Cleaning marks

haempe

haempe

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I read at the moment some old (60ies / 70ies) amateur foto guides and encounter often the advice: clean the lenses with a patch of soft leather.
Is this the reason for all the cleaning marks on the old lenses?
Or would this happen also with the todays microfibre cloths?
 
Wow - I never heard of this before. Maybe they meant a chamois? But that still seems like it would be too rough.

Even the oldest manuals I've read say to use a camel's-hair brush and then a soft tissue or "washed-out" linen (Nikon RF) if you need to.

On the other hand, apparently some older lenses used extremely soft coatings (I forget where I read it but one source said cryolite, which is very delicate) and if someone took a piece of leather to a lens like that it would have cleaning marks almost immediately. Some of the actual glass is supposed to be very soft too, though I don't know what kind of "glass" that would have to be (maybe a crystal like fluorite but I doubt they used that on the front element, and especially for old lenses)

Scott
 
Roger Hicks said:
Chamois leather is arguably even better than microfibre -- I use it all the time -- UNLESS it has grit in it...

Cheers,

R.
Click to expand...

Okay I stand corrected - but I would be scared to take a chamois to any of my lenses (but I'm nervous like that)

I feel reasonably safe using a new Pec-Pad each time and throwing it away afterward...😉

Regards,
Scott
 
I would never doubt Mr. Hicks' knowledge or experience, but having never used that, I would be uncomfortable with chamois. I have always preferred lens cleaning tissue, and lens cleaning solution if needed.

I also keep a blower brush handy.
 
... now, I'm pretty uncomfortable with both lens tissue and chamois as I feel that any grit they pick up from the surface of the lens or the environment would likely stay on their surface where it could do more damage.

Well washed cotton or polyester microfibre being woven would seem to have more chance of absorbing any particles between the threads ... having said that I seldom clean lenses anyway, I often think "cleaning marks" are more a symptom of the owners OCD than the method employed.
 
My time tested method is to blow the lens off, then wipe it w/ the bottom of my T shirt. People have probably been doing this for 100 years. The main thing is to avoid any grit getting in there. But I seldom do even this anymore, as I've seen that unless you have a bug stuck to the front or something, image quality doesn't suffer from a little stuff on the front element. Any valued lenses, I just keep a filter and hood screwed on the front 24/7 anyway.
 
As several have stated- grit is probably responsible for most of the cleaning marks in lenses.

But some severe cases seen- had to be chemical reaction. I have someone's fingerprints permanently marked into glass on a couple of lenses.

I preferred the Kodak branded lens paper, now Tiffen puts their label on it.
 
Sparrow said:
... now, I'm pretty uncomfortable with both lens tissue and chamois as I feel that any grit they pick up from the surface of the lens or the environment would likely stay on their surface where it could do more damage.

Well washed cotton or polyester microfibre being woven would seem to have more chance of absorbing any particles between the threads ... having said that I seldom clean lenses anyway, I often think "cleaning marks" are more a symptom of the owners OCD than the method employed.
Click to expand...

Dear Stewart,

I'm sure you're right about the highlighted portion; well, that or sheer carelessness/stupidity. As for the grit, though, there shouldn't be any: the lens should have been carefully inspected and thoroughly brushed, then inspected again, before allowing a chamois or anything else near it. In any case, I doubt that grit-retaining ability varies much between cotton, chamois and microfibre.

Cheers,

R.
 
The only thing that can cause cleaning marks is getting something harder than the lens coating caught between a cleaning cloth and the lens surface. That's actually a lot easier than you think, since there is a lot of silica dust in the air. Roger is right about getting the loose stuff off the lens; blow if off with a rocket blower, then brush it lightly with a camelhair brush, then wipe (and only if you have to).

This is why people like to use UV filters.

"Cleaning marks" are probably something that came into being around the same time that some used equipment buyers (reportedly, from Japan) invented the "penlight test" - you know, the one that no lens ever passes because the internal reflections in even new lenses make them look "hazy..." Cleaning marks are often a sign of negligent cleaning, but their inevitabiity makes fixating on them a somewhat silly exercise.

Dante

Roger Hicks said:
Dear Stewart,

I'm sure you're right about the highlighted portion; well, that or sheer carelessness/stupidity. As for the grit, though, there shouldn't be any: the lens should have been carefully inspected and thoroughly brushed, then inspected again, before allowing a chamois or anything else near it. In any case, I doubt that grit-retaining ability varies much between cotton, chamois and microfibre.

Cheers,

R.
Click to expand...
 
Thanks all!
Very interesting.
It seems consensus is:
It's not the cleaning medium, it's the dust / grit between medium and glass?
 
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