#1  
Old 10-09-2009, 09:16 PM
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seeker372011 (Narayan)
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what do you use to clean your camera lenses?

looks like maybe water (marks) or dust and water on my Canon lenses...what is the recommended technique to clean?
I have some lens cleaning tissue-Japanese apparently-but is that what one would use?

thanks for any tips

narayan
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  #2  
Old 10-09-2009, 09:18 PM
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I use Acetone to clean the surface, and a MicroFibre cloth to wipe clean.
It cleans great and leaves no dust or anything behind.

Theo.
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Old 10-09-2009, 09:27 PM
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I'd avoid using tissues.

I'm sure there are many who'll tell you they are OK....and perhaps in some instances they are...but I'd be afraid of scratches.

Use a soft microfibre cloth and a good quality lens cleaning fluid.

Believe it or not, most of the time I use a cloth and just breathe on the lens to form a light 'fog' and wipe that off. It takes care of 98% of my cleaning jobs.
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Old 10-09-2009, 09:51 PM
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I agree with Matt on that one... a good bit of breath and a microfibre lens cleaning cloth... works almost every time.. a camel hair brush can help to move the bits of light dust also...

My best thought is this.. put a UV filter on the end of the lens. this will protect the front element from dust particles, any pollen in the air etc...Its the safest to keep your optics safe..
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Old 10-09-2009, 10:29 PM
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Octane (Humayun)
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Narayan,

This thread has come up before.

www.lenspen.com

Do yourself a favour, spend the money and get a few of those. RB will back me up on this.

Regards,
Humayun
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Old 11-09-2009, 08:14 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Octane View Post
www.lenspen.com

Do yourself a favour, spend the money and get a few of those. RB will back me up on this.

Regards,
Humayun
Narayan, what ever you do don't use tissue, even if it's supposedly good for lens cleaning.

H and I always recommend the Lens Pen, (Johnny Extreme also uses one).
It's the only thing I trust on my lens collection with to clean the front element.
I've even used it on my eye pieces.

If you do buy it, make sure you get the original, not a copy.
It's so good that there are lots of 'Chinese type' imitations out there.

Also, (and not everyone will agree with this) but I highly recommend buying a UV filter like Alex suggested.
It's the first thing I put on a brand new lens and it never comes off after that.
The only caveat with this suggestion is that you need to buy a high quality one like a Hoya Super HMC Pro1 series, it's super slim which avoids any possible vignetting effect on DSLRs and multi coated so you get the best possible light transmission and avoids colour shifts and flaring.

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Old 11-09-2009, 11:21 AM
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I'll also highly recommend the Hoya Pro1 series stuff. I have their 77mm circular polarizer. It is superb.

They're not cheap, but, they're the goods.

Regards,
Humayun
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Old 11-09-2009, 11:47 AM
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Yep.. I have the Hoya HMC Pro1 UV filters on all my lenses.. No chance that I'd take a good piece of glass outside without one... Shame my refractor doesnt have a thread in front of the objective... if it did, it would be getting the hoya treatment too!
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Old 11-09-2009, 06:32 PM
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I just use whatever solvent i have around such as ethanol, actone, isopropanol etc and wipe clean with a cloth. Im sure that lenspen is good but products like the baader 'optical wonder' is just diluted ethanol + isopropanol, theres nothing special about it.
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Old 11-09-2009, 10:27 PM
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thanks lads

much obliged for the information

Regards
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  #11  
Old 11-09-2009, 10:28 PM
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PS any aussie supplier for the lens pen?
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Old 11-09-2009, 10:31 PM
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The Lenspen video was great. Who sells them in AU?
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  #13  
Old 11-09-2009, 11:47 PM
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PS any aussie supplier for the lens pen?
I used to be able to get them at the A.Geographic shops.
I bought a few double packs when they had their half price sale.

Haven't seen them stocked there for a while.

Might want to try local camera shops.
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Old 12-09-2009, 01:22 AM
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I got mine from Australian Geographic when they had the authentic Lenspens. Since then, I've only seen Barska-branded ones, which are not the real deal. Do not be fooled by any stickers advertising that they are authentic.

I did send an email off to Lenspen asking about them but never got a reply. They have advertising on their page to make sure you don't get duped into purchasing non-authentic products. As Andrew said, it's such a good little item, that there is mass Chinese cloning of it going on.

I haven't been able to find them anywhere local in recent times, and, with the dollar being so strong at the moment, you should just order directly from them.

Regards,
Humayun
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Old 12-09-2009, 05:18 AM
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The best lens cleaning solution I've come across is the Bintel UHTC cleaning solution - the one apparently based on Dr Clays recipe. It has a very low tendency to leave streaks. I've never had much luck using len pens.

Terry
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Old 13-09-2009, 07:38 PM
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Blast lens with Dust Off to remove any grit

Brand name Kleenex (plain white, no aloe or additives!)

Brand name Windex (spray on to tissue, not the lens) for water soluble marks

Acetone for everything else. (again, applied to tissue first)

Acetone may leave an evaporation mark, but If you have a second (dry) tissue, a quick second wipe will avoid these.

One wipe=one tissue. Tissues are cheap, lenses generally aren't!

Any debris from the tissue then removed with a can of Dust Off or similar.
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  #17  
Old 23-09-2009, 01:01 PM
Benny L (Ben)
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Octane View Post
I'll also highly recommend the Hoya Pro1 series stuff. I have their 77mm circular polarizer. It is superb.

They're not cheap, but, they're the goods.

Regards,
Humayun
I have those on most of my lenses too, great filters! although the thread tends to stick when i'm turning the polariser around so its a pain to get off

I was loaned a B+W Kasemann Polariser and I think I'll grab one of those when the time comes.. Mainly for the brass filter ring which didn't stick once while i was using it
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Old 23-09-2009, 07:27 PM
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I'm with Peter, Lens coatings are tougher than we think, and I feel we treat them like fairy floss, if you pay big bucks for L Glass, than one can expect it can take some punishment.

All this crap that Canon and others put out about not touching anything is just crap.

I have taken 3 filters out of a 5D and replaced then, handled them, wiped then clean, and replaced them, and this is what i image with now.

Don't be afraid.

Leon
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  #19  
Old 25-09-2009, 05:36 AM
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The argument against those cloths is that if you reuse them and there's dust on it from a previous clean, that can scratch your lens. The lens tissues are use once then throw away.

Similar to Peter, I use a rocket blower to blow off dust first. Then lens tissue one wipe, throw away. Then another blow to get rid of tissue fibres. That does it 95% of the time.

If there's a spot on there still, maybe breath on lens and another tissue wipe and blow.

Any tougher than that, the lens pen comes out. By now there shouldn't be any dust on the lens pen to potentially scratch next use.
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