Lens cleaning - share your methods, tips and tricks!

Anu · Joined: 14 Apr 2009 Posts: 879

Maybe this would be a good idea of a thread and then somene (though now me) might want to create a little guide.

My favorite tools:

1. Eclipse E2 as the cleaning liquid - it is really good (isopropanol is ok too, don't want to support a US corporation Smile

).
2. Pec Pads - I really love these. I've noticed that with micro fiber cloths the E2 is not that good as even a bit of old grease in the cloth causes the lens to just be smudged dirty. Micro fibers have their uses, but unless they're really clean or unless I have no Pec Pads, I don't touch the elements with them any more.
3. Gloves - I don't have any good ones yet, but will be getting cotton ones in the mail next week. Hard to avoid new fingerprints wiithout them.
4. Good small torch to check the surfaces for smudges.
5. Rocket bulb too remove dust and other solid partickles.

A trick I learned yesterday: there was this one really hard to clean fingerprint-like smudge on one lens. I even though that I had accidently scratched the surfice. Even E2 and Pec Pads were powerless! Then I decided - don't know how I came up with this - to smudge this part of the lens a bit more fith my bare finger: after that 'treatment' regular E2+PP easily cleaned the problem.

alex · Joined: 18 Apr 2009 Posts: 561 Location: UK

Brillo steel wool scouring pads are excellent for cleaning lenses, and I've never met a piece of dust or fungus that could resist a three minute scraping with one. Also gives a lovely soft-focus effect when the lens has been cleaned.

For other lenses, I still have a supply of a polymer film solution called Opticlean, originally made for cleaning telescope mirrors, which are surface-coated and highly delicate. You paint it on like clear nail varnish (which has a similar smell, curiously enough), wait for it to dry or 'cure', then peel it off with a sticky tab. As there's no abrasion (unlike Brillo pads!) it's perfectly safe, lifts off all dirt, which is bound to the polymer, and is the only stuff I let near my Zeiss glass. It was fairly expensive at around GBP 10 a 5ml bottle, but seems harder to get these days.

Unless a lens obviously needs cleaning (like grease smudges), I tend to leave it alone.

Postscript: Opticlean is no longer available, but 'First Contact' is the same stuff, and in the UK is obtainable here : http://www.photoniccleaning.co.uk/page3.html. I haven't tried First Contact, but intend to get a bottle now that I've tracked down a source.

Anu · Joined: 14 Apr 2009 Posts: 879

I think I need to correct myself, even though this is a really old thread.

There are two Eclipse products - the regular and E2. I now recommend against E2, and instead to use the regular one which evaporates twice as fast.

The reason for above is that I got myself a small LED-torch and it revealed tons of grease smudges both before and after applying E2, stuff that regular small torch failed to see. Maybe my old torch was just crap, or maybe LED torch is especially good at revealing all the stuff that makes me paranoid.

indianadinos · Expire: 2011-12-05

Hi,

I use Zippo fluid, Cold Cream (for fungus), Eclipse E2, surgical-like gloves (but without talc on them), a Luxeon LED torch, and a lot of other tools (but i suppose you are interested in cleaning, not dismantling) ...

If interested, i have a some service tutorials on my blog here under the label "Repair" ...

Cheers