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Cleaning products for lenses and filters.

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Attempting shots at dusk has highlighted that my filters are dirty. Have tried cleaning with a suede micro cloth (supposedly specifically for lens cleaning) but struggling to get rid of all marks and particularly get rid of the static. The cloth by itself seems to be ineffective. A blower makes no difference.

Should I be using say a lens cleaning fluid? Any tried and tested recommendations please? What do I need to buy?
moffatross 08 Nov 2015
In reply to Climbing Pieman:
If a cotton t-shirt doesn't work, it's time for some solvent. Ethanol is cheap, methanol is expensive. Keep the methanol for cleaning your sensor, and use the ethanol for everything else.

ethanol (Trangia fuel) ...
http://www.gooutdoors.co.uk/fuel4-bio-ethanol-spirit-750ml-p284700

methanol (sensor cleaning liquid) ...
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Photographic-Solutions-Eclipse-Cleaning-Fluid/dp/B0...

I love to learn from others so quite curious as to what filters you'd be using at dusk anyway (polarising or UV are pointless and will just rob your light), unless you're doing the long exposure sea or waterfall thing with a lee big stopper or some other ND ?
Post edited at 10:25
In reply to moffatross:
Thanks for info.

> I love to learn from others so quite curious as to what filters you'd be using at dusk anyway (polarising or UV are pointless and will just rob your light), unless you're doing the long exposure sea or waterfall thing with a lee big stopper or some other ND ?

So do I! I'm still firmly in the beginner trial and error category having started last year, so I often don't know what, why, etc. I'm doing, sorry. Lots of learning to do. This week's lesson was a dirty filter causes a huge amount of light refraction/glare - I was trying to shoot the Forth bridges with their lights on.

I have a UV filter that I usually just leave on all the time as protection for the lens optics. Being down by the sea and having had the lens covered in salt spray in the past I was grateful for the filter on then. That and this time I was too late in arriving and light fading fast so removing the filter never entered my head.

Always happy to be guided by others with more knowledge. I've read that some say a uv filter is a waste of money as the chance of getting a lens scratched is really very low.
 RoK 08 Nov 2015
In reply to Climbing Pieman:

Back in my photographer days a product called ROR was the best I found for both lenses and filters.
moffatross 08 Nov 2015
In reply to Climbing Pieman:

Haha !! There is no right or wrong, and trial/error is as good a way to learn and develop your own 'style' as any. I can understand why people want to put a bit of glass over the front of their lenses to protect them but I don't bother and only put a filter on when it will add some value. BTW, I envy you the view over the Forth, it's too far for me from Moffat for a gamble but I'd love to catch it just right. Have you tried the refinery at Grangemouth ? I think there would be some awesome opportunities at dusk with the burn-offs, smoke and steam, long shadows etc.
In reply to moffatross:
The Forth is only 5 miles away so often pop down there. The bridges are good for me learning, though I am no where near capable of capturing the classic often seen views yet. The construction of the new Queensferry bridge is just worth watching as a feat of engineering by itself!

Not been to Grangemouth yet. Mossmorran is closer for me and has the flare offs and steam. Tried a few shots there and mostly pleased with the results; problem is getting the right angle if close by (without getting security upset by trying to go down the restricted access areas). Found a view from the NE - over Loch Gelly, with Raith wind farm and then the refinery. The lesson that visit taught me was that the wind turbine blades do not get captured, just the towers, when shooting at night on long exposure!
In reply to RoK:
Thanks, I'll check it out.
In reply to moffatross:

If you have very expensive lenses (I remember my Hasselblad lenses, about twenty years ago, were between £800 and £1200 each) you will always have a UV or 81a filter on them to protect them. Even a very small chip can be disastrous.

For cleaning, in the film/TV industry (I was a clapper-loader once) we always used a high-quality chamois leather, having gently breathed on it. Cleaning fluids were frowned upon and only ever used when a lens/ filter was seriously dirty or smeared. The actual lens underneath would very seldom be touched with anything other than a blower brush.
moffatross 08 Nov 2015
In reply to Gordon Stainforth:

Like I said, I appreciate the reasons why although for me, it's a non-issue but some disclosure is in order I suppose I only use 35 mm film SLR lenses nowadays and every one is (very) second-hand, and being made between 1950 and 1985, they're all mechanical and manual focus. They're cheap because they're not particularly sought after as most dSLR cameras have small sensors (APS-C) and for various reasons they can't be used effectively on FF dSLR's either. They also lack the autofocus and auto aperture control that many photographers rely on, yet back in the day they were still high end or top of the range SLR lenses. The most expensive cost less than £100, and the most often used ones cost about £30 each, so I have access to a huge choice of quality FF lenses for my FF camera without needing to be precious about them. It's all I can do to remember to screw caps on them when I put them in the camera bag but though I can replace them cheaply and readily, I have never damaged or scratched one yet
 nathan79 08 Nov 2015
In reply to Climbing Pieman:

So often on my evening drive home past Mossmoran I think to myself "that'd be a perfect picture". Good to know someone's trying to capture it.

I've always thought Longannet looks marvellous at night all lit up, Grangemouth refinery as a back drop too from the right spot.
In reply to nathan79:
Trying is appropriate for me with my photography! Must go back there soon now the nights are longer as that view will be worth refining.

I'll add Longannet to the list to check out this winter, thanks; I'll need to get there before it closes down (next March?).
Removed User 08 Nov 2015
In reply to Climbing Pieman:

Definitely get a blower and a soft brush or a lenspen and give everything good blow and/or brush before wiping. I totalled a polarising filter while on holiday recently by wiping it. I had checked it to see if there was any grit and it looked clear so I wiped it...and a tiny invisible bit of grit scratched it. Money down the pan and a week on the very sunny TMB without a polariser.
In reply to Removed User:
Sounds an excellent idea thanks. I'll check out a lenspen.
 Toerag 09 Nov 2015
In reply to Climbing Pieman:

Optical fibres for telecoms are cleaned with iso-propyl alcohol (IPA), so I'd have thought this was the best thing to use if you can get hold of it. Definitely don't use methylated spirits as the purple dye will leave a residue.
What you need to know is what the muck on your lenses is, and what the solvent for it is. For example, sea spray will come off with clean water quite happily, yet greasy stuff requires IPA or similar.
In reply to Toerag:
Many thanks for the info. Its was mainly fibres of some description that cause the light to refract. Ironically I think it coming from the cleaning cloth I was using - it was dusk so I didn't see that it was leaving fibres prior to shooting. That said there was some fingerprint oil.

After I got home I noted that the cloth could not remove the fibres I guessing due to static build up. It just left them somewhere else on the filter.

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