Remember your first reaction when you saw that finger print impression on the lens of your camera? I do. Without delay I put on my thinking hat and wiped it with a soft cotton cloth. Looked great until I noticed the fine fiber left over from the cotton cloth. I then blew air from my mouth to blow them off. Alas, a drop landed from my mouth on to the lens. Finally I knew I had made a mistake. It had to be cleaned the way one would clean the head of a cassette player. I used medical spirit and a cotton swab to gently wipe it off. Well, no matter how much I rubbed, it always left a residue. I felt like pulling my hair off.
Several years down the line when I dumped my film point-and-shoot camera I upgraded to a DSLR. It’s lens does get dirty but I’ve learnt from my mistakes. The first thing that came to my mind was to use a disposable lens. I could if I had disposable money. But I could use a cheaper lens – or a filter. I used a lens hood as a precaution to protect the lens. And I was better off. But at the end of the day something has to be cleaned up be it the lens of the front filter or the camera sensor for that matter. When it comes to your camera sensor you’d better let the manufacturer handle it. Cleaning the camera sensor at home is not something covered by the warranty. And when you leave a scratch or some residue, it will cost you almost as much as the camera. In fact the only people advising you to clean the camera sensor are the people trying to sell you those items. But you of course can clean the front-filter or the front lens element.
You won’t need to clean anything unless you see them result on the photograph. Better yet take a few shots to ascertain if there’s in fact any dirt on the lens. Chances are even if something is visible on the front lens element, it won’t show up in the photograph — you’ll have to hunt for it. Here’s how.
Testing For Dust
- Aperture: Set the camera to a small aperture setting. An f-stop of f/22 will be a reasonable number. Any smaller than this introduces other light artifacts known as diffraction.
- Focus: Set the focus of the camera to infinity.
- The Photograph: Take a nice shot of plain white surface.
- The evidence: View the image full size and look for spots. They’d look like cells under a microscope.
Things You Need To Clean The Lens
Just in case you find what you’ve been looking for and get eager to clean it up understand that it’s your money at stake. Forewarned, here are the specialized equipment you’d need.
- Blower: When you blow from the mouth you risk sprinkling saliva. You can use an air blower to remove the dust and other particles from your lens. It will take away all loose dirt except the dirt that is stuck to the surface.
- Microfiber Cloth: These cloths are available in all the stores. Always use this cloth for cleaning the lens. Do not use any other cloth or paper to clean your lens as you risk scratching the surface or leaving fine fiber residue.
- Lens Cleaning Fluid: It is an alcohol based lens cleaning fluid – but it’s not alcohol. It is a special liquid which does not leave any residue on the surface. It is available in most of the camera stores.
- Carbon based Lens pen: A carbon based lens pen has a carbon based soft tip. Cleaning Pens generally come with the brush on the other end. These can be carried with you in the bag as they can be used whenever required.
Lens Cleaning Procedure
Depending on the kind and amount of dirt on the lens you may need one or more of the above equipment to do the dirty and interesting job. Your options are
- Blower: Use the blower to blow off loose dust particles settled on the lens surface.
- Microfiber cloth: Very gently wipe off the dirt with the microfiber cloth. Make sure not to use one twice and try not to over-clean the lens.
- Cleaning Liquid: If you suspect some kind of greasy substance, take the lens cleaning fluid on a microfiber cloth and wipe the lens gently in circular motion. Do not put the fluid on the lens directly. Also, do not use access amount of fluid.
- Lens Pen: The lens pen is your best bet. It’s an all in one thing to clean the lens surface. Make sure you’ve read the instructions that came with it. You’ll need to expose the tip and wipe gently to take out the dirt at once (see the tip in the image). I keep one handy and use it only when I’ve been shooting on the sea shore. There’s very fine moisture suspended in the air that settles on the lens while it’s exposed. I’ve never tasted it but I think it must be salty since it comes from the salty sea.
Again, my advise is to trust the camera manufacturer and get the thing cleaned. While a filter is something I’d be confident cleaning myself, I’d always go to them to get the camera sensor cleaned.
Have you tried cleaning the lens or the sensor yourself?
dodong flores February 23, 2009 at 12:57 am
Great tip! I’ll follow such advice. Thanx…
Steam Cleaners February 2, 2010 at 2:18 pm
jsut don’t do what i did and use windex and paper towels.
cctv kits March 4, 2010 at 2:34 pm
great advice, I’ve can count the hours I’ve spent trying to clean a lens, all to no avail. I took your advice of the lens pen and it worked wonders! I recommend this to anyone struggling to clean their camera lens.
