Cleaning Lenses

[toxicboy]

Till now I only use my dust blower, but increasingly I notice some unidentifiable smudges on my lenses/filters that are irritating the @#$% out of me.
So am considering cleaning my lenses - some questions:
1. How often do you guys clean your lenses?
2. What do you use? Lens Pens? Micro-fibre cloths? Cleaning solution?
3. What brand of cleaning solution is good?
4. Where do you buy your cleaning solution?

 

[Rashkae]

You can use the normal lens cleaning solution. I use a 3M microfibre cloth for the stubborn stains.

 

[SkyStrike]

Till now I only use my dust blower, but increasingly I notice some unidentifiable smudges on my lenses/filters that are irritating the @#$% out of me.
So am considering cleaning my lenses - some questions:
1. How often do you guys clean your lenses?
2. What do you use? Lens Pens? Micro-fibre cloths? Cleaning solution?
3. What brand of cleaning solution is good?
4. Where do you buy your cleaning solution?

Don't clean your filters everyday...do it only if got dust speckles or oil stains...

but those unidentifiable smudges, if it's "invisible" (still visible to eye), but can't be wiped off, it might be wear and tear of UV coating (possibly caused by you cleaning too hard, or some corrosive liquid touched the glass...)

I'm still using my rocket blower and microfiber ($2 from Daiso)...


*if the smudges don't do anything, leave it be since you can't do anything about it other than get a new one*

 

[toxicboy]

You can use the normal lens cleaning solution. I use a 3M microfibre cloth for the stubborn stains.

What is 'normal lens cleaning solution'?
Is your 3M cloth the type used for cleaning cars?

 

[toxicboy]

Don't clean your filters everyday...do it only if got dust speckles or oil stains...

but those unidentifiable smudges, if it's "invisible" (still visible to eye), but can't be wiped off, it might be wear and tear of UV coating (possibly caused by you cleaning too hard, or some corrosive liquid touched the glass...)

I'm still using my rocket blower and microfiber ($2 from Daiso)...


*if the smudges don't do anything, leave it be since you can't do anything about it other than get a new one*

Thanks for sharing - now i know where to get the microfibre cloth!
I gather you don't use any cleaning liquids?
I heard breath is good enough - do you do that before wiping with the microfiber?

 

[sinned79]

i use blower + lenspen. blow first then brush with lenspen's brush then go in circular motion with the lenspen's tip.

 

[eleveninth]

I use lenseraser

 

[luckyorange]

normally i will just use blower n microfibre to clean.. only if its dirty haha

 

[SkyStrike]

Thanks for sharing - now i know where to get the microfibre cloth!
I gather you don't use any cleaning liquids?
I heard breath is good enough - do you do that before wiping with the microfiber?

I didn't try the breathing method....I will try as much as possible to do all with the blower to blow the dust off, if really cannot, then I use the microfiber and gently try to swipe it off the filter before I start wiping it.

 

[rhino123]

Thanks for sharing - now i know where to get the microfibre cloth!

Daiso, camera shops, ebay, amazon.com, and so on and so for.

 

[TWmilkteaTW]

3 items.
1) micro cloth
2) lens pen
3) rocket blower.
Thats all you need. You can get them easily from any camera shops.
Most of the time.. you only need 2 and 3.. i use the cloth to clean my LCD more often than lens..

 

[toxicboy]

Thanks to all for sharing!

Last night I looked at my lenses again - and found 2 specks of dust... INSIDE the lens barrel of my 17-50mm!
How do you guys get rid of such dust? Go to the Service Centre? Or unscrew the elements, disassemble and DIY?

 

[SkyStrike]

Thanks to all for sharing!

Last night I looked at my lenses again - and found 2 specks of dust... INSIDE the lens barrel of my 17-50mm!
How do you guys get rid of such dust? Go to the Service Centre? Or unscrew the elements, disassemble and DIY?

If it really irritates the hell out of you, the service center is the best place to approach...Don't try to DIY unless you know what you are doing...

oh btw, from what I read, cleaning of lens even by service centers are not done in the clean room (free of dust), so potentially by opening up and cleaning the lens may cause more dust to set in


anyway, I really doubt the 2 speck of dust affects the IQ. And like many mentioned, don't go looking for dust, else you will be cleaning it every hour.

 

[rhino123]

Thanks to all for sharing!

Last night I looked at my lenses again - and found 2 specks of dust... INSIDE the lens barrel of my 17-50mm!
How do you guys get rid of such dust? Go to the Service Centre? Or unscrew the elements, disassemble and DIY?

Do you still have warranty for the lens? If yes, better not to disassemble and DIY... or warranty will void. Anyway... if the dust did nothing to your pics, then my suggestion would be to leave them alone. If it does, then go to the service center and had them cleaned off. However... do note that 17-50mm (I am assuming it is Tamron) was not weather seal and dusts are everywhere... so bound to have dust going in.

 

[sinned79]

How do you guys get rid of such dust? Go to the Service Centre? Or unscrew the elements, disassemble and DIY?

if you have the skills of fatigue in this forum, you can DIY. but i dun recommend so since you can post this thread, you most likely dunno how to. Service center is a better bet.

 

[Octarine]

Last night I looked at my lenses again - and found 2 specks of dust... INSIDE the lens barrel of my 17-50mm!
How do you guys get rid of such dust? Go to the Service Centre? Or unscrew the elements, disassemble and DIY?

Stop being itchy and paranoid about it. You can't remove it and even if the Service Center does the dust comes back. Most importantly: you will not be able to see it in any of your images. Have a look at this: http://kurtmunger.com/dirty_lens_articleid35.html and then think again about dust.
If you want a lens to be pristine, crystal clear and dust free just vacuum-pack it and never use it.

 

[toxicboy]

Stop being itchy and paranoid about it. You can't remove it and even if the Service Center does the dust comes back. Most importantly: you will not be able to see it in any of your images. Have a look at this: http://kurtmunger.com/dirty_lens_articleid35.html and then think again about dust.
If you want a lens to be pristine, crystal clear and dust free just vacuum-pack it and never use it.

Kurt's article totally canned the phobia for dust... and scratches, even cracks!
Ok I will focus on brushing up my photography skills rather than brushing off dust specks.

 

[mazeppa26]

and one thing to note, never open up the lens to try to clean the inner elements, esp zoom lens and esp when you are not sure how to.
it's tempting looking at the screw, just unscrew open up, clean and put back the glasses.
haha i tried to do so and spoilt one lens haha, now its stuck in the cupboard as a paper weight

 

[toxicboy]

and one thing to note, never open up the lens to try to clean the inner elements, esp zoom lens and esp when you are not sure how to.
it's tempting looking at the screw, just unscrew open up, clean and put back the glasses.
haha i tried to do so and spoilt one lens haha, now its stuck in the cupboard as a paper weight

That's unfortunate! There's this bro around known as 'fatigue' in Clubsnap who's a repair guru - in case you don't know yet!