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Took me 8 years to figure out I was cleaning lens elements wrong
I had this old 50mm f1.4 that kept getting these weird spots after cleaning, and I thought it was just dust getting in. Turns out I was using too much lens cleaning fluid and it was seeping around the edges of the glass. A guy at a camera shop in Portland saw me doing it and told me to use a microfiber cloth that's barely damp, almost dry. I felt like an idiot because I've been doing this since 2015 and nobody ever corrected me. The fluid was getting under the retaining ring and causing haze over time. Now I just breathe on the glass first and use a tiny amount of fluid on a folded cloth. Has anyone else wrecked a coating by being too generous with the cleaning solution?
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keithharris1mo ago
Oh come on, I think people make way too big a deal about lens cleaning. I've been cleaning my lenses since the film days with nothing but a t-shirt and some breath on the glass and never had a problem. A little fluid seeping under the ring isn't going to destroy your lens, it might just need a proper cleaning from time to time. Most of these horror stories come from people who leave their gear in humid basements or drop things. I've seen guys who obsess over every speck of dust and they end up doing more damage wiping and rewiping than just leaving it alone. Unless you're literally soaking the lens in solution, a few drops of fluid isn't going to cause real haze. Just use common sense and don't overthink it.
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