CCTV Birmingham March 24, 2010 at 4:09 am
A very good article indeed. I have found that my lens cleaning is almost an OCD now and no matter what I do, it never feels clean! This is good advice though, some of which I have heard before but not all of it. I will put more of it in to action the next time I go out on a photo quest. Many thanks.
Donald Bautista August 29, 2010 at 7:16 pm
These tips are very helpful to all user of cameras. Many people are not aware of cleaning their cameras and turn out to be a bad photo. Thanks for this article to share to all users to clean their cameras properly.
Johnny January 12, 2011 at 11:58 am
First of all, never touch the lens. This may seem obvious, but in reality you have to train yourself to be aware of the lens at all times, and just don’t touch it. Period. I have cameras I’ve owned for a decade that have never been cleaned on the lens, because they were never allowed to get dirty in the first place.
Secondly, if you do touch it with oils from your skin, it will leave a residue. This, unfortunately, must be cleaned off.
I disagree with the advice given on the page. Microfibre cloths are abrasive … just very finely abrasive, which doesn’t leave large scratches … only very small ones.
Instead, go to a camera store and buy proper lens cleaning cloths. KimWipes are recommended. They will not scratch the lens.
Why am I so anal about scratching the lens? It’s glass, after all … pretty tough stuff, generally.
Well, it’s not the glass you are worried about. Every camera lens is coated with thin … millionths of an inch … metal coatings in multiple layers. These layers are extremely delicate and easily rub off even with perfectly non-abrasive cleaning cloths.
So, know this right from the start … cleaning the lens, even once, and even using the proper procedure and materials, will permanently degrade it’s performance. Permanently. Read that sentence again, if necessary.
First, using a fine Camel Hair brush … NO SUBSTITUTES … wipe all dust from the lens and any metal near it. Failure to do this will simply use the dust as an abrasive when you go to the next step, causing more damage to the multicoating than necessary. You may also use a blower brush sold in camera stores for this purpose, but BE SURE it’s not some imported junk and actually has a true non-abrasive brush. No Wall-Mart specials.
Next, using the proper cleaning cloth, gently … I said gently … wipe in a circular matter, until the fingerprint or residue is gone. STOP at that point, and if you are on the right program now, never touch that lens surface again.
Finish by buying a UV filter and covering the lens. Leave that filter on forever.
You can clean the filter as you see fit … good ones will also have microcoating but you can just buy another one if necessary.
If you have a need for a camera that will get dirty and will need frequent cleaning, buy a cheap one and carry that. Take good care of your high quality DSLR or Prosumer point-and-shoot and never touch the lens on that one.
Johnny January 12, 2011 at 12:08 pm
RE: My previous post:
When cleaning the lens with a proper cleaning cloth, dampen it a bit. Plain water is best. It should be slightly moist, not really wet. You can buy lens cleaning solutions … they are more aggressive and will do more damage to the multicoating, but if it’s dirty and water won’t work, you don’t have much choice.
In any case, take it easy. Repeated cleaning of the lens is a bad idea. This is one area where a bit of dust is best removed by a blower brush, and even when using the blower, you might be able to get away with not touching the lens with the brush. If you don’t have to, don’t.
If the lens is removable, always use the cover for the inside lens as well as the more usual outside lens cover. Generally speaking you should never have to clean the inside glass if you keep it covered and use a blower if necessary.
Frank February 3, 2011 at 11:13 pm
So you can trust those pens? :) I got one…but i am not sure if its good.
R Kufske May 15, 2011 at 11:06 am
I live in a white room to where there is not dirt and shots are great.
Jess Smith August 9, 2011 at 8:34 pm
Wow thanks for the great tips, always important to take care of your camera and lens so you can always get the best shots :)
Falling Leaves Kung Fu November 1, 2011 at 11:27 pm
ugh, so much conflicting advice. use micro-fiber, don’t use micro-fiber. I also read that the ‘micro coating’ is actually mixed INTO the lens glass and will not wear off.
