Cleaning A Lens of Fog

[Bob Salomon]

Yes, she did, and I also refused.
They're excellent products, but a tough sell at those Austrian prices when most people are content to use a bit of compressed air.

Easy to convince people of the dangers of canned air (hazmat) but not compressed air. But then who flies with a compressor! And you can’t fly with canned air. And a Giottos Rocket Blaster is very effective and travels anywhere!

[Ari]

Yeah, the Giottos pretty much negates a lot of the potential sales to amateurs.
I’d think she has some good corporate and industrial clients, mostly in Germany/Austria, that keep her going.
But she believes in her company and their product.

[Martin Aislabie]

First you grind the coating off, equally across the lens, then you redcoat it. As grinding itself will modify the lens surface don’t expect it to perform like originally. Also this is not a diy project as it is very doubtful that you have the tools to grind it off controllably and definately don’t have the equipment and knowledge to recoat it correctly.

There are companies that will do this, not cheaply though.

Good to know Bob

I have a couple of old Mamiya lenses that are getting a little foggy/hazy with age.

I have never found anyone who could tell me how to deal with the problem.

Now I know - don't bother.

Martin

[tgtaylor]

Two weeks back I found the 72mm Hoya MC UV filter that I had placed on a 300mm Nikon F3 lens had a good coating of haze and tried to clean it in the field using Promaster OpticClean that I bought at a camera store years back and Olympus lens tissues to no avail. I gave up and used the lens which has a pristine front element without the filter. I bought a bottle of 91% Isopropyl alcohol and cleaned the filter at home but it didn't come off easily - took several applications with the tissues and a micro cloth. No damage was apparent to the coating. B&H recommends using reagent (100%) Isopropyl but 91% is all that is carried in the drug stores.

Thomas