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
Preventive: lens hood, B+W filter.
Post-shoot: air blower, microfiber for body.
If necessary: lens pen

I try to keep messing with my lenses at a minimal.
 
As little as possible and as gently as possible. Particularly my coated Summitar.

If it's just dusty, I will always first try to blast the dust off with a Giotto's rocket. If that fails, I'll try fogging the lens with my breath (i.e. nothing but a trace of distilled water) and using a lens tissue. If that fails, I'll try moistening the tissue in lens-cleaning solution first.
 
Lens brush/blower to blow away or gently wipe away grit. Any smudges get cleaned up with a very light wiping with lens cleaner and tissue.
 
I mostly don't.
Mostly I gently blow/brush away any actual pieces of stuff and other wise leave the lens alone.
Very occasionally, I will get out the lens cleaner fluid and either a new microfiber--NOT the one I use on my eyeglasses!--or lens tissues and clean the lens. I mostly have a filter on my lenses (typically a yellow or yellow-green when I'm shooting BW, a UV on when I'm shooting color ) and would rather clean the filter than the lens.
Rob
 
A big blower first, one thats meant for sensors, if that does not work a brush and finally if I have been a klutz I use one of these fancy cloth things. I only use the cloth for a short time and then replace as I have a few in sealed packets and the old one cleans my monitor or reading glasses.
 
Unless there are Raindrops or grease smudges, I let it be or gently blow dust off.

A leftower from telescopic rifle sights. Old habit.
 
I have a "UV Protector" filter on the front of the lens I use the most and with many different locations. The cameras used in less adverse environments I don't any filter on the front.

When cleaning I usually use a cotton T-Shirt and cleaner.

I keep the cameras, when not in use, either in my Pelican case or in a bookshelf library that has a hinged glass door for each section. This seems to give adequate protection from dust and other stuff floating around!
 
i think to use blower first, followed if still needed delicate wiping witg PEC-PAD paper (lint-free ultra soft) and lens cleaning fluid.
Not very oft...
robert
 
Bit of whatever is around. Shirt and breath, microfiber with or without alcohol, paper tissue, window cleaning fluid, mix of hydrogen peroxide+ammoniac+distilled water.
 
A lot has been written on usage of UV/ Clear filters on lenses. Ignoring all that when I buy a new lens I buy a best quality Clear Multi Coated filter for it. All that I have to clean is the filter surface not the lens.
 
I think it to be important to get rid of grit or dust with a blast of air before any wiping commences. Otherwise there is a greater risk of scratching of lens surfaces. To finish up, I often use a liquid cleaner on a micro fibre cloth if smudges are present on the lens surface.

As to the lens body I often use a dedicated smallish sized (one inch wide) paint brush that I bought for this purpose. This gets rid of dust in crevices. Then if there is any oily grunge etc (more a problem with newly bought second hand lenses) I then use a dedicated toothbrush lightly dampened with a kitchen cleaning spray. I do not spray the lens itself of course. Then a final wipe with a clean dry cloth.
 
I remember using a special cloth made and sold by leica years ago, alas I lost it, it costed a small fortune if one looks at such accessories now.

I usually resort to some small drops of distilled water on lens cleaning tissues, the tissues after wetting are used as sponges, leaving delicately some distilled water on the surface without pressuring directly with my fingers.

Then i remove the excess water with dry tissues, almost without pressuring.

In case of old lenses with some finger grease or worst I use isopropyl alcohol applied in the same way.

this alcohol tends sometimes to leave some halo that can be removed with distilled water as above.


With very dirty lenses this method is still partially successful, since grease and soot are not completely removed until many passes have been performed.
 
I use UV filters so the lenses don't need cleaning very often. When they do, materials vary but the method is always the same--clean gently.

I cannot recall if it was a new E. Leitz lens or a new E. Leitz Trinovid binocular I bought once in the long distance past that recommended using a soft cotton cloth and breath condensation.
 
i do use filters on my lenses, but when I do clean my filters I first blow off any dust, etc with a rocket blower or canned air. Then apply Scotch Tape as needed to lift off fingerprints or anything adhered to the filter. That's usually all I need. The last step would be ROR and a lens cloth.

Scotch tape also works magic to clean my laptop screen.

Learned this trick from on old timer during a photo internship while in college.
 
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