Originally posted by Ian
Lens Cleaning Fluids
Many so called lens cleaning formulations leave residues as they are designed for cleaning spectacles! These cleaners may also damage the coatings on filters and some lenses. The following are the only ones I use and trust.
Isopropyl Alcohol comes in several different levels of purity, the good stuff (99.5% or better purity) is only available from a Chemist/Pharmacy and in most countries you will have to demonstrate that you have a need for it as it's often used to adulterate alcoholic drinks. So take a lens down and show em why you need it!
Distilled Water is the best thing for cleaning mucky filters .. dunk the filter in to a bowl of distilled water and let it soak for a few minutes, then slosh the filter around in the water before removing and standing the filter on edge.
When the filter is almost dry do the breathing on filter routine (step 2a) and polish as per above.
In the case of Salt water residue I use Windex in the field as I've yet to find any damage to filters made in the past 20 years.
Windex An good cleaner for emergency use. I try not to use it unless the filter is really filthy or where the filter is covered in baked on grunge that has hardened.
Polishing Pressure
Use the minimum pressure you can when polishing filters and lens elements with an optical cloth. Though lenses are quite tough and many are now coated with a tough overcoat being heavy handed only shortens the life of the coatings.
Optical Chamois, MicroFibre Cloth and Optical Tissues
Hama Optical Chamois is excellent for all general cleaning of camera equipment, is a synthetic material and is extremely soft and complient. Can be cleaned by hand washing in distilled water. It is made from a non woven fabric created through a multi-dimensional entanglement proceess using 0.0001 denier ultra micro fibres.
Microfibre Cloth is similar to Optical Chamois except that is is a woven material normally using thread of 0.1 denier or finer. Washable as per Hama optical Chamois.
Lens Tissues
There are so many varient types, some are good, some are bad. I no longer use lens tissues as the results re mixed and too variable for my liking.