Originally posted by macopajuice I use some Hakuba lens cleaning paper on the UV filter and occasionally on the lens. Sometimes I feel using it will scratch the glass so I just tap it ever so lightly to remove the dust.
Anybody else using lens paper?
Googled "how to clean a camera lens" and got 12,300,000 responses.
I don't use the UV filter protection method - no matter what I do, dust gets under the filter and I have to remove it to blow the dust off.
Airborne dust unavoidably falls on an uncovered lens (or filter!). If the glass is not touched little else can get on it. My most common source of other stuff is the inside of the lens cap, which has usually been in my pocket, and cigarette smoke (my bad).
- I blow dust off the rear element with a bulb blower every time I mount a lens. I don't change lenses so often that this becomes a chore.
- I blow dust off the front every time I remove a lens cap.
- Less frequently I then brush the front element with a camel hair, lipstick style brush.
- The blower and brush are always in my camera bag.
- Once in a long while (once a year?) I actually clean a lens completely. I will also clean a lens if I accidentally touch the glass or for some other reason there is something obvious on the glass. . .
- Blow
- Brush
- Moisten 2 sheets Hakubra (coincidentally) or Swarovski wadded up lens paper moistened with a drop or two of Residual Oil Remover. http://www.ror.net/
- (I have no reason for using these brands of paper - they were what was available when I bought them)
- Gently wipe the lens in circles from the inside out (no pressure - just the flex of the paper)
- Turn the wad and dry the same way.
- I then wipe the entire lens barrel with the moistened paper to remove finger oils, but I am cosmetics-anal.
Blowing dust off with a bulb blower (not by mouth or a can of compressed air) is the most important step - wiped dust can actually scratch the coating. A named defect of second-hand lenses is "wipe marks" or "cleaning marks." Otherwise, whatever doesn't scratch the coating is OK.
I use a thick Pentax microfiber cloth to clean my glasses.