how do you clean your lenses?

how do you clean your lenses?

  • lens tissue only

    Votes: 25 6.0%

  • lens tissue and lens cleaner (liquid)

    Votes: 83 20.0%

  • lens brush and/or air

    Votes: 63 15.2%

  • microfiber or similiar "new fangled" cloth

    Votes: 125 30.2%

  • whatever shirt you happen to have on

    Votes: 76 18.4%

  • i don't clean my lenses

    Votes: 42 10.1%
  • Total voters
    414
Thirty years ago, I too cleaned lenses with a blower brush made from the softest pubic hairs of virgins, and moistened the lens elements with Phoenix Tears which I then gently wiped off (with clock-wise circles in the northern hemisphere and counter-clockwise south of the Equator) using a piece of the finest gossamer material from the gown of an Elvish Princess.
These days, I simply breathe on the lens elements, and wipe off the schmutz with whatever tee-shirt or denim shirt I'm wearing at the time.
Works like a champ and there is no longer any need to try and source those really hard to find blower brushes, and even harder to find virgins.
 
Clean cotton t-shirt for my RF lenses and eyeglasses. Fog with breath and wipe clean. I'm quite particular about the optical quality of my eyeglasses, which are multicoated and easily scratched, and this method has worked just fine for many years.

Most lenses have filters. I'll usually wipe dust off the filters with my dry pinky finger.
 
Puns aside, the best way to handle a situation is to first understand it.

Dust or grime on the lens might indeed scratch the lens, so blow it off first. The best tool I found in my 35 years' experience is a Radio Shack solder suck-up device...a red rubber bulb with a white hard plastic tip...it blows better than any feeble "hurricane blowers" or compressed air canister sold in camera stores. $3 each and refill is free:).

The best cleaning cloth I have found is a spectacle cleaning "monofilament" synthetic cloth...use to cost $$$ in camera stores but now free even with knock-off Ray-Bans. I always keep one in a zip-lock bag in my kit. A dirty cloth is no different than rubbing your lens with unknown grits on the surface. Such cloth is hand washable or in any machine setting and last a long long time:D.

Spots on the lens are caused by unknown moisture condensed thereon. Your own breath might just be enough. Straight Vodka, often called "lens cleaner" by optical engineers and opticians...for good reasons. An airline size bottle last a long time. In emergencies, I had even licked the spot with the tip of my tongue...with no ill effect to me or the lens.

Now the cleaning technique: light circular motion is best, no rubbing.

Residue from any lens cleaning fluids (even Kodak made) is bad. Vodka evaporates, fast. If vodka does not work, you can at least drink it;).
 
Pherdinand said:
Professionally, in optics cleaning e.g. cleaning high reflectance laser mirrors one use methyl-alcohol (methanol).
It's quite poisonous, though.

Acetone is a good solvent and does not harm glass, but it does harm sone organic materials which as said above might be used in the lens housing, in paint, etcetera. Additionally, acetone evaporates way too fast therefore you cannot wipe the dissolved junk off the lens before this happens, so you end up with well-distributed junk.

When we use acetone (even boiling acetone sometimes) to clean silicone chips we always transfer the chip into isopropanol which is of high purity, a reasonable solvent, and dries much slower. Then we blow-dry it.

Ethanol (the alcohol stuff in your booze) is not pure alcohol - cannot be completely separated from water. It is also not the best solvent. So, it can be used to clean lenses, but it's less efficient and you must wipe or blow it off for removing all junk.
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True, but I hesitate to even mention isopropyl alcohol as a solvent. The problem with recommending any method that uses isopropyl alcohol is that most people who hear about using it and want to try it will head straight for the "health and beauty" section of their local grocery store or drug store. That stuff is only sold in 70% pure and 90% pure states there and will put more crud on the lens than it takes off. I feel a lot more comfortable sending people to a hardware store to get denatured alcohol. Denatured alcohol has a good bit of ethyl alcohol in it, but the non-alcohol ingrediants are pretty much just water, not balsams and oils, like drugstore isopropyl contains. Denatured alcohol doesn't leave you with a bigger mess to clean up than you started with, like drugstore isopropyl can, and when it dries, it doesn't leave a residue. Actually, I prefer to use naptha, when possible, because I know that's pure and won't leave a residue. Anything it won't dissolve can be cleaned up later with distilled water.

Also, although ethanol is not a particularly efficient solvent, sometimes that can be a good thing. If you are cleaning an ancient Skopar lens, for example, the last things you'd want to use on it would be acetone or isopropyl alcohol -- unless you actually plan to dissolve the canadian balsam cement holding the lens elements together.
 
