Lens cleaning

Gene Palmiter wrote:
Spitting can be real bad if you are eating something gritty!


Even breathing can be dangerous in Los Angeles, Mexico City, and...

--
Frank ess

Joseph Meehan wrote:

Paul Westwell wrote:
Hi all.

Having recently purchased a Fuji S5000 I was telling someone how I clean
my
lens

How often do you clean your lens??? It should need cleaning only
rarely. Few lenses are ever damaged. Lenses and not as sensitive as they
were many years ago. However I am going to guess that more lenses are
damaged by cleaning than by anything else. Almost all of that cleaning is
excessive cleaning.

I suggest you temper that statement with something about where. All
most every consumer type camera that I see (friends and relatives) has
a lens covered with finger prints as a minimum and sometimes splotches
of other stuff. Drive along the Pacific (within 1/2 mile) and watch
the crud build up on the lens. Heck it builds up noticibly on the
side view mirrors and the windshield. A minimum cleaning every 2 days
is need and often more than once per day. I haven't cleaned my
digital camera lens since I bought it about 2 weeks ago, but then I'm
where the humidity is normally less than 35 percent and very careful.

by breathing on it and wiping it with my hanky to which they responded
with panic!

Given a clean hanky, not one that has been in your pocket with loose
change and who knows what for three weeks is fine.

The safest leaning would be a puff of clean dry air, as from a clean ear
syringe. Next would be a clean camel hair brush. Your method is good (a
true lens cleaning tissue, used once and discarded would be better) for
smudges etc that will not come off with the air or brush. In any case,
don't clean unless it is really needed.

I don't subscribe to the "protective filter" thing many people and
almost all camera salespeople try to say is necessary but decide for
yourself.


Am I likely to do any harm, are their coatings really that delicate...

No, no lens made today uses the kind of soft glass and coatings that
started all this fear. I might add that even back in the old days, the
"damage" did not really do much real damage. It is mostly worry and not
fact.

Yeah, and what glass or coating has the hardness of quartz, the most
common component of sand?


is
the damage already done?

Not likely.


Regards,

Paul

--
Joseph E. Meehan

26 + 6 = 1 It's Irish Math

David Littlewood wrote:

In article , Paul Westwell
writes
Hi all.

Having recently purchased a Fuji S5000 I was telling someone how I clean my
lens by breathing on it and wiping it with my hanky to which they responded
with panic!

Am I likely to do any harm, are their coatings really that delicate... is
the damage already done?

Regards,

Forget the hanky and buy yourself a microfibre lens cleaning cloth. A
perfectly clean hanky won't do much damage, but if it's in your pocket
collecting grit it may do. No, the real advantage of the microfibre
cloths is that they absorb oil (e.g. from sweaty fingerprints - and by
definition all fingerprints are sweaty) much better than cotton fibres.
They are not that expensive, can be washed when soiled, and last a long
time.

Don't clean your lens unless it really needs it.

Breathing is fine, I have done it myself for 30 years and never
experienced any problem. It helps to emulsify oily marks and get them
absorbed in the cloth. Avoid spitting on the lens though - wipe your
lips before breathing on it..
--
David Littlewood

Umm. I'll bet that besides trying to keep dirt away from your lenses,
that you clean then as often as need to be immaculately clean. Most
professionals are pretty finicky.

The most important point that no one has made yet is that if you do
brush the lens, turn the camera toward the ground so that the
brushed-off stuff falls away from the lens. Same for just blowing on
the lens, hold it above you so that any blown off stuff falls away and
yes, for pete's sake blow the spit out of your mouth before blowing on
the lens.

David Littlewood wrote:

In article , Paul Westwell
writes
Hi all.

Having recently purchased a Fuji S5000 I was telling someone how I clean my
lens by breathing on it and wiping it with my hanky to which they responded
with panic!

Am I likely to do any harm, are their coatings really that delicate... is
the damage already done?

Regards,

Forget the hanky and buy yourself a microfibre lens cleaning cloth. A
perfectly clean hanky won't do much damage, but if it's in your pocket
collecting grit it may do. No, the real advantage of the microfibre
cloths is that they absorb oil (e.g. from sweaty fingerprints - and by
definition all fingerprints are sweaty) much better than cotton fibres.
They are not that expensive, can be washed when soiled, and last a long
time.

Don't clean your lens unless it really needs it.

Breathing is fine, I have done it myself for 30 years and never
experienced any problem. It helps to emulsify oily marks and get them
absorbed in the cloth. Avoid spitting on the lens though - wipe your
lips before breathing on it..
--
David Littlewood

Umm. I'll bet that besides trying to keep dirt away from your lenses,
that you clean then as often as need to be immaculately clean. Most
professionals are pretty finicky.

