Accidentally cleaning lens too much, help please!

It's good to know i don't need to worry about a dusty lens from now on!
As I wrote in your other thread, it's still a good idea to (gently) remove dust occasionally. There reason is; dust attracts (condenses) moisture, and moist dust can become acidic, which, if left on for months, can attack the lens and/or coatings.

My rule of thumb is; if I can see the dust, and particularly if I'm going to store the lens, I will clean it. If I'm out in the world, taking pictures, it might not be convenient or safe to start cleaning my lens, so I will ignore the small stuff, shake off the big stuff (like chewing gum, bird droppings, or mud) and wait until I get home to properly clean the front element.
 
There are two school of thought pertaining to protective filters. Obviously one school believes in them the other believes in not using them. Modern lens coatings are extremely tough and robust.

I have tried my own hand at cheap versus expensive protective filters and how they effect/affect the final image. I found that the price of the filter doesn't affect the sharpness of the final image. At 100%, I found no significant differences between a cheap filter, a mid range filter an expensive filter and no filter at all, on images captured under a non-lens flare condition. I did find, as one would suspect, that the cheaper the filter, the easier and more pronounced the flaring and ghosting. A cheap filter having no coatings, a mid-range filter having only one side coated and an expensive filter having two sides coated would account of the propensity of lens flare.

As TCampbell demonstrated that objects on the front element have minimal effect on the image because the front element is largely used to gather light not so much for focus. If I shot in a controlled environment, say a studio or if I was able to pick time and place for shooting outside, I wouldn't use a protective filter. But as I shoot in uncontrolled, fluid/changing environments ... I use protective filters. Over the years ... decades actually, I have run into situations where I lost the filter to high impacts and chemical/airborne substances, but, by removing the filter I was still able to complete my assignment(s) and keep on shooting. Granted, I was shooting in situations where most hobbyists wouldn't find themselves ... but better safe than sorry. Removing and replacing a protective filter is much easier, quicker and less expensive than a front element. I do recognize that chances are a bit remote for losing a front element to the elements and/or unlucky forces. But, as a good protective filter provides more positive than negative, (in my book), I use them ... sorta like wearing a belt and suspenders.

Be careful with microfibers, as they tend to collect the dust and small bits of hard stuff, which, over time and repeated use, will be far more damaging to the lens than the dust that is being wiped up. Lens tissue is better as a fresh piece is used for each cleaning.
 
More lenses have been RUINED by too-frequent cleaning than from probably anything else, other than dropping them onto hard surfaces like concrete.

STOP obsessing!!! Cleaning marks are mostly found on old, pre-1960's-era lenses that had soft glass, like OLD rangefinder lenses from the 50's and earlier. yet still, there is NO need to clean a lens more than once a month, unless you've been shooting in an area where there is tree sap, sea spray, or heavy smoke, or airborne particulate matter (dust from agriculture, industry, or heavy wood smoke, or heavy concentrations of airborne cooking oil,etc.).


I start to clean my lenses when I have trouble seeing what is on the other side of the camera:1219:
 
More lenses have been RUINED by too-frequent cleaning than from probably anything else, other than dropping them onto hard surfaces like concrete.

STOP obsessing!!! Cleaning marks are mostly found on old, pre-1960's-era lenses that had soft glass, like OLD rangefinder lenses from the 50's and earlier. yet still, there is NO need to clean a lens more than once a month, unless you've been shooting in an area where there is tree sap, sea spray, or heavy smoke, or airborne particulate matter (dust from agriculture, industry, or heavy wood smoke, or heavy concentrations of airborne cooking oil,etc.).


I start to clean my lenses when I have trouble seeing what is on the other side of the camera:1219:
Good thing you don't use a rangefinder. :801:
 
I doubt you damaged it. I don't over clean but have dropped a camera on concrete...

I use a rocket blower; I usually carry a microfiber cloth in my camera bag. Supposedly it's better to use the microfiber cloth with lens cleaner instead of dry in case there's some grit etc. on the lens so it won't scratch the lens. I spritz the lens cleaner on the cloth (not directly on the lens) then wipe the lens.

In a pinch, I gently breathe on the lens then wipe it, but you're not really supposed to do that... but if I got something on the lens I do what I gotta do! OK, it's probably a bad habit I developed years ago...

Or just do what Frank does! lol Don't clean it unless it needs it.
 
Be careful with microfibers, as they tend to collect the dust and small bits of hard stuff, which, over time and repeated use, will be far more damaging to the lens than the dust that is being wiped up. Lens tissue is better as a fresh piece is used for each cleaning.

Thanks for your response, i've already ordered some lens tissue to solve that issue! I think i'll order a UV filter and treat it like a lens cap! That seems like a good compromise! But in the meantime do you think despite my initial over- enthusiasm with cleaning that i've avoided any problems?
 
I doubt you damaged it. I don't over clean but have dropped a camera on concrete...

I use a rocket blower; I usually carry a microfiber cloth in my camera bag. Supposedly it's better to use the microfiber cloth with lens cleaner instead of dry in case there's some grit etc. on the lens so it won't scratch the lens. I spritz the lens cleaner on the cloth (not directly on the lens) then wipe the lens.

In a pinch, I gently breathe on the lens then wipe it, but you're not really supposed to do that... but if I got something on the lens I do what I gotta do! OK, it's probably a bad habit I developed years ago...

Or just do what Frank does! lol Don't clean it unless it needs it.

Thanks, in future I won't clean as much but it's good to know I avoided any problems despite over-cleaning! From what i've been reading it seems as if cleaning is not that necessary for little specks of dust etc!
 
Be careful with microfibers, as they tend to collect the dust and small bits of hard stuff, which, over time and repeated use, will be far more damaging to the lens than the dust that is being wiped up. Lens tissue is better as a fresh piece is used for each cleaning.

Thanks for your response, i've already ordered some lens tissue to solve that issue! I think i'll order a UV filter and treat it like a lens cap! That seems like a good compromise! But in the meantime do you think despite my initial over- enthusiasm with cleaning that i've avoided any problems?

UV filters can create reflections which results in "ghosting" if it isn't a high quality filter with anti-reflective coatings (but those filters cost more). Basically if you can see your reflection in the filter glass... then that's light that isn't passing through and is instead reflecting back at you.

It turns out light can hit the filter, most of the light goes through but a tiny bit reflects back. Of the light that goes through, it hits the first lens element and again... most light goes through but some reflects back. Of the light that reflects back, it hits the inside of the filter (which is nice & flat) and so while much of it goes through... SOME of it reflects back into the camera again... and this creates "ghosting".

Typically you see ghosting as a reflection if the scene you are shooting has a particularly bright object or light in it (often when shooting at night or in dark areas because the exposure is longer).

A while ago I took a lens and did a test... I shot my dining room chandelier with no filter... positioning the chandelier in the upper left corner of the camera frame. You see the light bulbs in the chandelier but no reflections.

Then I put that same cheap Tiffen UV filter on the lens (I own high quality B+W brand MRC coated UV filters too... but their coatings are so good that reflection are really kept to a minimum.) I took the same shot... chandelier in upper left of the frame. But in the resulting photo, I had some "ghost" reflection in the lower right which correspond to each point of light in the upper left. That's ghosting and it's what you get when you use cheap UV filters that don't have good anti-reflective coatings (even good reflective coatings can give *some* reflection).

I typically don't use a UV filter - the lens hood will keep things from touching my glass. I own the filters... so if I go some place where I'm worried about something splattering on the lens... then maybe I use the filter. But most of the time the lens has no filter.
 

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