Cleaning your 35mm glass

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DanHD

Well-known member
Hey guys, I wanted to get your opinions on something I do.


usually, if I notice a great deal of smudge or grime on my lens, I'll blast it with compressed air, then breathe some hot air onto the lens, and immidiately wipe it off with a microfibre cloth.
Do you guys do this? Should I not breathe onto the lens?
When I have used lens cleaners in the past, no matter how expensive, they always leave streaking somewhere
 
Well in theory your breath contains acids and nasty crap that could hurt your lens. Hasnt stopped me from doing it though. Usually I do use lens cleaner though when there is a smudge or something. Never had any streaking problems. I prefer a manual blower to canned air as that high velocity could drive any large particles fast enough to damage the lens. Keeps you from having to buy canned air all the time too.
 
I use my breath on filters, but not on lens glass. Have you tried Pancro? It's the only lens cleaner I and other AC's use, everything else leaves a mess on the glass. Even Pancro can leave a few streaks. Some AC's vouch for lens pens. What to do, it's an imperfect world.
 
Uh oh...do you think that breathing on my lens has caused some invisible damage or something?
 
DanHD said:
Uh oh...do you think that breathing on my lens has caused some invisible damage or something?
Click to expand...


No. Most, if not all ACs breath on lenses. I once read that whenever possible you should hold the lens up over your head and allow your breath to escape upward. There was some rationale behind this that I can't remember but it made sense when I read it.

Also, I've never seen ACs use cloth to clean lenses. Use lens tissue. I once had a gig shooting stills of some product stuff in a studio and I wanted to clean the lens I was using because I could see these swirly looking marks on the lens. I asked for some lens tissue and the assistant handed me this stupid lens cleaning cloth which I laughed at. Then I realized where the swirly gunk on the lens came from.

.
 
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I don't breathe on lenses because it's water. In colder weather moisture is harder to clean off even with a tissue. Also breath can warm up the front element of a lens causing condensation internally. Pancro evaporates very quickly even in colder weather.
Most of the time when I'm working I use canned air with nozzle. If there's something on the lens the air doesn't take care of, it's usually residue - actually it's mostly smoke which everybody uses. Pancro is better for getting rid of smoke residue than breath. I haven't seen breath used consistently in the six years I've been an AC, but I do see it from time to time when people are in a great rush. It's no big deal. Whatever makes the day and doesn't hurt the lens or picture. It doesn't hurt the lens certainly.
 
I vouch for lens tissue and pancro. also for lens pen.

I love my lens pen. nothing gets a lens quite as spotless as the lens pen 1st pass then a pancro 2nd pass....
 
Tim, totally agree on the lens pen. Because the pad is charcoal impregnated, they do an amazing job with smudges and anything oil based.

We've got about $3000 invested in a clean/dry/ compressed air system here, in addition to a dedicated clean flow room... but a blast with a bulb blower and lens pen is what we use in the field.
 
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