Cleaning Hitech filters

[ceiicilb]

Hi,

I just got some Firecrest Hitech filters and before heading out with them, I would like to know what you use for cleaning them, especially after going to the beach?

Would a cloth and lens fluid work?

[ricktas]

I would be careful rubbing a filter that has been to the beach, and thus may have tiny sand granules on it, or salt. Rubbing it could move those and scratch the coating. Use a blower brush first to remove any particles and then clean with a microfibre cloth, using a liquid is generally not necessary.

PS, it would be great to see some of your photos in the CC forums and/or you giving other members some advice or CC too. If everyone just logged on and asked questions and did not answer/help others, we would have a forum full of questions and nothing else

[arthurking83]

lens fluid? :confused:

This post has only alerted me to this product(the HiTech Firecrest filters) and I can't find any spec sheet.
But from what I can gather in the literature(ie. marketing spiel!) is that they're made from schott glass.

if there were resin, I'd recommend against using lens fluids .. unless you know that the fluid contains little to no solvents(ie. alcohols and such like).

Being glass tho, you could most likely use lens fluids even if they contain traces of solvent.

After a test on an old worn out resin filter with Eclipse fluid, I'd recommend not to use such solvent based products on them(resins!)

With these firecrest filters tho .. although they are glass and glass is basically impervious to most solvents(well at least in the dilutions that photographic related products use) .. I'd still be weary of the fluid.
Reason is that Formatt claim the use of some kind of 'rare earth' (ie. the firecrest branding!!) in the coatings of these lenses.
So you need to find out if this coating is impervious to solvents.

FWIW tho: the marketing does state that this coating is 'sandwiched' between the schott glass, which implies that it's environmentally sealed within the glass.
That is, the coatings aren't on the face of the filter(which makes sense) and so the material you're cleaning is the actual glass. This would obviously mean that you can easily and safely use solvents like alcohol on the filter without any concern.
What isn't obvious tho is the degree of the environmental seal at the edges of the filter to the coating that's sandwiched. Can the solvent penetrate through the sandwich to the laminated sandwich?

Format's HiTech filters are of a very high quality standard, so I'd think that this side seal is pretty much spot on.
So I'd say that you'll be fine to use the method you described.

Usually water is good enough to clean most filters, although some folks prefer distilled water.

ps. to clean my filters(glass CPLs) that are hard to clean or grimy, I use Eclipse fluid on either a pecpad or microfibre cloth and then another one to wipe it clean.

[Brian500au]

i think if i had just come back from the beach and wanted to clean a glass filter I would first do as Rick suggested and use a blower. I would then just run it under the tap water to rinse off any remaining sand particles. I would then let it air dry and final hit it with a micro fibre cloth and some eclipse fluid.

When cleaning lenses or my glasses i do use a zeiss lens cleaning wipes (I bought boxes of them from Walmart whilst visiting the US).

[ceiicilb]

Thank you for your help.

I haven't tried them yet but I think I will blow the dust first and then rinse them with water.

And I will definitely try to post some pictures over the next few weeks :)