20 years of cleaning lenses wrong and a retired Canon tech set me straight

I was at a camera swap meet in Portland last month and this old guy watched me wipe a lens with my shirt. He pulled out a little bottle of Eclipse fluid and some Pec Pads and showed me how to do a proper swirl from the center out. Turns out I was just smearing grease around the whole time. I never even knew lens cleaning fluid was a thing. Anyone else get taught something basic way later than they should have?

2 comments

2 Comments

kelly_craig22d ago

Same, @norab21 - I thought spit shine was a legit photography technique! 😅

norab2122d ago

I read somewhere that using your breath to fog up a lens before wiping it is actually bad because there's acid in your saliva or something. I used to do that all the time. That old tech probably would've had a heart attack watching me breathe all over my glass. Now I just use a rocket blower and if it's really dirty I'll wet a pad with a drop of fluid and go slow. Crazy how long I went just treating my lenses like dirty dishes.