LensPen

February 18, 2013 • Leave a Comment

There are a gazillion ways to clean your lenses. OK...maybe not a gazillion, but a lot. Air blowers. Microfiber lens cloths. Combination wet/dry cloth packs. Maybe you still use the tear-off tissue paper cloths with a little bit of liquid lens cleaner. The truth is I have all of these and use almost all of them regularly (although the finally-almost-empty, 3-ounce bottle of Zeiss lens cleaner has lasted at least six or seven years). The bottom line is that different methods work best for different situations. Air blowers like the Giottos Air Blaster pull double-duty, getting rid of dust particles on both lenses and camera sensors, but they don't do anything for smudges. Microfiber cloths (my favorite is the Spudz from Alpine Innovations) are a great solution for most situations because they can usually get the job done quickly, with minimal hassle. Wet/Dry packs like Lens Cleanse from Hoodman USA are ideal for when you have a lot of lenses or other optics to clean because one combo pack goes a long way (one pack recently got me through six lenses, three computer monitors, two smart phones, one laptop, and an iPad).

My apparent obsession for clean glass got another shot in the arm recently when my friends at LensPen sent a box of their redesigned LensPens to share with my students. See that small piece at the bottom? That's a non-liquid, carbon compound cleaning element, designed to safely remove fingerprints and other smudges from the glass without damaging the lens coating. The retractable brush on the other end removes dust and other particles. This is a great cleaning option while you're in the field, on location, or in any other situation where you need to clean your lens quickly, without disrupting your workflow. Will it last the 500+ uses the packaging claims it will? Time will tell, but it's off to a great start, and at about $15.00 you really can't go wrong.

Keywords: LensPen, Lenses

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