Lens cleaning fluid

guardian · Joined: 18 Mar 2009 Posts: 1747

I'm asking here only about "routine" lens cleaning fluid, stuff you might buy in a camera shop . . not aggressive or "extra heavy duty" stuff you might use when repairing a lens. I'm asking about lens cleaning fluid for "everyday" use:

Does anyone make their own?? If so, how do you do it??

Does anyone use readily available glass cleaner, e.g., Windex?

visualopsins · Expire: 2021-06-22

A liter of reagent grade Methanol bought from chemical supply. Same as Eclipse lens cleaning fluid in those tiny bottles which sell each for near the same price. Liter should be enough for several photographers, even if they are all mflenses people -- share. Wink

"Pec-Pads", disposable 4x4" clean-room microfibre cloths, 50(?) to package, are my preferred lens cleaning cloth.

Wrap Pec-Pad around trimmed Popsicle stick for sensor cleaning.

Q-tip earbuds for spot cleaning.

Anti-static brush for sensor..

I use blower before all that...

ForenSeil · Joined: 15 Apr 2011 Posts: 2727 Location: Kiel, Germany.

Always try to clean with a blower and a soft microfiber cloth with low force before using heavy ordnance Wink

But for heavy dirt +1 for Ethanol or IPA (isopropyl alcohol)!
Methanol is even slightly better for cleaning lenses but it's sligthly toxic.
They are all very cheap, starting from less than 5�/liter in good quality (that highly depends on your supplier though)
Try to avoid buying dirty technical grade solvents from hardware stores etc. for cleaning optical elements, as technical grade solvents sometimes leave slight stains when evaporating.
If you buy it in a pharmacy try to get a glas bottle with a reasonable screw cap or ask for an sealed original bottle - as in my experience they are often rebottling small amounts of solvents in wrong bottles hich partially dissolve/getting etched by solvents which causes stains after evaporating the solvent later. High quality plastic is usually ok but nothing with soft inlays or rubber-seals in the caps or similar should be avoided. Especially solvents from dropper pipette bottles from pharmacies can produce serious problems when used for sensor cleaning, as the pipettor balls generally contain a lot flexibilizer which gets dissoled easily by IPA or especially acetone.

I read somewhere that CZ(J) is or was using Acetone and Ether for cleaning lenses. They are both very powerful cleaners but
Acetone has the drawback that it's able to dissolve/etch some plastic parts or paint of lenses and Ether has the drawback that it's not that easy to get anymore and/or expensive and that it evaporates so fast (boiling point is around 35�C) that it's less yielding than the alcohols, it's unlike the alcohols and acetone also not very durable and can get dangerous if not handled with care - so I wouldn't recommend it for amateurs at all.

PS
I thought Eclipse is (or was) Methanol!? At least I did read it several times in another forum.

guardian · Joined: 18 Mar 2009 Posts: 1747

Is "reagent grade ethanol" the same thing as denatured alcohol?

ForenSeil · Joined: 15 Apr 2011 Posts: 2727 Location: Kiel, Germany.

Denaturated alcohol can be both high grade but also very dirty technical grade.
"Denaturated" alcohol is only ethanol mixed with other ugly-tasting chemicals so that you can't drink it like booze and don't have to pay taxes - as long as these added chemicals are fully volatile (most should be) they are not an issue for cleaning lenses and so not an quality indication for you at all.

If you already have some denaturated alcohol it's easiest way is to try it!
Put a clean mirror on a table, splash several drops of your solvent on it and wait until completly everaporated - you will see if it leave stains!
If it doesn't leave any you can perfectly use it Smile

I also sometimes used denaturated alcohol ("Brennspiritus" in German) I can get locally for only 2�/liter which works well enough for my lenses without producing troublesome stains when evaporating. I wouldn't clean my sensor with it though - for that I would only use real high quality solvents. I'm currently using pharmceutical grade 99,5% isopropyl alcohol from a local pharmacy - very good quality, good cleaning power, even sensor cleaning works wonderful; it costs 5�/500ml which is not cheap but still much cheaper than Eclipse or other comercial cleaning liquids.

visualopsins · Expire: 2021-06-22