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I finally stopped scrubbing my vintage cameras with q-tips
Used to spend hours cleaning old lenses with q-tips and alcohol, thinking I was being careful. Then I got a proper lens cleaning kit with a blower and microfiber cloth for $15 on amazon - first try fixed a haze I'd been fighting for 6 months. Anyone else have a 'duh' moment when they found the right tool for their collection?
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clark.alex22d ago
My old blower was a cheap one from a hardware store and it actually spat dust onto my lenses half the time. I got a proper silicone rocket blower maybe two years ago and it felt like cheating. I think I damaged a couple of my early lenses with those q-tips and alcohol, pushing grit into the edges and scratching up the coating. It stings a little looking back but at least we figured it out eventually, right?
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carr.lee22d ago
God, yes. I did the exact same thing for years with a set of old Minolta glass I got from my uncle. I thought I was being so delicate with the q-tips but I was just smearing a haze of dust and alcohol all over the place. Got a proper rocket blower last year and a little brush kit and the first lens I cleaned went from looking like it had a permanent fog to being almost crystal clear in about two minutes. I honestly felt kind of stupid for all the time I wasted before. It's one of those things where you don't realize how bad your method is until you try the right one. Definitely stings a little to think about the lenses I might have scratched up back then.
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craig.mila22d ago
The blower is honestly the unsung hero of camera maintenance. Before I got one I was just smearing stuff around with qtips and making everything worse. Now I just puff the dust off first and only break out the cloth or swabs for actual grime. It cut down so much on the time I spend cleaning lenses. The qtip method works okay for some things but a lot of the time it just pushes dust into the edges or scratches the coatings. Wish someone had told me years ago that the $3 rocket blower would save me so much frustration.
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