Guy at the camera shop in Portland told me to stop using HCl for lens cleaning

Tbh I had been cleaning my vintage lenses with a diluted hydrochloric acid solution for years. It did a great job on fungus but this older fella at Blue Moon Camera said I was stripping the coatings. He was totally right, I ruined a 50mm f1.4 Takumar after one more round. Anyone else gotten bad advice that seemed good at first?

2 comments

2 Comments

ray_miller8424d ago

Got a buddy who used brake cleaner on his Canon AE-1 shutter blades because some guy on Reddit swore it worked. He sprayed it once and the blades basically seized up solid. Had to send the whole camera to a repair shop and pay 200 bucks to fix what was a totally working shutter before. Some advice out there is just asking for trouble.

faith_thomas24d ago

Man, that reminds me of the time my neighbor tried to fix his old record player with WD-40 and a butter knife... he was convinced the platter just needed a little "encouragement." Ended up gouging the spindle and gumming up the motor so bad the thing smelled like burnt plastic every time you turned it on. People hear one story online and think they're experts with zero practice... it's wild how fast a "quick fix" turns into a total disaster. Your buddy probably learned that lesson the hard way, same as my neighbor did.