Lens cleaning

Hi all.

Having recently purchased a Fuji S5000 I was telling someone how I clean my
lens by breathing on it and wiping it with my hanky to which they responded
with panic!

Am I likely to do any harm, are their coatings really that delicate... is
the damage already done?

Regards,

Paul

 

There are usually tiny bits of material on a hanky that can scratch the
coating. The accumulated scratches will be worse than the dirt.

 

if the camera has the mount get a filter for it so you scratch the filter.
I found the moist lens cleaners made for plastic eyeglass lenses seem to
work pretty well. They look like wet naps!

Wayne

 

A clean hanky is perfect. They're soft cotton, and will do no harm. Your
breath is just condensed moisture, and would not carry any contaminants.
Take a shot of Jack Daniels, before breathing on the lens, for those really
stubborn spots! You do have to be careful about rubbing the lens
however, as particles on the lens could scratch it. They recommend you use
a camels hair brush. Preferably from a camel that hasn't spent too much
time in the desert.
Bill Crocker

 

Years ago I was a photography student and had the time to use a proper lens
kit....as a working photojournalist I don't have that time. I keep a
protective skylight filter on all lenses and wipe them with my tee-shirt
when necessary. I buy a new protective filter as necessary...about every
year....and that is mostly from big scratches...not the little ones from
cleaning. (I don't use a lens cap as too often I forget to take it off and
miss the first and usually best shot.

 

How often do you clean your lens??? It should need cleaning only
rarely. Few lenses are ever damaged. Lenses and not as sensitive as they
were many years ago. However I am going to guess that more lenses are
damaged by cleaning than by anything else. Almost all of that cleaning is
excessive cleaning.

Given a clean hanky, not one that has been in your pocket with loose
change and who knows what for three weeks is fine.

The safest leaning would be a puff of clean dry air, as from a clean ear
syringe. Next would be a clean camel hair brush. Your method is good (a
true lens cleaning tissue, used once and discarded would be better) for
smudges etc that will not come off with the air or brush. In any case,
don't clean unless it is really needed.

I don't subscribe to the "protective filter" thing many people and
almost all camera salespeople try to say is necessary but decide for
yourself.

No, no lens made today uses the kind of soft glass and coatings that
started all this fear. I might add that even back in the old days, the
"damage" did not really do much real damage. It is mostly worry and not
fact.

Not likely.

 

Forget the hanky and buy yourself a microfibre lens cleaning cloth. A
perfectly clean hanky won't do much damage, but if it's in your pocket
collecting grit it may do. No, the real advantage of the microfibre
cloths is that they absorb oil (e.g. from sweaty fingerprints - and by
definition all fingerprints are sweaty) much better than cotton fibres.
They are not that expensive, can be washed when soiled, and last a long
time.

Don't clean your lens unless it really needs it.

Breathing is fine, I have done it myself for 30 years and never
experienced any problem. It helps to emulsify oily marks and get them
absorbed in the cloth. Avoid spitting on the lens though - wipe your
lips before breathing on it..

 

Spitting can be real bad if you are eating something gritty!

 

Gotta agree with you on this one. But they sell a lot of filters that
way.

 

Some did when I was in the business. Lucky for me I did not have a boss
that believed in that kind of customer treatment even though we often made
much more from the sale of accessories than the camera.

 

Even breathing can be dangerous in Los Angeles, Mexico City, and...

 

I suggest you temper that statement with something about where. All
most every consumer type camera that I see (friends and relatives) has
a lens covered with finger prints as a minimum and sometimes splotches
of other stuff. Drive along the Pacific (within 1/2 mile) and watch
the crud build up on the lens. Heck it builds up noticibly on the
side view mirrors and the windshield. A minimum cleaning every 2 days
is need and often more than once per day. I haven't cleaned my
digital camera lens since I bought it about 2 weeks ago, but then I'm
where the humidity is normally less than 35 percent and very careful.

Yeah, and what glass or coating has the hardness of quartz, the most
common component of sand?

 

Umm. I'll bet that besides trying to keep dirt away from your lenses,
that you clean then as often as need to be immaculately clean. Most
professionals are pretty finicky.

The most important point that no one has made yet is that if you do
brush the lens, turn the camera toward the ground so that the
brushed-off stuff falls away from the lens. Same for just blowing on
the lens, hold it above you so that any blown off stuff falls away and
yes, for pete's sake blow the spit out of your mouth before blowing on
the lens.

 

Yes. Follow the directions in the manual that came with the
camera to clean the lens.

 

Joseph Meehan wrote:

Lens pen..

Keep a blower to remove loose dust and a lens pen to wipe
of the inevitable fingerprint that crops up from time to time.

Lens pens are approved by Nikon and Kodak. They even sell
their own brand.

http://www.opticsplanet.net/nikon-lens-pen-cleaning-system.html
http://www.kodak.com/eknec/PageQuerier.jhtml?pq-path=270&pq-locale=en_US

You can buy third party (non-Nikon, non-Kodak) lens pens for quite a
bit less. I wouldn't be without one in my camera bag.

 

George E. Cawthon wrote:


[...]

Sometime several times a day, depending on the relevant exposure to
doggy snot.

[...]

 

Yes, I take care to avoid them getting dirty, make sure they are clean,
but only clean them when necessary. Usually once per week suffices when
in active use. I don't clean them just because of a few tiny specks of
dust.

Good point.

 

<GUFFAW!>

My dog was never that interested in my camera lenses, but he sure used to
get a lot of nose juice on the windshield.

N.

 

[ . . . ]

Fully agree. I think every time I ever bought a lens the salesman would ask,
"Wanna filter to protect the lens?" as though that were the purpose of a
filter. I have never used a filter "to protect the lens" and in 50+ years
have never damaged a lens surface yet. A friend of mine kept a Skylight 1A
on the lens of his rangefnder 35 to "protect" it; over time it got stuck so
fast it could not be removed by any ordinary means--and by that time a lot
of dust had worked its way inside. Some "protection."

N.

 

I think lens coatings are pretty hard and not that delicate. I clean my
lenses by breathing on them and then wiping them too, but I use lens tissue
or microfiber (if handy) or facial tissue (otherwise), wipe very gently, and
do this only when it really seems necessary. For me that isn't very
often--generally speaking I believe too little cleaning is better than too
much.

N.