I use my camera under a large variety of conditions, mostly in Arizona where it’s quite dusty, so I need to clean my lens, period. there’s no way to avoid getting dust on your lens in the desert, and the occasional person will touch the lens by accident, so i guess a lens hood is my next investment.
i use my camera to take promotional images for my business and I just want the shots to look great…
Shivanand Sharma November 2, 2011 at 7:33 am
Thanks for your comments but I still do not see any conflict in the article.
dead December 2, 2011 at 11:15 pm
I believe he/she was referring to the the conflicting advice between both the article and one of the previous comments.
Falling Leaves Kung Fu December 8, 2011 at 8:52 am
Yes, that’s what I meant.
-ashe
Discipline, Concentration & Wisdom
Johnny December 13, 2011 at 11:18 am
My preference to avoid micro-fibre cloth is just based on my own preference and research. There are many who recommend them.
However, no synthetic material can match natural fibres for softness and any synthetic will scratch paint, glass, etc. The microfibre variants make very, very fine scratches, that apparently many can live with. But, they do scratch, and there is no way to avoid that. It’s up to you.
Multicoatings are never part of the glass itself. Metals are incorporated into glass for various reasons, but not for the same purpose as multicoating. The multicoatings are there to correct the different focus points as light varies in wavelength.
They can only work as a thin layer (or they would not be transparent), and ideally they would be on the same plane, but that is impossible, so they are layered on top of each other. Each corrects focus point for a narrow band of light.
The more advanced microcoating the lens has, the sharper the edges of your images will be, for example, where diffraction effects show as colour fringing.
Each element in the lens should have the coating on both sides for best effect, since we’re dealing with very small wavelengths and distances here. Obviously, you can see an opportunity to save money here … the consumer only sees two surfaces, or sometimes just one.
Digital cameras also suffer from a similar effect since they colour sensors are on the same plane but the light focuses at different planes due to it’s varying wavelength. A quick perusal of a reputable camera test review site (where they actually “test” things instead of paraphrasing the press release and product literature) will reveal a point-and-shoot has bigger problems there than a DSLR lens. A huge difference between the two lenses is multicoating, which can partly correct for this problem.
Multicoating costs money and it’s what you paid for when you bought your DSLR lens. So, my advice is don’t use a multifibre cloth on it, since it will always scratch the multicoating, even if the scratches are extremely fine. Cotton fibres or camel hair is capable of leaving the surface scratch-free. Take your choice.
narendra December 15, 2011 at 5:36 pm
I want to buy and replace the lens of sony DCS-W320 cybershot camera.
Can anybody tell how to get it and any guidence to do replacment my self.
I am talking about the front lens only.
Chaps6691 January 12, 2012 at 9:58 am
I began in professional photography in 1948, and continued to do professional work until 1962. I also sold professional cameras, Leica, Contax, Graphics, etc. And in addition, taught photography; still, motion picture, and darkroom procedures.
My advice is this: when you buy your camera, buy a good filter and put it on the lens as soon as you take the camera out of the box. Leave it there! And as mentioned before, when you see it needs to replace the filter, do it! I still own several cameras, and enjoy using them. At 82 years of youth, have also transitioned to digital. Nothing fancy or expensive. Most cameras today are capable of taking excellent pictures. Although I do look for the make of lens on the camera. It and the sensor are the most important parts.
Don’t try to follow everyone’s guidelines! You will end up frustrated. Learn to think for yourself, but pick everyone’s brains when you can. You will learn much, and discard much as well. But you will get some really great pictures as a result.
As a wrap-up, back in the early 60′s, sold a new camera (good one) to a customer. Taught him how to use it properly before he left the shop – for a round the world trip! Gave him mailers and sold him dozens of rolls of film, which he sent back to the shop in the mailers and his pictures were ready when he returned. Did not have one disappointing roll in all of them. Also kept him as a good customer!
Have fun! Enjoy using your camera!
Chaps6691 January 12, 2012 at 10:11 am
Very good information. Lenses by the major manufacturers will have multiple pieces of glass. There are hundreds of types of glass they may use in their lenses, and each is placed precisely in the lens barrel, and each coated for that precise element. Spaced very precisely also. I have a Contax IIIA, purchased in 1956. Original lens, f 1.5, 50mm. Elements eventually separated (some are glued to another). Now I have an f 2.0, 50mm.
Leica lenses are actually marked on the bottom end of the barrel with the exact focal length of that individual lens! Lenses such as that will have between 6 and 8 elements to make up the complete lens.
As you can see by Johnny’s post, good lenses are not simple things! Take care of your lens, protect it! You will be glad you did!
Thanks Johnny!