The most important point that no one has made yet is that if you do
brush the lens, turn the camera toward the ground so that the
brushed-off stuff falls away from the lens. Same for just blowing on
the lens, hold it above you so that any blown off stuff falls away and
yes, for pete's sake blow the spit out of your mouth before blowing on
the lens.

David Littlewood wrote:

In article , Paul Westwell
writes
Hi all.

Having recently purchased a Fuji S5000 I was telling someone how I clean my
lens by breathing on it and wiping it with my hanky to which they responded
with panic!

Am I likely to do any harm, are their coatings really that delicate... is
the damage already done?

Regards,

Forget the hanky and buy yourself a microfibre lens cleaning cloth. A
perfectly clean hanky won't do much damage, but if it's in your pocket
collecting grit it may do. No, the real advantage of the microfibre
cloths is that they absorb oil (e.g. from sweaty fingerprints - and by
definition all fingerprints are sweaty) much better than cotton fibres.
They are not that expensive, can be washed when soiled, and last a long
time.

Don't clean your lens unless it really needs it.

Breathing is fine, I have done it myself for 30 years and never
experienced any problem. It helps to emulsify oily marks and get them
absorbed in the cloth. Avoid spitting on the lens though - wipe your
lips before breathing on it..
--
David Littlewood

Umm. I'll bet that besides trying to keep dirt away from your lenses,
that you clean then as often as need to be immaculately clean. Most
professionals are pretty finicky.

The most important point that no one has made yet is that if you do
brush the lens, turn the camera toward the ground so that the
brushed-off stuff falls away from the lens. Same for just blowing on
the lens, hold it above you so that any blown off stuff falls away and
yes, for pete's sake blow the spit out of your mouth before blowing on
the lens.

Paul Westwell wrote:
Hi all.

Having recently purchased a Fuji S5000 I was telling someone how I clean my
lens by breathing on it and wiping it with my hanky to which they responded
with panic!

Am I likely to do any harm, are their coatings really that delicate... is
the damage already done?

Yes. Follow the directions in the manual that came with the
camera to clean the lens.

Paul Westwell wrote:
Hi all.

Having recently purchased a Fuji S5000 I was telling someone how I clean my
lens by breathing on it and wiping it with my hanky to which they responded
with panic!

Am I likely to do any harm, are their coatings really that delicate... is
the damage already done?

Yes. Follow the directions in the manual that came with the
camera to clean the lens.

George E. Cawthon wrote:


[...]

A minimum cleaning every 2 days is need and often more than once per day.


Sometime several times a day, depending on the relevant exposure to
doggy snot.

[...]


--
jer email reply - I am not a 'ten'
"All that we do is touched with ocean, yet we remain on the shore of
what we know." -- Richard Wilbur

George E. Cawthon wrote:


[...]

A minimum cleaning every 2 days is need and often more than once per day.


Sometime several times a day, depending on the relevant exposure to
doggy snot.

[...]


--
jer email reply - I am not a 'ten'
"All that we do is touched with ocean, yet we remain on the shore of
what we know." -- Richard Wilbur

In article , George E. Cawthon
writes

David Littlewood wrote:
Forget the hanky and buy yourself a microfibre lens cleaning cloth. A
perfectly clean hanky won't do much damage, but if it's in your pocket
collecting grit it may do. No, the real advantage of the microfibre
cloths is that they absorb oil (e.g. from sweaty fingerprints - and by
definition all fingerprints are sweaty) much better than cotton fibres.
They are not that expensive, can be washed when soiled, and last a long
time.

Don't clean your lens unless it really needs it.

Breathing is fine, I have done it myself for 30 years and never
experienced any problem. It helps to emulsify oily marks and get them
absorbed in the cloth. Avoid spitting on the lens though - wipe your
lips before breathing on it..
--
David Littlewood

Umm. I'll bet that besides trying to keep dirt away from your lenses,
that you clean then as often as need to be immaculately clean. Most
professionals are pretty finicky.

Yes, I take care to avoid them getting dirty, make sure they are clean,
but only clean them when necessary. Usually once per week suffices when
in active use. I don't clean them just because of a few tiny specks of
dust.

The most important point that no one has made yet is that if you do
brush the lens, turn the camera toward the ground so that the
brushed-off stuff falls away from the lens. Same for just blowing on
the lens, hold it above you so that any blown off stuff falls away and
yes, for pete's sake blow the spit out of your mouth before blowing on
the lens.

Good point.
--
David Littlewood