PSA: A retired press photographer taught me a lens cleaning trick I'd never seen

He told me to use a tiny drop of dish soap and distilled water instead of all those fancy cleaning fluids. Tried it on a haze-laden 50mm f/1.4 from the 80s and it cut through the grime in one pass. Anyone else got old-school tricks that still work better than the modern stuff?

3 comments

3 Comments

joseph4819d ago

Totally agree with this. It's like how people spend a ton on fancy beard oils or hair products but my grandpa just used a little bit of soap and water and his face was fine. A lot of modern stuff is just marketing hype over things that already worked. I found a old tube of metal polish from the 60s in my dad's garage and that stuff made my car's headlights crystal clear in two wipes, way better than any new kit I bought. Sometimes the basic solutions are the best ones because they don't have all the extra junk getting in the way. lol

pat_harris19d ago

Ha, I swear my grandpa's bar soap could fix anything.

charlieh7419d ago

Wait, does that mean I've been buying expensive sensor cleaning kits for my camera like a sucker? Because I definitely have a bottle of fancy lens fluid right now that cost as much as a nice dinner, and I'm terrified to even use it. Funny how the pros from back then just used whatever was in the kitchen sink and got better results. I bet my grandpa could have cleaned a telescope lens with bacon grease and a sock and it would have come out spotless. Meanwhile I'm over here following YouTube tutorials with microfiber cloths and holding my breath like I'm defusing a bomb. If dish soap works for a 40 year old lens, maybe I should just start using it for everything - my glasses, my phone screen, maybe even my car windows. Can't be worse than the smudges I leave on things anyway.