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Cleaning your Leica lens


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I have been following the thread on using filters purely for lens protection and can see both sides of the argument.

 

What are the views about cleaning your lens with a lens cloth? Or is it best not to tough the lens surface?

 

Your views are appreciated, thanks.

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There are tons of perspectives on this subject...so do a search for lots of info. Personally, I don't use a filter for protection....I use a lens cap. IMHO filters are for achieving specific results when shooting. As for cleaning the lenses...less is better, as each cleaning potentially leaves micro scratches in the coatings. Years ago with uncoated lenses or early coatings, they were quite soft and easily scratched. Today with much harder multiple coatings, that is less of an issue. Nevertheless, scratches, even micro ones, do cause minute scattering of light...generally not an issue unless the main light in the photo obliquely enters the lens, creating flare as the light bounces around and an inherent loss of contrast. What I've done over the last 50+ years is periodically blow off any dust, or if need be, use a mink brush to lightly remove it. About once/year Ilightly use a lens cleaning microfibre cloth lightly sprayed with a lens cleaning fluid (basically isopropyl alcohol), but only if really needed. And, yes, I've been is situations where it is necessary to use a shirt tail or handkerchief and my breath to clean a lens which got mud or water splashed on it....but it is done very lightly and not frequently. Hope this helps.

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I have a V.4 28mm Elmarit-M, which has a hair-thin 1/8" (~3mm) cleaning scratch in the front element coating. I mean you really need to look under a spotlight and tilt the lens around a bit to see it even with a magnifier. Not having a perfect example of the lens to test it against, I can't say what effect if any it has on IQ. What I can say is the effect it had on resale value. I got the scratched one (otherwise mint) for half the price of a ratty (7-8 cond.) one with perfect glass I was also looking at. In fact the previous owner had listed it multiple times and my offer was the only one he had.

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Lenses do not need to be cleaned with lens cleaner liquid and lens cleaning tissue or a microfiber cloth nearly as often as many people imagine that they do. I have read of people actually removing the lens coatings from their lens front element due to obsessive over-cleaning. That does not help your image quality, even if your front & rear lens elements are surgically sterile.

 

My usual lens cleaning regimen is to use a Giotto rocket blower bulb to blow dust off my front element. This usually is sufficient. If I have a stubborn dust particle, I will knock it loose with a horse hair lens brush and then use the blower.

 

Once in a great while, I will get a rain drop on my front element that dries and leaves a water spot. for this, I use a microfiber cloth with photographic lens cleaner spray applied to the cloth. My two microfiber cloths that I use on my M lenses are stored in a ziplock bag and are used only on my camera lenses. I have a second lens cloth that I carry in my pocket, which is for cleaning my glasses. This cloth is never used on a camera lens.

 

I wash my camera lens cleaning cloths by hand using a bit of laundry detergent in a clean bowl, rinse multiple times, then wring them out and hang them on a plastic coat hanger to air dry in a dust free area, just the same as if I were hanging just developed rolls of film to dry. Of course, the wash and rinse water is either distilled water or purified bottled drinking water.

 

Maybe I'm a bit obsessive with the cloths I use on my megadollar Leica M lenses, but then again I have never scratched a lens element by careless cleaning. ;)

 

I have not used a UV filter for lens protection until I began experimenting with this practice very recently. If I discover that a high quality UV filter like B+W or Heliopan does not degrade image quality, I may begin shooting with UV filters on my lenses all the time. At present, I only put a UV filter on a lens if I am photographing in a very windy, dry & dusty place where dirt and dust are in the air, or in a situation where I am in very close proximity to people, as in photographing at an event like a music festival, sports event, etc.

 

I have never had a lens front element damaged due to not using a UV filter in 35+ years of photography.

 

This is how I do it; YMMV.

Edited by Carlos Danger
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I rarely need to clean Lens front elements and agree that it's easy to get unnecessarily obsessive. Blower, clean microfibre cloth, very rarely lens-cleaning fluid)

 

I avoid using lens caps when out and about as if I need to get it off the lens quickly or may forget it's on then I've lost the shot. Replacement lens caps are obscenely expensive to replace - easy money for Leica!

 

Lens hoods are probably the best protection and rarely use lenses without them.

 

Use of protective filters is a controversial topic here. Personally, I almost always use filters (B+W) on my lenses although at times not at night where there may be increased internal reflections affecting image quality. I've been hard-pressed to convince myself that a filter has compromised IQ.

 

Filters offer protection from dust, fingerprints (Especially when moving quickly with many lens changes), contact with something that could scratch the front element, or direct impact (and a few times have saved the thread on the front of the lens barrel by impact damage to the filter ring when a hood wasn't fitted).

 

I've had one front element damaged by minor impact (a Nikkor AI-S lens with no filter fitted) some years ago.

 

Each to their own...

Edited by MarkP
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I overlooked saying that I always use a lens hood (#4 above). That has always been sufficient in terms of protecting the front element of my lenses, but then I try to be careful with my cameras and lenses.

