p.1 #1 · Lens Cleaning - Any chemists in the House?
Not your typical lens cleaning question, but then again most people cannot do their cleaning in a certified cleanroom(oh the joys of being a graduate student). I have access to commercially pure isopropanol, and highly deionized water, and was thinking that following more or less my standard silicon clean would be appropriate.
Question is, will either of these products harm the coatings? I'm pretty sure the coatings are going to be metal oxides (more than stable enough to handle 18 mega-ohm water) but wanted to make sure. I'll just be doing the outer surfaces--nothing too terribly special. It's just that I have access to doing a really good job, and might as well if I can.
Plan:
Wipe isopropanol
softly rinse with DI water (upside down)
softly rinse with isopropanol (upside down)
blow off with nitrogen
Might be best to just wipe lenses, but filters I should be able to go to town on.
Why worry about how good a job you can do...the minute you leave the clean room dust will begin gathering on your pristine clean lens. Or are you planning to keep your lens in a sealed container and never use it again? Normal dust on a lens/filter does NOT affect image quality.
p.1 #3 · Lens Cleaning - Any chemists in the House?
I'll be more interested in using the cleanroom the moment I have to open a lens up (hopefully never, but I'm starting to like my old Zuikos), and the fact that I have good chemicals available to me.
That and some people ship used lenses (all I can afford) rather dirty--so this would be for the times I can really clean them.
p.1 #4 · Lens Cleaning - Any chemists in the House?
Just because you can do it doesn't mean you should do it.... The most I ever do to my lenses is blow with a rocket blower or GENTLY wipe (more like blot) with a microfiber cloth for particularly stubborn pieces of grit.
I shoot 150 days/year in all sorts of less than perfect environments and haven't needed to actually "clean" my lenses even once.
p.1 #5 · Lens Cleaning - Any chemists in the House?
I'm with Jonathan on this one. The only time I cleaned the lens was when someone put a big thumbprint on it!
I am not a chemist but I would be more worried about the "highly" DI water than the alcohol affecting a coating.
To be safe, I would use a commercial preparation for this. I keep a few medical tear-open isopropyl alcohol swabs & a lens tissue booklet in my camera bag (just in case).
p.1 #6 · Lens Cleaning - Any chemists in the House?
You can't just use a little hot breath and a microfiber cloth? Gets my lenses as spotless as new, although I'll also use a LensPen occassionally, with the same results. Using harsh chemicals and compressed gases is just asking for trouble, which you might find out, the hard ($$$) way. Sometimes simple is best, and this is one of those times.
p.1 #9 · Lens Cleaning - Any chemists in the House?
"It's just that I have access to doing a really good job, and might as well if I can."
The only problem is, the fix is only as permanent as the environment that the lense is used in. With that in mind; blow off dust with a bulb duster, then a light sweeping with a a quality lense brush. From there one decides how aggressive to get in regard to the smudge on the lense that has their attention.
As to your choices of product, the hotter a product (tap water vs lacquer thinner), the greater the chance of melting (destroying/ruining) the anti-reflection coatings.
p.1 #10 · Lens Cleaning - Any chemists in the House?
I'm surprised that there are people here who never needed to do more than a simple huff-and-wipe.
I don't mean to sound flippant, but I reach for the same bottle of Windex I use on my bathroom windows when my B+W filters get dirty, as per B+W's cleaning instructions. My coatings look as good as new.
To answer your question of what's safe on lenses, you might want to call the lens manufacturer. Based on the procedure you're ready to put yourself through, it seems you're extremely concerned about breaking down the coatings. Are you going to trust a chemist on an Internet forum to tell you which compounds are safe on your lens? How would any of us know the exact composition of coatings for a specific lens? I know Olympus' coatings evolved through the production run of a single lens, and that evolution wasn't disclosed. So what may clean my 50/1.8 might destroy yours. I doubt Olympus is unique in this regard.
Personally, I'd just reach for a mild lens cleaning compound, but given your concerns I wouldn't do anything less than get instructions straight from the manufacturer.
p.1 #12 · Lens Cleaning - Any chemists in the House?
I use a bulb blower, then a brush, then breath-fog and a microfiber cloth. Once in a while, if there is smudgy stuff, like fingerprints or last nights Chinese food, I use ROR (Risidual Oil Remover) with some tissue or a Pec pad. ROR, by the way, is diluted amonia in water. The bottle says less than 1%, so for some change in a hardware store, you can make a life time supply of ROR.
I don't think using the aggressive procedure in the original post makes much sense.
p.1 #14 · Lens Cleaning - Any chemists in the House?
the least invasive method to clean the lens is always the best method. a few specks of dust can not affect image quality. Blow the dust off and call it good!
p.1 #15 · Lens Cleaning - Any chemists in the House?
A shop just disassembled, cleaned, and calibrated my 400mm/2.8L for $125.
The person who did the work is a graduate of the National Camera Technical Training School, member of the Society of Photo-Technologists
and regularly attends formal schooling on the newest camera equipment available.
p.1 #16 · Lens Cleaning - Any chemists in the House?
I remember reading somewhere that you shouldn't do the hot breath on a lens as it introduces moist bacteria laden air into the lens where it is likely to grow into mold spots.
Not sure if this is true, but I always stick to the rocket blower and a lens brush/pen.
p.1 #17 · Lens Cleaning - Any chemists in the House?
Andrew J wrote:
A shop just disassembled, cleaned, and calibrated my 400mm/2.8L for $125.
The person who did the work is a graduate of the National Camera Technical Training School, member of the Society of Photo-Technologists and regularly attends formal schooling on the newest camera equipment available.
p.1 #18 · Lens Cleaning - Any chemists in the House?
mlorne wrote:
I remember reading somewhere that you shouldn't do the hot breath on a lens as it introduces moist bacteria laden air into the lens where it is likely to grow into mold spots.
Not sure if this is true, but I always stick to the rocket blower and a lens brush/pen.
Breath is DI water. So its a very good way to clean your glass. I doubt that there are enough microorganisms that can transfer to the lens to form a colony. Not only would you need enough but the environment would need to be suitable. Human mouths and glass are not exactly similar.
Though ultimately the better question is how those bacteria evolve into mold!
p.1 #19 · Lens Cleaning - Any chemists in the House?
eclipse fluid is basically really expensive Propynol. I used to use this all the time. Clean with IPA, rinse with DI water, air dry. Spotless glass. Its also what analytical labs use to glean their glassware (that must be spotless for such work).
Your methods are safe, maybe a bit extreme but don't worry about it damaging the glass or coatings. A good microfiber cloth and breath will only go so far, but do suffice most of the time.
p.1 #20 · Lens Cleaning - Any chemists in the House?
mlorne wrote:
I remember reading somewhere that you shouldn't do the hot breath on a lens as it introduces moist bacteria laden air into the lens where it is likely to grow into mold spots.
Not sure if this is true, but I always stick to the rocket blower and a lens brush/pen.
My breath is fresh and tasty because I chew Dentyne!
blowing off may drive liquid inside the lens 
