I beg to differ. Before anything's brushed it's far better to blow lightly
all known debris away from the lens.
Enrique, please go out and buy a large- to medium-sized ear syringe for
this purpose. Or one of those "bulb" units I see on sale downtown--though
these do look awful bulky.
Canned air works for a lot of stuff but I wouldn't recommend it for
expensive glass. It could be that elements in the can will have a negative
(corrosive) effect on any glass (lens or filter) which is multi-coated.
Also, that air comes out under terrific pressure (given its very small
emission spout) and its possible that a piece of debris will be blown into
a crevice between the glass and frame where it will then be even harder to
dislodge.
Always use canned air with caution around glass, if ever, and only as a
last resort. (My counsel is to pretty much stay away from it with lenses in
mind.)
Then use a brush for whatever the air wouldn't remove. Always
carefully. If the brush won't "wipe" an object away, try "prodding" it
along by (gently) approaching it with the brush bristles reversed.
There are some utilitarian cleaning cloths around that don't cost much and
do a good job. Pick one or two of those up and keep them with your kit at
all times. Be sure they're clean. Always rub very very gently and NEVER
NEVER NEVER over anything that you can see which looks to be particulate in
nature--unless this offending matter simply won't go away from blowing or
action of the brush. (E.g., a hair with a static charge, a little white
lint flick, these sorts of objects often prove hard to get rid of without a
cloth.)
Finally, I've resorted to something called The Lens Pen. These seem to work
as billed but I've been soft-shoeing it big time all the way. This tool
appears to be the best solution for "smudges" and whatnot on lens surfaces
which will not simply "go away" from blowing and brushing, and the soft tip
of one these Lens Pens seems to be less abrasive and more accurate for
purposes of directly touching the lens surface than the use of a cloth
swathed around one of your pudgy fingers. As always: slow and steady are
your watch words.
Here's a link to L.L. Rue Photographic
Accessories.: http://www.rue.com/ You can find the Lens Pen there, along
with other interesting (and expensive) gear.
Tris
At 09:37 AM 7/13/01 -0400, you wrote:
In a message dated 7/13/01 4:48:39 AM Pacific Daylight Time,
qcabrera@xxxxxxxxxx writes:
(with regards to cleaning)
>Let's have a little of Oly Sesame Street. Just a few tips for us
beginners:
>snip<
(Ernie voice....)
Hi, Enrique. Here goes:
First, brush major dust particles, etc. from the glass with a lens brush.
Second, air blast. I use a can of compressed air. Rather expensive, but IT
WORKS!! Careful, keep the can as level as possible, and give a little short
blast away from the glass first, or you might be spraying propellant gunk on
your glass! Don't blow with your mouth. That air isn't clean. Saliva, food
particles, human cells, etc. (bleahhhh!!!).
Third... now comes the scary part...
I Don't know what others do for their viewfinders, Enrique, but I use a Q-Tip
(cotton-tipped swab) and methanol ( isopropyl alcohol) -- not much, just a
drop or two. You don't want liquid running down inside the body. You can
pull and twist & form the end of the cotton to fit into all the corners.
Works for me. Use the first one to get the major gunk. Use the other end to
get the rest. Then another, always turning so you are always using clean
cotton, not just rubbing the dirt around on the glass. Another, and another,
if needed, until you are happy. After this, maybe just a warm breath to fog
it, and wipe one final time, to remove any leftover streaks from the methanol.
Be gentle, and careful. Q-Tips are cheap. The replacement viewfinder on my
OM-2S was $64 plus two trips to town (and worry, and prayer). I don't want
to have to replace one again, EVER.
With regards to lenses, same priniple applies, 1) brush, 2) air blast, and 3)
wipe. I've tried the toilet tissue and alcohol/methanol technique, and by
golly, it works!!! In order to avoid getting too much liquid on the lens,
and risk having it run down into the inner workings of the lens, I moisten
the tissue first in just a couple spots with a moistened Q-Tip. Just a
LITTLE bit works. Gentle pressure, wipe from the center out towards the
edges. If you wipe around the edges, you risk picking up grit and scratching
nice little circular scratches in the lens. A couple of wipes, throw it away
and get clean tissue, and repeat. Again, tissue (ANY kind) is cheap relative
to Zuiko glass, no? EVER so gently.
Some folks have mentioned an old clean t-shirt. I use that almost every day,
when I clean my glasses. Wash 'em, wipe 'em..... but still there are
streaks. A quick wipe with my clean t-shirt, and ta da! No streaks. Why
wouldn't a CLEAN cotton t-shirt (old, so little risk of lint) work with
Zuikos? Any opinions?
I recently picked up one of the chamois cloth-like lens cloths, to carry when
shooting. Haven't used it yet, so can't say what I think of it. When at the
camera show recently, I spotted a desirable Zuiko (forget which, now).
Picked it up, looked it over. Looked clean. I was excited (but no OMoney)
Arrogant idiot salesman came over, smelling Zuikohol on my breath, I'm sure,
said $300, firm, then proceeded to SCRUB it for about a minute with one of
those lens cloths.... turned me right off. I'm sure its SC now.
Inside the body???? Gulp.... I don't go there, except to clean out the film
compartment (see Q-Tips, above). John H. has described his method for
cleaning mirrors: a wooden chop stick sanded flat. Cover with tissue,
moisten with methanol, wipe from inside out, turn over, wipe, change tissue,
repeat, etc.. There is a SMALL area on one corner of the mirror in my OM-2S
that I'm tempted to try this technique on, but I've decided for now to leave
it alone. I doesn't affect image quality on the film, right? And I can't
see evidence of it thru the viewfinder, so why get obsessive about it? I
don't see enough dust inside any of my bodies to be concerned about, so I
don't know how others may handle this. For me, CLA (clean, lube, adjust)
would be the time to address that (i.e., let the pros do it -- they know what
they're doing).
Meantime, keep either a lens or body cap on the body AT ALL TIMES. And keep
lens caps or skylight or UV filters over your Zuiko glass, once cleaned, so
you are wiping filters clean, and not Zuiko glass.
Focusing screen was recently discussed. Lens brush, air blast. Some have
described washing with dishwashing detergent, rinsing, then rinsing again
with distilled water, I think. Air dry (DON'T WIPE!).
Change the focusing screen with the Olympus tool provided, handle by the
edges and tab.
Did I get it right Bert? Bert?
Rich
P.S. Who knows where the names Bert & Ernie came from? (Hint: from a movie
shown EVERY Christmas season)
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