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Keeping Things Clean


Corius

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The biggest issue I'm having with my transition to the M11-P is keeping my greasy finger prints away from the viewfinder and rangefinder lenses. I'm also using a diopter and that gets greasy too.

Apart from wearing cotton gloves and shaving my eyelashes off are there any tips you can shed on how to keep things clean. For example, are there any products that can make the lenses less susceptible to grease, or do I simply have to practice keeping my fingers away from where they shouldn't be?

Also, how tough is the glass used for the viewfinder and rangefinder lenses? I'm guessing that wiping with a well used handkerchief isn't the best thing to do!

Thanks for any advice.

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I never go out with an M without also carrying a good microfiber cloth. Second nature by now.

Some local opticians practically give them away, especially if buying glasses or cleaning solution. As an eyeglass user, I collect them, it seems. Some suitable for cleaning high quality eyeglasses can also be bought from Amazon in packs of 6 for about 10 bucks. My local camera shop keeps them by the register, as an impulse buy… about $3.50 I think. 
 

One can learn to be mindful of finger placement, but smudges are inevitable. Best to be prepared.

Jeff

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Well, the best practice is of course to keep any greasy fingers etc. away from any optical surface.

But as mysteriously sometimes grease is nevertheless found on especially the viewfinder windows, I use microfiber cloth. If needed for cleaning improvement, I also combine this with isopropanol, highly pure quality. Since COVID arrived, I have a small spraying bottle in my pocket for disinfecting - and now also for fighting fingerprints.

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You already know the answer by now but I'll add: I returned to M cameras a couple of years ago with an M4-P. After awhile things weren't as crisp in the RF and I attributed it to my eyeglass RX changing. Then I thought to look at the front of the camera and saw fingerprints. I've carried a small microfibre cloth since then. I keep mine in a small baggie so it doesn't get wet or pick up dust.

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17 hours ago, jdlaing said:

Zeiss. Package of 2 - $9.95 on Amazon.

CVS pharmacies sell a Zeiss Lens Cleaning Kit, containing one microfiber cloth and a 2-ounce bottle of lens cleaner. They also sell boxes of 60 or 100 Zeiss Lens Wipes. They do not sell the box of 600 Zeiss Lens Wipes that I was amazed to see recently in an office that had just been renovated.

Edited by ceflynn
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I've never understood why the front glass of the rangefinder is flush with the body. A slightly raised rim around it like some of the old film Ms would help. Currently there are no tactile cues to know your fingers are near or on the rangefinder glass.

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19 minutes ago, hdmesa said:

I've never understood why the front glass of the rangefinder is flush with the body. A slightly raised rim around it like some of the old film Ms would help. Currently there are no tactile cues to know your fingers are near or on the rangefinder glass.

If you have access to the Wall Street Journal, be sure to read this article, published yesterday:

Touch Screens Are Over. Even Apple Is Bringing Back Buttons.

There are interesting and sometimes alarming comments by readers about the lack of tactile cues in many recent car models. 

Edited by ceflynn
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6 minutes ago, ceflynn said:

If you have access to the Wall Street Journal, be sure to read this article, published yesterday:

Touch Screens Are Over. Even Apple Is Bringing Back Buttons.

There are interesting and sometimes alarming comments by readers about the lack of tactile cues in many recent car models. 

I don't have access to the WSJ because paying for internet content is something from the 1990s :) 

But yes, car designers have lost their minds. Just give me a physical A/C dials that control fan speed, temperature, and vent position. 

Mini Cooper vehicles went from having amazing manual controls to putting everything on a giant circular screen in the middle of the dash. We will never upgrade our Countryman now.

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40 minutes ago, hdmesa said:

I don't have access to the WSJ because paying for internet content is something from the 1990s :) 

But yes, car designers have lost their minds. Just give me a physical A/C dials that control fan speed, temperature, and vent position. 

Mini Cooper vehicles went from having amazing manual controls to putting everything on a giant circular screen in the middle of the dash. We will never upgrade our Countryman now.

More importantly, a significant safety hazard in cars, requiring drivers to look at and navigate screens.  
 

Jeff

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53 minutes ago, hdmesa said:

I don't have access to the WSJ because paying for internet content is something from the 1990s :) 

But yes, car designers have lost their minds. Just give me a physical A/C dials that control fan speed, temperature, and vent position. 

Mini Cooper vehicles went from having amazing manual controls to putting everything on a giant circular screen in the middle of the dash. We will never upgrade our Countryman now.

From the article:

 

Newer electric vehicles from BMW Mini are bristling with physical controls. To make it so drivers never have to take their eyes off the road, industrial designers at Mini put into their vehicles a user-customizable head-up display that drivers can navigate using buttons and a scroll wheel on the steering wheel, says Patrick McKenna, head of product and marketing at Mini USA. These controls can also be accessed through the vehicle’s round touch screen, and via a voice assistant. The entire point of the vehicle’s interfaces is redundancy, safety and a reduction in distractions, he adds.

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2 hours ago, ceflynn said:

...Newer electric vehicles from BMW Mini are bristling with physical controls. To make it so drivers never have to take their eyes off the road, industrial designers at Mini put into their vehicles a user-customizable head-up display that drivers can navigate using buttons and a scroll wheel on the steering wheel, says Patrick McKenna, head of product and marketing at Mini USA. These controls can also be accessed through the vehicle’s round touch screen, and via a voice assistant. The entire point of the vehicle’s interfaces is redundancy, safety and a reduction in distractions, he adds.

The idea that Mini's next generation vehicles are "bristling" with physical controls is odd – maybe compared to an iPhone, but not to their own previous generation of vehicles. 

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2 hours ago, ceflynn said:

From the article:

 

Newer electric vehicles from BMW Mini are bristling with physical controls. To make it so drivers never have to take their eyes off the road, industrial designers at Mini put into their vehicles a user-customizable head-up display that drivers can navigate using buttons and a scroll wheel on the steering wheel, says Patrick McKenna, head of product and marketing at Mini USA. These controls can also be accessed through the vehicle’s round touch screen, and via a voice assistant. The entire point of the vehicle’s interfaces is redundancy, safety and a reduction in distractions, he adds.

I find head up displays just another distraction. And scrolling on a steering wheel bothersome.  Voice assistant, no thanks. Physical buttons and knobs suit me just fine for basic functions.  All these design geniuses are probably the same ones who insist on putting piano black plastic everywhere these days.

Jeff

 

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14 minutes ago, Jeff S said:

I find head up displays just another distraction. And scrolling on a steering wheel bothersome.  Voice assistant, no thanks. Physical buttons and knobs suit me just fine for basic functions.  All these design geniuses are probably the same ones who insist on putting piano black plastic everywhere these days.

Jeff

 

Don't get me started on piano black plastic, lol. What kind of mentally unstable people would want that? 🙈

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