How Do You Clean Your Lenses & Filters?

**Tin Can** · 11-Jul-2019, 16:56

Gads, I forgot about optical flats. I used them for 2 years checking test results from Lapmaster Wolters.

I do not recall cleaning them, but kept them safe....My first lab job.
Then I failed an entire production run. Management shipped bad parts anyway. 12 months later Detroit had major water pump seal warranty issues. Leakers.

I quit and took a long vacation.

Originally Posted by onecumulo

I used to work with specially coated optical flats, both glass and metal mirrors, and some other very fine surfaces. I saw many items damaged by scatches from KimWipes fresh from a box. I wasn't present when box was opened, so I cannot say the wipes had not been contaminated. However, a local optical shop advised me never to use those on my coated glassware. I also had some similar blue wipes that came in a 15 lbs box for 14" square wipes (believe size correct, could have been 12 X 12). I found that they were good for very fine metal shop use, but not good-enough for optically lapped metals, for it was evident that the wipes were reinforced with fine glass fibers!

**Tin Can** · 12-Jul-2019, 09:08

Found on YOUtube .

Remove old fungus with Hydrogenperoxid in Pre-Ai Nikkor 50mm 1:1.4

Never tried it

**Sirius Glass** · 13-Jul-2019, 19:10

Do not rub hard. Use a light touch.

**Carsten Wolff** · 14-Jul-2019, 02:58

Originally Posted by Sirius Glass

Do not rub hard. Use a light touch.

Very true!
I sometimes resort to classic Windex and soft tissue and even have used metho; coated, MC, uncoated, whatever. Never made a lens worse than what it was yet. But I try to keep'em clean/often filtered in the first place AND I DON'T RUB. I still have old lenses that i've owned for 30-odd years that are minty. I don't know what's so hard about looking after glass; it ain't.

**Bob Salomon** · 14-Jul-2019, 04:29

Originally Posted by Carsten Wolff

Very true!
I sometimes resort to classic Windex and soft tissue and even have used metho; coated, MC, uncoated, whatever. Never made a lens worse than what it was yet. But I try to keep'em clean/often filtered in the first place AND I DON'T RUB. I still have old lenses that i've owned for 30-odd years that are minty. I don't know what's so hard about looking after glass; it ain't.

Take a 20 or 40x loupe and look at the lens surface for micro marks.

**Rick A** · 14-Jul-2019, 07:57

I toss all my lenses and filters into the dish washer and set to pots and pans. Make sure to use the heated dry setting and let'r rip.

**onecumulo** · 15-Jul-2019, 11:37

That use of the pot scrubber setting seems like a waste of water; perhaps the use of a lapidary tumbler with abrasive triangles to knock off the more seriously stuck detritus on front and back surfaces, plus, if you were attempting to loosen shutter for your older medium and large format cameras, following up in the tumble drier on the gentle fabrics setting, might help you avoid getting damaging moisture into the lenses. Use the anti-static vinyl balls with the lenses to reduce the tendency of dust to stick on charged surfaces, of course, and don't forget to clean the drier's filter before (gently) laying your precious lenses into the drier tub.
I got rid of the slight dust on one Nikon 50mm by leaving it atop an antique generator in the town of Plymouth, California, when photographing some 19th century gold mining community grocery buildings. I never had any more worries about cleaning that lens, but I have wished I could find a replacement that I liked as much!