Before you wipe lens of a camera, keep in mind that doing it in the wrong way may lead to permanent damage. To avoid that, read the top five safe ways to effectively clean your beloved camera and its lens.
No matter how expensive and high-end your camera body is, the lens it is attached to directly affects the light entering the camera body and, hence, the image quality. No matter how careful you are with your camera gear, it is still constantly exposed to external factors.
Dust, smudges, and fingerprints are all the main culprits here, which annoy everyone, including us. No matter how clean your space is, there is still a high chance that they can appear from nowhere. And it becomes even worse for those who are into outdoor photography. The struggle is real here and we understand you.
But the thing is that you can’t just wipe lens with anything at your disposal, as it can damage the outer layer of the lens glass, leaving permanent damage to the hardware. To avoid that, you need to be professional towards your gear, as we need to learn best practices and safe materials for properly cleaning a camera lens. Here's how you can do it:
Recommended Materials for Lens Cleaning
1. Portable Air Blower
Before you wipe lens of your camera, it’s best to start with air blowing. There are many inexpensive air blowers available on Amazon and other platforms right now, which you can just tuck into your camera gear. Treating with an air blower removes loose dust, debris and prevents particles from scratching the lens during wiping.
2. Special Microfiber Cloth for Camera Lens
This is one of the most common, cheapest, and most straightforward ways to clean a lens to this day. Such clothes are designed with a soft texture and small microfiber, which can trap dust without scratching. Pretty effective, but always use a clean or new cloth every time. Start wiping with a circular motion, but if there are too many dust particles, we recommend moving on to the second method.
3. Soft Bristled Brush for Camera Lens
These brushes are designed with extremely smooth bristles made of special soft materials that don’t scratch your camera lens. These soft bristles can effectively displace the small dust particles that you might be struggling to remove with microfiber cloths. Just a caution: don’t rely on cheap brushes, as their hard bristles can damage the outer layer of the lens glass.
4. Pre-Moistened Lens Wipes & Tissues
They are made to be disposable with soft and lint-free materials and are quite cheap as well. Both are for one-time use and effectively work to remove any dust and smudges left after using brushes. Just make sure to avoid the ones with strong chemicals, as they can react with the alloy lining of the lens or even glass to break later. Spending a little more for your camera hardware won’t hurt much, tbh.
5. Lens Cleaning Pens
Unlike a ballpoint or fountain pen, these are narrow and thin “pens” that have a soft brush on one end for removing loose dust. The other end has a cleaning tip, which is usually with special carbon compounds. This end is quite effective in removing smudges.
All of the above are our five most recommended ways to deal with dust and smudges on your camera lens and should be followed as your normal routine to maintain your gear. Now, how to clean a camera lens?
How to Clean Your Lens: Step-by-Step
1. First things first, remove the lens from your camera body just to be safe (we don’t want to damage hardware just for cleaning). This ensures that there is no chance of permanent electronic damage to your camera body due to exposure to liquids from materials like cleaning wipes.
2. Start by using a lens blower by holding it a few inches from the lens and gently directing the air to loosen dust. Make sure to avoid compressed air when doing this step, which can push dust deep into the lens that will be a bigger problem for you.
3. Next, brush away particles using that soft-bristle brush we talked about above. This will remove any stubborn dust particles, but be gentle while doing so. Too much pressure with these brushes can scratch the surface of the lens glass (this point is intentionally repeated twice).
4. If you are still left with some dust particles on the inner sides, then use a lens cleaning pen, which can brush away fine particles with the brush end due to its narrow profile.
5. Lastly, apply lens cleaning solution with a gentle chemical formula. We recommend investing in high-quality solutions designed only for camera gear.
6. Look for smudges if left and repeat the fifth step until the smudges are removed. Make sure to do all these steps in a dust-free and indoor environment to get the best results.
Before you wipe lens of your camera, make sure to consider the above methods and tips to avoid damaging your camera lens. Maintaining a regular maintenance routine with proper cleaning techniques is key to preserving the longevity of your beloved camera lens.
Using a high-end lens that can withstand external forces of damage is as important as cleaning it. The SIRUI Night Walker T1.2 Super35 Frame Cine Lens Series is built like a tank and is designed to be a reliable outdoor lens. It produces super crisp focus on objects with minimal aberration and delivers professional-grade cinematographic video with dreamy flares and background blur. You get a small, compact body; lightweight construction under 600 grams; and a friendly design to easily clean its glass elements.
