Lens cleaning cloth

[Alan S]

I need some help. I was recently at a camera swap meet in Puyallup Washington. One of the vendors where I was looking at an enlarging lens, let me use a cleaning cloth to clean the lens. The cloth was amazing in cleaning both the lens and my glasses without a streak! The cloth was a micro-fiber cloth, light blue in color and about the size of a hand towel. He mentioned they were about $5.00.

Just wondering if anybody new what this cloth might be, where it might be available...or....what cloth people would recommend.

[Sheldon N]

Try the Pentax microfiber lens cleaning cloth. I have one and it works very well. I'd bet there are a lot of similar microfiber cloths that would work equally as well.

[Eric James]

I use the (white) Leica-branded cloth - you can get them a Glazer's in Seattle for ~$5. Any cloth can damage a lens if you use it when there's grit on the lens. If I have to resort to wiping a lens with a cloth I usually give it a squirt of canned air before using the cloth (with the intent of getting rid of the grit). Canned air can muck-up a lens real quick if used incorrectly - make sure you hold it level, and give it a squirt into the air before pointing it at your glass. The only other lens cleaning tool I use is a "Lens Pen", and only rarely.

[PViapiano]

Micro-fiber cloths are great, especially for auto detailing, and especially for black cars!

I have one in each camera bag. If you drop one, don't use it on your camera or lens until you've washed it...and never use fabric softener in the wash cycle. It gums up the micro loops/edges and won't be as effective.

Also the perfect cloth for cleaning the glass bed of your scanner...

[Michael Graves]

Go into any drug store and go back to their optical section. Three or four bucks will get you one. For a TRULY clean lens, pick up a LensPen. About ten bucks.

[Ted Harris]

LensPens are great! I always have one of them in every bag and a few spares lying around the studio.

[Alan Rabe]

I second both the micro-fiber cloth and the lens pen. Truly a couple of the greatest inventions ever for photography.

[Scott --]

I use a microfiber cloth, too. Have seen the blue ones at Home DePot. For about $5.

[Bob Gentile]

I think the Sigma Lens Cloth beats all the others by a country mile! Read why.

[Eric James]

I think the Sigma Lens Cloth beats all the others by a country mile! Read why.

That may be, but it has this stated limitation:

"- Vignetting may occur if the lens cleaning cloth is used whilst taking a photograph."

Buyer beware!