Camera Lens Cleaning

Good camera lens cleaning practice is essential if you want to look after your equipment and get crystal-clear images but first a plea. Do not overclean your lens as photographic lenses have an optical coating which helps to reduce unwanted reflection. Reflective light loss reduces light transmission and the reflected light can cause lens flare so it's very important to clean gently - do not press too hard and do not over do it. Note that finger prints can be particularly harmful to the optic coating and should be removed as soon as possible.

Best practise is to only clean when necessary and a little dust on the lens will not make a great deal of difference to your images. Best policy is of course to keep the lens as clean as possible in the first place. The way to do this is to attach a skylight filter to every single lens you own. This is a good policy since a lens is more expensive to replace than a filter! A skylight filter will not affect your choice of exposure and therefore can stay permanently in place on the end of the lens. Additionally, always keep the lens cap on when not in use to protect the lens and/or the filter.

Camera lens cleaning (or filter cleaning) should be done using the right equipment and the first tool in your lens cleaning kit should be a bulb blower which you can use to remove loose dust. An alternative is a soft brush but bulb blowers are easier and more effective. If you squeeze the bulb and hold the brush near to the surface of the lens you may not even have to bring the brush into direct contact with the surface. Do not blow directly onto the lens as micro particles of saliva will be deposited on the surface.

Bulb blowers come in large or small sizes so if you want to carry one around with you in your camera bag you may prefer to purchase the small one. The large one is more powerful though so an ideal solution may be to buy one of each and leave the larger one at home for more thorough usage while keeping the smaller one with you for emergency on-the-spot cleaning. Bulb blowers are also an essential item for manual cleaning of your camera's sensor (not covered here).

Once you have removed loose dirt with a blower there may still be small particles adhering to the lens surface and your next line of action will be a microfiber cleaning cloth or disposable lens cleaning tissues which are only used once - be sure to use a new one every time you clean your lens. Do not use ordinary tissues or a piece of material such as a T-shirt. These look soft and gentle but in fact at a microscopic level they have lots of hard fibres which will scratch the lens surface or leave a fiber residue.

More stubborn particles may need a bit of assistance from a lens cleaning fluid. These are usually alcohol-based and will evaporate quickly on contact with the glass so no residue is left behind but you need to work fairly quickly. Put one or two drops on the cloth (not directly on the lens otherwise it may run in between the lens elements) and wipe in a gentle, circular motion. It is also possible to purchase lens cleaning wipes which are pre-moistened and very convenient when on the move.

A final option for optimum camera lens cleaning is a carbon-based lens pen. The pen has a soft tip and sometimes a brush at the other end. It's worthwhile carrying one in your camera bag at all times especially since these pens use a dry carbon-compound so there is no fluid involved which might spill or dry out. Make sure you start with the brush end first then use the soft tip to gently wipe away any remaining marks.

Camera lens cleaning is not difficult, it just takes a bit of practice and a gentle approach. I hope this article has inspired you to look after your precious lenses - they are the most important part of your kit and if you look after them well they will reward you with many years of great images.