How do you remove Haze from a Lens

It all depends on what kind of "haze" it is.

Basic wet oily deposits : isopropylic alcohol.

Hardened oily deposits : acetone then isopropylic alcohol.

Hardened oily deposits having corroded the coatings : gelcoat polishing paste then acetone then isopropylic alcohol. But the coatings will go away.

Haze caused by fungus : a mix of several methods using also ammonia peroxyde. Depends on what kind of fungus it is. Sometimes what looks to be haze to the naked eye is a dense network of thousands of micro scratches caused by the mycelium having grown into the glass actually. In this case, the lens is dead, in general.

Haze caused by the opacification of the glass due to the corrosion of the mineral and metallic particles making the glass material : there is no remedy. In this case you have to learn how to like the "Leica glow".

Always work in a dust-free environment and always use clean cotton balls with some delicate hand motion. The risk of scratching the glass while cleaning is quite high. How many early Summicrons inner elements totally ruined by machine made round cleaning marks for instance.
 
I learned from Highway 61 as well. Thanks for the information.

It confirms my suspicions, get lenses without these issues or send it out to get fixed or in the trash.

At my age, each day I live is a greater percentage of what I have left here on planet earth. For me, I’d rather be spending more of my limited time with my family, making photographs of them.
 
I'd stay away from acetone as it'll strip paint etc. or worse, mobilise some of it onto the lens surface. For grease, something like lighter fluid (you can get it in Poundland) will do the job and won't touch the paint. Highway61 pretty much has it all covered though - haze is a bit of a vague term. For pretty much anything I use hexane/lighter fluid and methanol, to get the grease and the other stuff, and everything in between. Ammonia/peroxide and a bit of hope for fungus!
 
It's important to remember that there is haze, and then there is haze. I had a Summar w/ haze that took terrible photos. Flare everywhere. Sent it out to be cleaned over at Focal Point and it was one of the sharpest lens I have seen after the work they did. I now have a Leica R 90 2 Summicron that has quite a lot of haze inside the front element, along w/ coating failure caused from over cleaning. There are tiny scratches all over the front. These are hard lenses to open, and expensive to have cleaned, so I decided to shoot it as it is. Strangely enough, it doesn't flare, and produces beautiful portraits wide open and tack sharp photos by F4, just like any other 90 Summicron. So you never know till you shoot a lens what sort of photos it will make.
 
I use rocket blower, then lens cleaning liquid "ROR", then special soft paper tissue, then rocket blower and it has to be repeated until haze if cleaned.
If not done like this, you'll remove haze, but add many scratches.

One service person I know is using nothing but dishwashing liquid and actually washing taken off lenses like dishes, by fingers only.

Last thing I would use is ammonia and peroxide based solution, because it is for fungus spots removal. Fungus is usually on coating and this mix is very aggressive one on coating layer.
 
Is Focal Point shut down ?
On their website it says:
"The Focal Point is now CLOSED! (do not send items for service as they will be returned)"
 
Sadly Focal Point is closed as of the end of last year. When I heard about it I sent John a Thank You e mail for past work and he replied that the work was specialized and tedious and he was ready for a change. He also said he had gotten his start working for an old German optical technician many years ago. John cleaned and serviced 4 or 5 lens's for me in past years and the work he did for me was wonderful. He will be missed. Joe
 
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