Cleaning the lens of HVX

Niels Neeskens

Niels Neeskens

Well-known member
Dear friends,

I saw a lot of advice about cleaning the lens, and all of it was about using high pressure air to blow dust of it. I have a job tomorrow and I don't have the time to go to a place to do that, so what is the best way to clean it. I have a microfiber cloth from Iclean, would this do?

Cheers
Niels
 
Hey guys. I read it all ready bt my problem is, is that the manual coming with the microfiber cloth of iclean says that you can't use it without the spray that comes with it and it is more for displays etc. I was hoping somebody knows the stuff, it says it won't damage any protection layers. I am a bit scared to clean it but I have to do it...

Niels
 
DUDE NO UV FILTER?!?!?!?! Ur nuts.. If u have a UV filter, blow with your MOUTH (dont spit) and just use your friggin breath and a soft part of your shirt (soft!).. If you have NO UV filter, an dont have canned air or the proper spray for your cloth, thats up to you if you want to wipe your VIRGIN lens.. Make sure you blow all the dust off though..

I've worked with some of the top AC's in the world and they just use their shirt/bandana..
 
I wonder if lens cleaning is worth a sticky? Anyway, here are some pointers which you may find useful.
• The best way to clean your lens is to keep it clean, to rephrase something your Mother probably told you (time and again). For this use the highest quality clear-glass or minus-UV (usually called UV), thin-glass, multi-coated filter on thin rings, that you can afford. I’ve saved a couple of very expensive optics because the front crashed on the filter – and wrote them off of course – but not the lens itself. However: the problem is not putting a piece of relatively cheap glass in front of expensive glass, but that working in HD at wide-angle settings, you’ll easily image any dust that is visible to the naked eye. That is your call.
• Because most video lenses are used deep inside a matte box or a deep hood, they are well protected – so if you never take the matte box or hood off, there’s an argument for not using a plain filter. But I’d sooner wipe a filter than my darling squeaky clean lens front.
• There is no perfect cleaning method: use that which is appropriate to the muck you have on the lens:
• Air pressure is good for losing fibres, light dust or skin particles but is not much help against fingerprints, sticky pollen or liquid droplets.
• If you use pressurized cans (CFC-free to be a green videographer) always hold them vertically during use – or they may squirt out propellant – and do a preliminary squirt aimed into the air before applying to your lens. The blast of cold gas can cause condensation in high humidity, and the sudden temperature change has been known to crack glass or may set up stress patterns which may not be apparent but not very desirable either. Of course large front elements like that of the HVX200 are particularly vulnerable. Personally, if a speck is so stubborn it needs a real blast of air, I think it’s something that is best removed with the help of a light solvent like pure methanol and wipe.
• All this means that the rubber/silicone compound hand puffer is the safest and nearly perfect: you can use it at any time, you can take it on an aircraft and not be arrested, it never runs out (I’ve not tried it on Mount Everest). And the stronger you are (and you get stronger as you use it) the greater the puff of air. Get models which suck in air from a valve in the back, and also filters the air it sucks in – so that you do not blow back the dust you just lifted off.
• Liquid cleaners are good for removing the sticky muck. Of course you need to make sure no liquid seeps into and under the rim of the lens, so always use less than too much.
• Another kind of cleaner works like a face mask: you paint it on the lens, wait for it to dry, then lift the film off, taking off all dust and grime. It is capable of giving the cleanest surface – said to be the equal of an ultrasound clean - but takes some courage as well as skill to apply.
• Micro-fibre clothes can remove grease and lift off fine particles. I find them the best all-round cleaner, but they need to be kept clean. Wash them often with a drop of plain detergent in soft or distilled water. Keep them in a clean, snap-close plastic bag.
• Lint-free disposal wipes are good if you don’t want to be bothered with washing out a cloth. But I suspect that they collect dust even when kept in plastic bags. Some wipes are available in individually sealed packs but they work out pretty expensive.
• Shirts, bandannas, handkerchiefs, scarves etc. carry sweat (i.e. chemically not dissimilar to your pee) and skin fat (chemically not that different from car grease). If you want to cover your HD lens with a thin film of pee and grease, be my guest.
• All those who breathe onto their lens to clean it, did you know your breath contains some 200 chemicals? Yikes, mates; it ain’t just water vapour. If you suffer from asthma, you breathe out nitric oxide: nitric oxide plus water equals acid. OK, it’s not a huge concentration, but it certainly is not pure water. Besides, it doesn’t not all come out as gas: you can see it, but there are droplets in your breath, and droplets carry bugs and lord knows what else. If you’re gonna breathe on glass, as Justin says, for crying out loud, do it on a filter, not directly on your lens.
• If you use interchangeable lenses, don’t forget to keep its rear clean too. It’s easy to forget the rear end for all sorts of obvious reasons. But what is not so obvious is that dust on the rear can pass into the chamber and fall on the sensor, or at least on the glass in front of the sensor, which is almost as undesirable.
• Pulling all this together, here’s a procedure which I use:
1 Work under a very bright, concentrated light e.g. low-voltage TH desk lamp: diffused light is useless at showing up dust.
2 Puff the glass surface to remove the biggest, moveable specks: these could scratch the surface if you try to wipe them off.
3 Examine closely, holding against the lamp and looking for flecks, marks on the surface. Use reading glasses to get really close up.
4 If you need to remove a smear, try a clean micro-fibre cloth first. Do not wipe like cleaning a window. (Your lens is not a window.) Fold the cloth a few times so that a corner holds itself up. Using a circular action, make small circles around the smear. After a few circles, refold the cloth to use a new, clean part. The circular action is to avoid creating a pattern such as a concentric mark that is more likely to affect optical performance. Random marks are less noticeable. If that doesn’t work, use a lens cleaning solution as follows:
5 Roll a lens-cleaning tissue or wipe (some reputable companies use the inside fold of men’s tissues) into a cone like a pencil tip. Lightly wet it with the solution – one drop is plenty. It should be only damp: give it a shake to remove excess. With the same, small circular actions as above, wipe at the lens, taking care not to squeeze liquid out that could run into the edge of the mount. Allow any smear to evaporate before you apply any more: the solvent may appear to mark the lens but disappears once it’s evaporated.
6 If you return a filter to the lens, remember to clean the inside surface of the filter before putting on. I also give the space between lens and filter a puff or two just before screwing in the filter.
7 Also remember to give the lens caps a good clean before putting them back. Caps often end up in pockets, the bottom of production bags etc. for hours if not days: it’s not smart workflow to put them straight back onto a newly cleaned optic.
Probably forgot something obvious, but this is a long enough post.
Hope it clarifies
Tom
 
Man, I had it clean in a reputable company and the lens looked really clean. This morning I did a little test with it by holding it towards a bright light and then there are still spots and dust on it. When I check the lens again there is a spot on the lens again so probably it is that and it can be cleaned again, but I don't know about the dust if it is really on the lens or maybe in the lens. I am trippin here, because I didn't do anything weird with the camera. Now everytime I watch television I see shots in television programmes with the same dust in shots with a bright background. I really hope it is something normal and it is not inside the lens. Am I the only one with this problem, with filming in bright backgrounds? And yes I ordered a UV Filter and I know I should have done this in the first place, but I am new to this all! Any help would be helpfull.

Niels
 
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