 

Regarding front element damage - I read an account (in this book, if memory serves me http://www.amazon.com/Photographing-Landscape-Seeing-John-Fielder/dp/1565791509/ref=sr_1_24?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1422244040&sr=1-24&keywords=john+fielder+books ) where the author told of one of his LF lenses that has a chunk of glass knocked out of the front element. He says it does not affect IQ in any way. Go figure... :confused:

Edited by Carlos Danger
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Modern lens coatings are generally harder than the glass they cover, so you'd need to be completely (and unnecessarily) obsessive to ruin it by cleaning. A few spots of dirt on the front element will make no difference at all to the image. But like Mark I tend to keep a clear filter on the lens so that I don't need to use a lens cap and it means for any rubbing together accidents in the camera bag the front element is covered. It also means rain, mud, fingerprints etc. can be quickly cleaned off without going into full faff mode. Leica lens caps are horrible things anyway, apart from the push-on type, and shouldn't be trusted.

 

Steve

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Modern lens coatings are generally harder than the glass they cover, so you'd need to be completely (and unnecessarily) obsessive to ruin it by cleaning.

 

It would take a crap ton of scratches to actually ruin a lens, but only one itty bitty one to slash the resale value in half. Even if I never sell my lenses, I'd want my widow to get top dollar for them. I don't care so much on $200-300 Canon slr lenses, but on a $2000-3000-4000 Leica lens (where a replacement front element, if still available, could also run half the cost) I'm inclined to play it safe and use a top-quality Schott glass multicoated filter like Heliopan's or B+W's MRC Pro series.

Edited by bocaburger
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No filters unless protruberant/domed front elements that look likely to get damaged.

 

Careful never to touch the front elements, always put caps on promptly and therefore only a blow for dust is usually needed.

 

If I've had to take a lens cloth/wipe to any of my couple of dozen lenses more than a handful of times in 5yrs I'd be surprised.......

 

Pity I can't say the same about the rangefinder windows on the camera though :rolleyes:

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I use a camera lens wipe on the back when I need to (not very often) and dust with a brush the front or wipe with a cloth, if I haven't got a cloth I find something clean they are very robust and I suspect most would require real stupidity to scratch. I have used a T-shirt and breath many times when I've put a finger print on the glass or similar

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It would take a crap ton of scratches to actually ruin a lens, but only one itty bitty one to slash the resale value in half. Even if I never sell my lenses, I'd want my widow to get top dollar for them. I don't care so much on $200-300 Canon slr lenses, but on a $2000-3000-4000 Leica lens (where a replacement front element, if still available, could also run half the cost) I'm inclined to play it safe and use a top-quality Schott glass multicoated filter like Heliopan's or B+W's MRC Pro series.

 

Hmmmm; thoseM lenses on the used market that have been "ruined" by a hairline scratch on the front element sound like they would be a whole lot of lens for the money.

 

As for filters like B+W and Heliopan that use Schott glass, I have my doubts that anyone would be able to see any image quality loss caused by using them - not unless they were looking with an electron microscope...

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Hmmmm; thoseM lenses on the used market that have been "ruined" by a hairline scratch on the front element sound like they would be a whole lot of lens for the money.

 

As for filters like B+W and Heliopan that use Schott glass, I have my doubts that anyone would be able to see any image quality loss caused by using them - not unless they were looking with an electron microscope...

 

Agree on the first point, that's how I got a V.4 28mm Elmarit-M for $600. However a lot of Leica users won't touch a scratched lens even for half price and even if the scratch is tiny and off to the periphery of the glass (mine happens to be midway, and I have never seen any flare from it, albeit that lens happens to be among the most flare-free of all Leica lenses).

 

Agree on the second point as well. The typical argument for "degradation" includes a reference to "putting a cheap piece of glass in front of a multi-thousand dollar lens" and the Helopans and B+W MRC's are anything but cheap. Although they are less expensive than the Leica-branded filters even though those are TTBOMK double-coated not multi. And the Heliopans for sure (and I think the B+W MRC Pro's too but not absolutely certain) use brass mounts which do not seize/bind in the lens' threads as the modern Leica filters sometimes do (at least they have to me).

 

For those who prefer (or require, if using an M8) a UV/IR filter, the Heliopan's have visibly better antireflection coatings than B+W or Leica's. (I had both, held them side by side under a light and could barely see a reflection on the surface of the Heliopan's whereas with the others I could. And the Heliopan's UV/IR coating is also much more scratch resistent in my experience.

Edited by bocaburger
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  • 10 months later...

 

Agree on the first point, that's how I got a V.4 28mm Elmarit-M for $600. However a lot of Leica users won't touch a scratched lens even for half price and even if the scratch is tiny and off to the periphery of the glass (mine happens to be midway, and I have never seen any flare from it, albeit that lens happens to be among the most flare-free of all Leica lenses)...

That's true - and to each his/her own.  It goes without saying that when buying a used lens, a copy with immaculate glass is preferred. 

 

But is it a wise investment to spend hundreds more for a lens with pristine glass than a copy with a flaw that won't matter in terms of image quality?  Probably not - but then again, I'm as OCD as the next Leica owner/user...  :-)

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