Camera lens Cleaning tips

Camera lens Cleaning tips

Today I am going to talk about General cleaning and care of your all, important Camera lenses.
So where to start, what do you need:
You will need the following items:
Lens Cleaning or micro fibre cloth
Air blower or compressed air
Lens cleaning pen
Cotton buds
Soft microfiber cloth and some warm water or lens cleaning solution
As camera lens cost large amounts of money today it is always important to keep them in good working order, the below techniques can be performed at regular intervals, however as a general rule , if I have used any lens outside I would always give them a clean before packing them away, so they are good to go for the next shoot.
Let’s start with the outer casing of the lens this is the part that see’s most of the grubby hands marks and is open to the elements, so we will need to gently clean off any dirty marks. Using a microfiber cloth which you can pick up from any car accessary shop like Halfords or a DIY shop these are especially good for cleaning general dirt from the casing of the lens, using very small amounts of either warm soapy water but only very small amounts or a lens cleaning solutions gently wipe around the general area where you would normally use the focus ring taking care not to over soak the cloth and have access water or solution running down the lens, continue to change the cloth wiping area as you will notice that this will get increasingly dirty as you clean.

Lens element/ glass cleaning
Caution I would not recommend using any type of solution to wipe over the expensive element –Glass of your lens, for one reason not all lenses are weather sealed, though they can with stand very light rain, and two the lens itself is made with a blend of it’s own chemical mixture when being made, you can tell this as you look at your lens it will have a green, or blue tint to the glass so mixing more chemicals on to it I feel may have a reaction, so I would personally advise against it.
Step one using a lens brush which is very similar to a ladies make up brush lightly brush over the lens to make sure there is no fine particles of grit or sand, as you don’t want to start rubbing a cloth over the lens first as you may be rubbing that grit or sand across the lens which will scratch it.
Baring in mind you may have a UV filter attached this can be the case so using this technique can be done for both UV filter and element glass itself.
Once the brushing is complete you can now use the compressed air to blow anything left of the lens
WARNING: Never use the compressed air can upside down as this will cause the liquid inside to come out and it will instantly freeze to both your lens and your skin causing damage, to both your camera lens and in some cases frost bite. So ensure the can is always upright, and shake well before use, also be warned that prolonged use of the compressed air can it will getting increasingly cold very quickly to the point that you will no longer be able to hold it as it gets to cold, however if you use short controlled bursts of spray you will be fine.

Using a lens cloth
Now that the brushing and air dusting is complete we are ready to clean the glass without water or solution, so what do we use, by simply breathing slowly over the lens it will steam up the lens enough for you to now wipe it over with a lens cleaning cloth, the cloth that I recommend is the Spudz cleaning cloths they come in a couple of different sizes and fold up inside there own little pocket they come with a small belt hook/clip and great for attaching to your camera bag.
Using the cloth to wipe off all the access steam will be all you need to have a nice clean lens.
You can use the same process for cleaning the other end of the element glass also as this end is normally a lot smaller you can use cotton buds but be careful that the cotton does not come off and lay inside the glass area.
Most of these cleaning items are very easy to obtain from your local camera shop, or ebay and very inexpensive.
I hope you found this tip of use I’m Simon Everett
Thanks for reading

You can find out more about me and my work at the following website address
Simoneveretphotographykent.co.uk