatever it is is underneath the top level of glass.

If it was my lens, and had been bought recently I'd take it back where I bought it and ask for a new one. If they didn't replace it, I'd start by never shopping there again. Then, I'd contact Canon and tell them the story and ask for a new one again. Canon (and Nikon) factory refurbished lenses are available from a number of sources - if you bought new, why settle for refurbished right out of the box?