Regardless of whether you are using a camera phone, compact camera, mirrorless camera or DSLR, having a clean lens will give you the clearest image possible with your camera. A grubby lens with fingerprints, dust and smudges will result in poor images and a lot of frustration. Correct maintenance of your camera and lens is easy and well worth the effort.
This post follows on from my post 7 Things To Remember When Finished Photographing For The Day. Since that post I have had some questions from readers and friends asking me what I use to clean my lenses and maintain my camera. It can be confusing as there are so many lens cleaning kits and gadgets on the market and some are far better than others. The following list are just a few examples of what there is available on the market, however they are what I prefer to use and keep in my camera bag.
These do a great job of blowing away dust from the lens and camera body. The last thing you want is for dust to make its way inside either the lens or the camera body itself. I have a large Giottos Rocket Air Blower. There are other types of air blowers available, however be careful with the cans of compressed air, they can be too strong and blow dust inside the lens and camera.
Optical Lens Cleaning Fluid and Camera Lens Tissue Be careful about what lens fluid you buy. Don’t go for the cheap cleaning fluids, they don’t work and leave the lens smudgy and end up driving you crazy. I often find they can leave the lens looking dirtier than before I started cleaning it! I use the Lee Filters filter cleaning solution. It is quite expensive, however does a great job. A middle of the range fluid should work well. Use the lens cleaning fluid with a lens tissue to avoid scratching the lens.
Ihave tried many lens cloths and found most don’t do a good job. The best I have found is made by Lenspen called Microklear. It feels like suede and is very effective at removing smudges. If you can afford it, get yourself a second Microklear cloth for cleaning the body of the camera. It’s also good for cleaning the LCD screen and view finder of the camera. Try not to mix them up though as you really want the lens cloth to be separate to the camera body cleaning cloth.
My favorite…… This is the best cleaning gadget I have used. The Lenspen is shaped like a pen and has a retractable brush on one end to brush away dust. On the other end is a cleaning tip that never dries out. The tip is made from a carbon compound that absorbs oils and is advertised to clean a really dirty lens about 500 times. The cap that fits over the tip to protect it, has a carbon pad. When the cap is placed back on to protect the tip, the two surfaces rub together cleaning themselves and makes the Lenspen ready to go again. The Lenspen is used by Canon, Kodak, Leica, Nikon, Olympus, Panasonic, Pentax, Polaroid, Samsung, Sony, even NASA! No I’m not sponsored by Lenspen, but I do recommend buying one. I promise… you won’t be disappointed.
There are many other cleaning options available. Perhaps you use a different method or product. The main thing is to keep on top of the cleanliness of the lens to ensure clear images.