Lens cleaning?

[Daysleeper40]

Hiall,

This is going to sound really stupid but I just have a little P&S at the moment (will hopefully upgrade soon!) - it is an Olympus MJU 725. I have bought a accessory kit today and one of the items in it was a lens cleaning kit. Can I use this with my camera and what is the best way of doing it?

Here's what's in the kit:

Blower Brush
Lens cleaning Fluid
Cotton Swabs
Lens cleaning Tissue
Lens cleaning Cloth

Do I just dab the tissie with the fluid over the area that is under the motorised cover that opens when you turn the camera on? I know I sound dumb but I don't want to get fluid where it shouldn't be! (although it is a waterproof camera actually...)

 

[AndrewWG]

As I understand lens cleaning, I would say the following:

The brush/blower should be used first. I think this is to make sure that there is not any grit or samd on the lens before rubbing it with a cloth or lens tissue.

The lens cloth is most likely to get any dust or dry easily removed stuff odd the lens.

The lens tissue and cleaning solution should be used as a last resort, if there is a real nasty smudge of junk on the lens that the other two things can't remove. To use this, you always put a couple drops of cleaning solution on the tissue and NOT directly on the lens, then you wipe the lens (I believe in circular motions?) until the shmootz is cleaned off.

The other answer is yes. This is to be used on the glass part of the lens that appears after the motorized cover moves out of the way.

edit: I have no idea why you would get cotton swabs in the kit. Maybe the manufacturers are concerned about people having dirty ears?

 

[Daysleeper40]

Thankyou Andy - I did wonder about the swabs myself!!

 

[cmwade77]

Get pen style lens cleaner from any photography store, I find they work the best, just make sure to replace it when it gets worn out.

 

[The Grays]

According to CArl Zeiss in Germany one of the best optical makers in the World, they reccomend that you blow off the lens first to get any big particles off, the breath on the lens, make your condinsation appear on the lens then wipe it off with the optical cloth. The only time they reccomended using the cleaner on the lens is if you have some junk on it. And you should moisten the tissue never put the cleaner directly on the lens. Their fear is that the cleaner may get trapped beteen the glass and barrel of the lens and work into the lens causing damage.

 

[MarkBarbieri]

I generally blow really hard on the lens to blow junk off and get it fogged up. Then I wipe it down with my shirt (being careful not to use to parts of my shirt used for drying my hands or wiping my nose). It works for me, but few sites seem to recommend it, so there are probably some drawbacks.

 

[MICKEY88]

a microfiber lens cloth is a great thing to use, they lift oil off the lens , generally no need to use cleaning fluid,, when the cloth gets dirty wash it by hand, rinse well and let dry...