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A few years ago I attended a Leica street shooting seminar featuring Australian photographer, David Oliver. Based upon Leica's recommendation, David Oliver does not use filters.

When asked how he cleans his lenses, He explained “This what Leica recommends…” he then picked up his Leica MP, turned it toward him, pulled his shirt tail out, and dry rubbed the front of the Noctilux mounted to the camera.

At that critical moment, the audience gasped :eek:.

The fact is Leica’s lens current coatings are so hard, even frequent abuse, such as this, will not result in a scratched lens surface – and Leica backs it up with their Passport Warranty.

What do I do? I use filters on all of my lenses (it so happens, they’re now IR/CUT filters) and the front elements are never touched.

I’m not bloody stupid you know… :rolleyes:
 
VinceC said:
Nikon coatings have been enamel-hard since the 1950s. That's why I've never hurt anything using a t-shirt.
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1. Pentax started baking some of their coatings in 1971 (Takumars). It was found that this hardened the coating and fused it to the glass. It is what made multicoating possible. Prior to that, all lenses were soft-coated, and most wouldn't even stand up to a cleaner with ammonia in it, let alone any type of grit. It was pretty much the last development of any significance in the design of manual focus prime lenses.

2. The reason why cleaning a lens with ANY kind of cloth is a bad idea, is that if there is anything on the lens, it will be stuck between the lens and the cloth and will be rubbed against it. Well, some things are harder than lens coatings. Silica is one of those things, and silica (sand) is pretty much everywhere.

3. Used Nikon lenses are really infamous for having "cleaning marks." Cleaning marks are minor scratches, and most of them come from improper cleaning (thus the name "cleaning marks"). These little swirls on the surface of the lens don't really have an effect on picture taking ability unless you get one heck of a lot of them (in which case they can contribute to lens flare) but they are scratches nevertheless. Leica is even more infamous for them, but there is NO brand that won't scratch.
 
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Really, just get one of those Zeiss cleaning kits. A brush, a microfiber cloth, spray of liquid, plus 10 pre-moistened wipes for when you in hurry. All in nice Zeiss belt pouch, for mere $20.
 
Washed 100% cotton tee, the one I'm wearing..
Coatings are tougher than you think these days (from the 70's on anyway)

With glass pre 60's.. micro fiber.
 
I try not to clean my lenses too much. I'm very careful and make sure never to touch the glass or have it come in contact with liquids. If there are a few dust specs on the lens, I don't mind. When I clean my lenses, I always use a microfiber cloth. For the most part, I'll just lightly move the cloth over the lens so that it picks up any surface contaminants without rubbing them into the glass, possibly scratching the coating.
 
I read somewhere that many "microfiber" cloths are not genuine--maybe made in China--and not suitable for lenses. It's better to use a cotton tipped swab (Q-tip) or old cotton underwear/ t-shirt.
 
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While I was working at Canon RCC, the repairmen told me that the best is to exhale at the lens and then rub gently with microfibre cloth.
In case of severe smudge, use one drop of pure ethanol and rub gently with the MF cloth.
 
Jockos said:
While I was working at Canon RCC, the repairmen told me that the best is to exhale at the lens and then rub gently with microfibre cloth.
In case of severe smudge, use one drop of pure ethanol and rub gently with the MF cloth.
Click to expand...

Yes also my preferred method.:cool:
 
When at home:

1. Rocket blower.
2. Lens brush.
3. Lens paper with lens cleaning fluid.

On the road, not cleaning unless there is a finger print an then use my t-shirt.
 
I clean my lenses the same way high-end telescope objectives are supposed to be cleaned:

1. brush/blow
2. cotton balls with a low residue cleaner (I've had best results with Baader Optical Cleaning Fluid). Just drag the cotton. Do not use pressure!
3. followed with a breath to add moisture
4. and followed by a light wipe with a clean cotton cloth.

The Baader fluid is useful for lifting oils and your breath is useful for taking off any remaining water soluble gunk. Definitely better than the Zeiss cleaning fluid when it comes to minimizing residual streaking.


Mark
 
Never touch a lens until you have removed dust, grit etc with a blower or a fine (clean) brush - otherwise you are virtually making sandpaper! Next use an appropriate cleaning fluid or treated cloth (I like 90%+ isopropyl alcohol or the Zeiss treated wiping papers). The fluid can be applied with lens paper (always crumpled) or a proper microfiber cloth or a Q-tip. For persistent smears after fluid has been applied I use a very clean soft real piece of chamois. Always go lightly and avoid cleaning too much and too many times - modest dirt will have little optical effect but over cleaning can physically damage a lens.
 
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