Eric Larsen Offline Upload & Sell: Off
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My father (who was a very good photographer in the 60's and 70's) always impressed upon me that when "cleaning" a lens, there are a few important principles that should be followed (yes, he was a bit anal retentive and, thus, so am I!).
Firstly, always blow off any dust or debris that is on the lens. A clean bulb brush used lightly works well. You don't ever want to make contact with, wipe, clean, or buff a lens while anything granular or abrasive is on the lens.
Use good quality lens tissue and put a drop of good quality lens solution on the wipe and not on the element.
Use a single pass method -- pass lightly over the area you're cleaning once then discard tissue. Repeat. Don't scrub, swirl, or rub. Don't go over an area twice with the same tissue.
Once everything is debris, spot, smudge, etc., free, you can very lightly buff with a freshly cleaned microfiber cloth.
The most important though, is clean a lens as a last resort. In other words, don't do it unless absolutely necessary.
I ascribe to the "just use your lens" school. I'd rather forego a protective filter than add a crappy piece of glass over a stellar L objective. Lens hoods help protect the objective from insult.
Agree that minor surface flaws affect images imperceptibly.
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