Originally posted by Just1MoreDave Some laziness is OK. I've seen more old lenses with scratches from cleaning than usage scratches.
This is true. There's a greater chance of doing more harm to your gear by over-cleaning it than by leaving it alone. That only applies to normal use, though. If you've been out shooting where you've gotten sea spray on your gear or maybe been out shooting on the sand dunes, you might want to spend some time cleaning it afterwards. Even in those situations, you want to be careful with the lens surfaces. The general rule of thumb is that first you try to blow off any dust particles. Use something like a Rocket-blower, as the others have said. Don't used canned air because it can do more harm than good by blowing the dust back up into the lens. It's too much pressure. If there's any particles left, the next step is to use a soft brush. You can buy lens brushes, but what I've started doing is gathering the extras that my wife gets with her make-up. Don't use her old ones that she's already used!!! lol But certain make-ups come with new brushes that work pretty well as lens brushes. Depending upon the size of the brush, I either put it in an old film cannister or in a ziplock baggie so I can have one in each of my camera bags. What I do as a last resort, if there's any dirt that can't be removed by a blower or brush, is use lens cleaning fluid and lintless tissues. But I'm an old-school guy. Most folks would use a lens pen these days, I suspect. Unless I've been out somewhere that I know I was likely to have gotten things on my gear, I usually just use a little bit of caution and common sense out in the field and just put my gear away when I get home. I'm like blackcloudbrew in that, the times when I usually clean my gear is before big shoots. I just give everything a once over to make sure it's in good working shape and ready to go.