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Hot take: hand cleaning lenses beats every ultrasonic bath I've tried
I spent a whole weekend testing ultrasonic cleaners against my old microfiber and lens solution method on some dusty vintage glass from a 1960s Pentax. One cleaner left this weird haze on the front element that took me another hour to buff out with a Q-tip and some elbow grease. Meanwhile, my hand technique with distilled water and a drop of dish soap got a set of 50 year old lenses spotless in half the time. The ultrasonic did better on the body nooks and crannies though, like around the shutter curtain. So I guess each has its place, but for glass I'm sticking with hands. Has anyone else had their ultrasonic mess up a coating on you?
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nancy81727d agoMost Upvoted
Oh I heard ultrasonic can mess with old coatings for sure lol.
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dianaanderson27d ago
Pretty sure my ultrasonic tank thinks old coatings are a snack it gets to munch on after I walk away. Oops.
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Yeah but what kind of lenses were you putting in there? I think that matters a lot. Single coated old glass from the 50s and 60s is way more fragile than multi coated stuff from the 80s. I wrecked a Super Takumar once by leaving it in too long and it took a layer of coating right off the back element. Now I only use ultrasonic for body parts and filter threads, never for actual glass elements. What specific cleaner did you use? Some of the cheap ones on Amazon just vibrate really fast without any real frequency control, and those are the ones that mess stuff up.
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