Need suggestion for cleaning lens


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arjunsinha

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Nov 20, 2009
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Woodlands, Singapore
Guys,

I am looking to find a solution for spotless lens cleaning.

I am currently using ROR lens cleaning solution along with Pec pads. But this leaving cleaning streaks on the lens. :(

How to get those spotless clean lens glass like new one?

Please advice solutions.
 

After swabbing with ROR, take a new clean microfiber, or a clean dry area of pec pad and gently breath on the lens surface, then gently wipe and lift.
 

I have tried with dry area of pec pad but not helping. Also tried lens cleaning pen but that's too leaving circular smudge!!

Any suggestion on recommended microfiber brand?
 

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You have to frost up the lens surface with moisture from your breath. If it evaporates before or as you wipe, it would have no effect. A lens pen would not work in this instance, generally. Do the breath thing again. It's been used for generations upon generations and works.

Someone recommended a solution from IIRC Edmund Optics that doesn't leave marks, but you would have to search for that post.
 

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$3.50 from the spectacle shop.

DSC08544.jpg
 

You have to frost up the lens surface with moisture from your breath. If it evaporates before or as you wipe, it would have no effect. A lens pen would not work in this instance, generally. Do the breath thing again. It's been used for generations upon generations and works.

Someone recommended a solution from IIRC Edmund Optics that doesn't leave marks, but you would have to search for that post.

I tried to get those, but these chemicals are not allowed to bring in to SG
 

Guys,

I am looking to find a solution for spotless lens cleaning.

I am currently using ROR lens cleaning solution along with Pec pads. But this leaving cleaning streaks on the lens. :(

How to get those spotless clean lens glass like new one?

Please advice solutions.

are you using the cleaning solution the right way?

do u like wet your lens cleaning paper or do u just moist it?
 

Get those 3M kind for microfiber cloth, u can easily get them in Home Fix or at Orient Photo :)
 

I use a solution called Liquid Fusion applied with a micro fibre cloth. LF is good stuff. Bought from Cathay Photo some years ago. I use it for my laptop screen and eyeglasses too.
 

You have to frost up the lens surface with moisture from your breath. If it evaporates before or as you wipe, it would have no effect. A lens pen would not work in this instance, generally. Do the breath thing again. It's been used for generations upon generations and works.

Someone recommended a solution from IIRC Edmund Optics that doesn't leave marks, but you would have to search for that post.

I might frost up my filter with my breath, but I am not sure it is a good idea to do that to a camera lens. If you put too much moisture in there you may end up helping fungus to grow. :sweat:

A lens pen should be avoided unless the lens surface is totally dustfree because you may end up scratching your lens surface instead if there are particles on the lens surface in the first place.
 

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I might frost up my filter with my breath, but I am not sure it is a good idea to do that to a camera lens. If you put too much moisture in there you may end up helping fungus to grow. :sweat:

A lens pen should be avoided unless the lens surface is totally dustfree because you may end up scratching your lens surface instead if there are particles on the lens surface in the first place.

There have been on-going discussions about fogging a glass surface with warm breath (essentially, distilled water vapor) for cleaning purposes, and it's a technique that has been used probably for a very long time.

Even if left up-wiped, the water vapor evaporates in a matter of seconds.

The humidity we have here in SG, coupled with long term inactivity and storage is probably far worse for wear.

Nonetheless. if it makes you feel uncomfortable, don't do it. :)

Using (harsh) chemicals, to me, seems like a far far far greater cringe-inducing factor* where water vapor might suffice.

* Considering that most people would probably be leaving a deposit of said chemicals on their filter/lens surfaces for long-term if they don't specifically remove it.
 

Thanks to all for their suggestion and bought myself 3m MF from Oriental Photo yesterday. Cost was S$8. Result was mindblowing.

IMHO:

Peck Pads and lens cleaning solution should be used for removing dirt or residue due to long time non-maintenance. After that apply MF's magic touch to remove those cleaning streaks left behind due to this.

Lens Pen is a hopeless thing and this should be avoided to use.

Air blower to remove lose dust particles is not bad.

Most importantly, use moisture from your breath and MF for day to day cleaning of lens & filter.
 

I am sure I am doing in right way and used ROR solution. I have googled and found many people are having this problem.

Use ROR very conservatively, or only when everything else fails.

It is a very effective cleaner but there have been user reports of ROR damaging multi-coating.
 

Thanks to all for their suggestion and bought myself 3m MF from Oriental Photo yesterday. Cost was S$8. Result was mindblowing.

IMHO:

Peck Pads and lens cleaning solution should be used for removing dirt or residue due to long time non-maintenance. After that apply MF's magic touch to remove those cleaning streaks left behind due to this.

Lens Pen is a hopeless thing and this should be avoided to use.

Air blower to remove lose dust particles is not bad.

Most importantly, use moisture from your breath and MF for day to day cleaning of lens & filter.

Hello arjunsinha, I have been following your thread closely with a keen interest. In your last posting, you have listed all the correct things to do.
However, I differ slightly from your opinion in these two points:

Lens Pen is a hopeless thing and this should be avoided to use.
Lens pen is sincerely far from hopeless. It has its function. For many of us who are out there shooting, we find it a very invaluable tool. Certainly, the 3M Microfibre cloth & lens solution are and will always be our most important cleaning solution.

Air blower to remove lose dust particles is not bad.
A good Swiss blower ($25 from OP) is not only not bad, it is essential. It is one of the most effective ways of removing minute dust particles from the lenses, filters, view-finders, mirror, and (for experienced users) from beneath the pentaprism just above the focusing screen.

I am happy to hear that you got your 3M from OP a $8. Their prices are so fixed that they never waver nor change. It is still at $8.
Anyway, good thread you have started and I wish you the best in your shooting.
 

Use ROR very conservatively, or only when everything else fails.

It is a very effective cleaner but there have been user reports of ROR damaging multi-coating.

If you read the MSDS of the ROR, you will find that it actually contains soap solution.
 

My bad.

The discussion were problems using ROR, which contains ammonia, in conjunction with certain microfiber cloths and cloths that may have been treated. Apparently, a lens tissue might be the way to go, but it may still streak and leave deposits.

The potential problem is, and I'm guessing, microfiber cloths have taken the photographic world by storm, and more often than not, there's little or absolutely no technical information (other than manufacturers' claims of efficacy) available at point-of-purchase of many microfiber cloths, so users are left to chance to find out if ROR was dissolving any treatments that might have been applied to the cloths.

Also, a 'swab/dissolve and lift' technique needs to be adopted, as circular rubbing may re-deposit the dissolved gunk back onto the lens, which some suspect is the cause of the 'swirls' and streaks left behind after cleaning.

I was first very impressed with how well and how easily ROR cleaned, but I became a bit concerned with the effect that ROR may have been having with cloths I know nothing about, and will likely not be able to find out about easily from a manufacturing point of view. Please let me EMPHASIZE that in principle, the problem does not seem to lie with ROR and it's ammonia per se, but the use of ROR in conjunction with cloths.

I have since switched over to an ammonia free Zeiss solution. If anything, at least I would have more peace of mind, at least till I can find a ready supply of affordably priced Kodak or Olympus lens cleaning paper.

All said and done, I'm nit-picking. I generally only use a lens cleaning solution once in a long while. Probably looking at a few drops in 3-6 months? More problems are caused by over-cleaning than not cleaning.

Edit to add: Anyone wants to buy a very slightly used 2oz bottle of ROR? Lightly as in squirted twice for two cleanings. $10. I paid $14 for it. :)
 

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