Lens cleaner and best portrait lens? Suggestions and advice please!

CuppaTia

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Thought I would kill two birds with one thread.

What cleaner shall I use on my lenses? I'm guilty of not cleaning my lenses due to being paranoid of scratching or damaging them. Is there any particular products I should be using?! I have no idea :(

I love shooting portraits and I am look to buy a lens to use pacifically for them. What is a good lens to use?
 
do a web-search on portrait lenses and read the resulting links.
do a web search on cleaning lenses and read the resulting links.

then you will have a variety of opinions to chose from and you can make your own decision.
 
Good portrait lenses are ones that have especially wide maximum apertures, and that are roughly in the range of about 50-200mm.

Which exact focal length is best depends on your sensor size and how much of the person's body you want to include in the image, as well as the size of your studio space / work space.

Ideally, a professional portrait photographer would bring a variety of lenses to a shoot to use for different kinds of poses. 200mm is going to give you maximally thin DOF for just a head and top of shoulders sort of portrait, and force you to stand far enough away that it might not work in small studios. Even with a full frame. Whereas a 50mm might let you easily get most of a person's body from 5-10 feet away.
 
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The key to lens cleaning is BE GENTLE.

First, the lens needs to have any dust/debris removed by using a blower and natural bristle brush. (Don't use the cloth in this kit, see below) Giottos CL1001 Large Cleaning Kit with Small Rocket Blaster

Unless there is some oil based substance, like fingerprints, on the lens front element, a 'huff' of breath to add a bit of moisture to the lens front should suffice.
If oil based stuff is on the lens use a lens cleaning solution. I use Nikon lens cleaning solution. I have a 4 fl oz bottle of the stuff and in 10 years have used about 1 fl oz so far.

I highly recommend the use of disposable lens tissue rather than microfiber cloth, because cloth can hold dust and debris particles that can scratch the lens coatings.
Never spay lens cleaning solution directly on the front lens element, so excess can't seep onto the lens.
Spray the lens cleaning solution onto the lens tissue, then gently wipe the lens.

Tiffen Lens Cleaning Paper Tissue Pack Of 50 Sheets
 
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Thank you everyone! :D
 
Use a lens pen to clean your lenses. Just search lenspen on amazon or adorama. I never rub my glass with a cloth of any kind. I did it once and had some sand stuck on the cloth. Sigma lens ruined.
 
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