How to Clean Your Camera's Lenses

Here you will find information on how to handle the ordinary cleaning chores of cleaning and maintaining your lenses that have no defects, the ones that have some haze and/or fungus on the glass elements, and the lenses that have cleaning marks and/or edge separation on one or more of the glass elements.

Cleaning ordinary lenses with no defects.

Ordinary lenses are very easy to clean, but most of us commit the horrible sin of simply wiping the glass element with whatever we have on hand. I have seen people using shirt corners, paper towels, napkins, you-name-it-and-they-use-it. This is the easiest way to damage the lens because tiny particles of dust or other materials deposit and stick to the glass elements. When you wipe the lens the wiping motion pushes the particles along the glass and if they are more than plain ole' dust they will scratch the lens. The best method of cleaning the lens is as follows:

(1) use a can of compressed air or compressed CO2 (carbon dioxide or as popularly known the fizz from your Coca-Cola) to blow away the particles that may be resting on your lens. CO2 is best because it comes at higher pressures,

(2) place a drop of lens cleaning fluid on the lens and wipe it gently with a lens cleaning cloth, making sure that each new wiping motion it done with a clean area of the lens cloth;

(3) using another lens cleaning cloth (it can be a micro fiber type cloth with or without cleaning fluid impregnated in the yarn), wipe the lens again, making sure that only clean cloth areas are used for every wiping motion,

(4) use a regular lens cleaning cloth with no impregnated solutions in it to do a final wipe of the lens, again, using only clean areas of the cloth for each cleaning motion,

(5) lastly, as soon as you are done wash the cloths with liquid soap or detergent and have them dried on a line, not in a lint infested clothes drier.

(6) Always avoid paper "lens tissue", it often is hard and abrasive, it frequently contains anti-fogging additives and is a general nuisance.

Cleaning lenses that have haze or fungus on them

Contrary to popular belief, haze and fungus are not always deadly to the lens. Fungus can eat away the coatings most of the time, and it may even etch the glass, but if you catch the fungus early and use a mild solution of vinegar to clean it out the acidity of the vinegar will kill the fungus away. Then use this technique to clean the lens thoroughly.

Haze is the least problematic of the "lens problems" and it can usually be cleaned very easily restoring the performance of the lens to its original status. Haze is formed in almost any lens. Its origin is in the various chemicals used to cement the lens elements. Over the years the chemicals evaporate slightly and if the lens is very well glued none of those vapors can escape and consequently settle on the glass. Also, lenses with haze are much cheaper as their owners cannot use them and will try to dump them quickly to get a new, better lens.

Some of my camera friends who have had to face this problem in the past had great success using a product called "ROR-1" short for "Residual Oil Remover", a great and non-harmful little spray-bottled item available at good camera stores. However, if you manage to completely disassemble your lens in such a way that you can hold in your hand only glass, with no metal parts, you can use a solution of warm water and dishwashing detergent for the very best result. Rinse in lukewarm tap water, and carefully dry with a soft all cotton cloth or no additive lens cloth. Do not let water droplets stand and dry on the lens as they will damage the glass at the edges of the drops because of airborne pollutants that will be absorbed into the water and will flow toward the edge of the droplet. There they will concentrate along the line formed by the water meeting the glass and they will do their evil thing to mess that beautiful lens you have.

In older lenses with optical coating the haze may be perishing of the coating itself and you can easily run into trouble by the slightest touching of these surfaces, especially the internal surfaces. Early coatings were very fragile and if you have a lens from before the mid 1940s I would recommend only the ROR-1 attempt, and that only after exhausting any other "professionally" available avenue. Modern coatings are harder and more durable than the glass itself and they can easily withstand the water/detergent/hand washing method described above. For a stubborn old lens which does not respond to this technique, leave it overnight in the detergent solution and try again. If it still does not clear up then the haze is unfortunately permanent.

Lenses with cleaning marks and lenses with edge separation problems.

These are generally the best bargain lenses around. Often times you will get a lens with cleaning marks or with edge separation for literally pennies on the dollar. I once bought a Goerz Dagor lens for 5 dollars because it had quite a few cleaning marks on the front element and there was some separation on some other elements. I shot the lens for years before I sold it, and I still have pictures that are sharper from that lens than from a much better looking Schneider Xenar lens.

Edge separation is just that: edge separation. Most of the picture taking, especially in medium and large format photography, is done at f/16 to f/32 for maximum depth of field and increased sharpness. Such small apertures mean that only a small portion of the center of the lens is used to actually let light through. Where does the separated edge come into play in such a case? Nowhere! Of course, a lens with edge separation may be more prone to separate further, but most of them do not. If the separation becomes so serious that even shooting at f/16 - f/22 is a problem, that the lens is unfortunately gone for good. In the many years that I have done photography I have not yet seen such a lens. The moral of the story is: buy even separated lenses if they are not too bad. Use the separation as a bargaining point and drive the price down.

Cleaning marks come from a zealous lens owner who did not read my web page <grin>. These marks have the theoretical ability to scatter the light and create more flare than your lens was already prone to, as well as the less desired (except for portraits) effect of image softening. In reality, a lens would have to have a huge amount of cleaning marks before it degrades the image significantly. Most often there will be no noticeable loss of sharpness even at your widest opening. If the marks are large, deep or they are actual chips in the glass, you can fill them in with a black magic marker (Yes, that is right, I have not lost my marbles) and shoot away. The black ink will eliminate the light scattering possibility and will avoid flare. The lens will take care of everything else and often you will not be able to tell that a certain negative was shot with a lens exhibiting the defects outlined in this paragraph.