TIL a retired press photographer gave me the best lens cleaning tip I've ever used

He told me to use a drop of dish soap and warm water on a microfiber cloth instead of all those fancy solvents. I tried it on a stubborn haze on a 50mm f/1.4 and it came out spotless in 10 seconds. Anyone else got a weird trick that actually works better than the standard stuff?

2 comments

2 Comments

juliarodriguez16h ago

I read something similar from an old National Geographic photographer once, he swore by just using a tiny bit of Dawn and lukewarm water on a coffee filter. He said the coffee filters don't leave lint like some cloths do. I tried it on an old 70-200 that had some weird oily residue and yeah, it worked way better than that expensive Zeiss spray I was using. Just gotta be careful to not use too much soap or you get a film. Your mileage may vary with different lens coatings though, I wouldn't do it on any crazy expensive cine lenses or something.

davidkim9h ago

Back in 2012 I had a fungus bloom inside a vintage 35mm f/2 that none of those cleaning kits could touch. I was about to give up when an old lab tech told me to try a drop of plain white vinegar on a Q-tip, then wipe it dry with a coffee filter. Took three gentle passes but that fungus just dissolved like it never existed. The trick is you gotta let the vinegar evaporate completely before you put the lens back together or it'll leave a residue that attracts dust. I think a lot of the expensive cleaning fluids are just rebranded household stuff anyway with a huge markup. Soap works fine for haze and grime but for biological stuff like mold or fungus you need something acidic.