Lens cleaning tools.

[Lizzy84]

What tool would i use to clean the outide of my lens? I have only had my camera for a few days and have noticed a few specks of dust on the lens. Will the dust affect the quality of my photos? And lastly is there anything i can use to prevent the dust going on the lens?

[ameerat42]

Hi Lizzy. There are lots of tools and gizmos sold to clean lenses, but for what you describe, just try to "dust it off" with a soft, plain tissue, one that is not impregnated with
anything like aloe vera, menthol, etc.

If it's only a few small specks of dust they won't matter. Some people use clear filters, like a UV filter, to keep dust off the lens, but you'll get dust on the filter anyway.

If you do a Google search on lens cleaning tools you'll see lots of things. A soft blower brush might be a handy addition to have.
Am.

[nardes]

Hi Liz

Firstly, a preliminary comment from my experience with telescope optics:
Poor or sloppy lens cleaning will make the lens worse than leaving a few harmless specs on the lens. It takes a lot of dust on a lens to noticeable affect image quality.

Secondly, I understand that modern lenses have quite robust protective coatings deposited on them, mainly to reduce reflections but also to protect the glass.

Finally, I have a 3 part process for cleaning my lenses as follows:
Part 1: use a blower such as this Giottos Rocket-air blower (http://www.giottos.com/pro_view.aspx?nId=8&TypeId=77)to blow off any loose dust or debris that does not stick to the lens.
Part 2: use a “Lenspen” (http://www.lenspen.com/?resultType=category&params=9&tpid=0&tpid=323) or similar lens brush to gently brush off any remaining loose dust or debris. Use gentle strokes so that you don’t grind the particles into the lens coating.
Part 3: mainly for accidental finger prints or other stuff that didn’t come off in Part 1 or part 2. I use “Eclipse (http://photosol.com/)” lens cleaning fluid and “Pec Pads” (http://photosol.com/) to gently wipe away any remaining stuff. Gentle is the keyword as we are not trying to polish the lens coating.

Cheers

Dennis

[arthurking83]

I personally use Dennis' Part 1(for easy to remove dust and specks) and Part 3 (for the smudges that invariably occur every now and then).

The other two accessories I use are a blower brush .. basically a blower bulb with some fine soft bristles on the end(cheap on ebay) and also micro fibre cloths.

if I have smeary smudges that don't come off with the microfibre cloths .. is when I use Part 3(but this is rare).

Someone once told me that you can wash microfibre cloths. But for the price, and the usage you get from them, it's not worth the effort(or gas/electricity).
I reuse old looking cloths for things like sunnies and all manner of other glass surfaces, like screens(camera/phone/TV/PC/etc) .. and even the bathroom mirror.

Like Dennis said, the front element on the lens is pretty hardy and takes a lot of abuse to damage it. Soft cleaning products won't harm them.

[I @ M]

Just from my point of view ---

I hardly ever actually "clean" the front elements of lenses but almost every time a lens is mounted onto the camera a quick blow with the rocket blower usually removes major debris. If and when the front element is subjected to salty sea spray or excessive dust Arthur's recommendation of a microfibre cloth is generally a good idea with maybe a little ( just damp ) fresh water on the cloth.

In the scheme of things, the front element of a lens is about the most out of focus parts of the image chain and it generally takes a lot of dust or crap to show in the final picture.

[Lizzy84]

Thank you all for your very useful information. This has been very helpfull. I think i will have a look into getting a blower and a lenspen. I have a few cloths around the house as most of us wear glasses!