Lens Cleaner?

[tmL]

Hey guys, so I'm waiting for my DSLR to be delivered and I've already begun worrying about what might go wrong. I think it must have been seeing all those kits with 'lens cleaners' that is making me super paranoid. So now I have some questions!
How important is it to have a lens cleaning kit?
How often do you clean your lenses?
Are there better lens cleaning kits than others? What are some good ones?

Thanks for the help!

 

[chaosrealm93]

i heard "lenspen" is a pretty good tool for cleaning the glass for dust and particles. personally, i use a cleaning compound called "ROR - residual oil remover" recommended to me by vistek. i use it in combination with a microfiber cloth. i dont clean it often, because i shoot a lot of indoors. i try to give it a good wipe when i get home from a long outdoor trip though.... hope that helped

 

[Trever1t]

not....get a rocket bulb type blower (Giotto) and some quality lens tissue or one of those Nikon Pens with a micro-fiber pad on one end and brush on the other. The blower is going to take care of dust.

 

[Derrel]

I was born with a good portion of a lens cleaning kit. First, I blow on the back of my hand very,very forcefully, like three times; that gets rid of any little bits of spittle. With my had-em-from-birth **lungs** and **mouth**, I blow vigorously on the lens surface, dislodging most small bits of stuff. Then, using the aforementioned lungs and mouth I inhale deeply and hold some air in my lungs for about three seconds, and then "huff" the warm,moist air out, and onto the lens surface, and then I quickly wipe the lens surface with a gentle motion,beginning in the center, and working outward toward the edges of the lens, using a freshly-laundered, quite new, 100 percent cotton T-shirt. I prefer the Hanes brand T-shirts. While it is often necessary to huff three to five times on the lens surface to keep it moist while wiping, I've found this sophisticated, continental method to be very effective.

Unless you smoke, a lot, and leave lenses un-capped, or unless you deep-fat fry fish and chips every night in a small apartment where lenses are sitting around naked and facing upright, cleaning of lens elements is NOT an everyday occurrence. You know how often you vacuumed underneath the couch back in your college days??? That's about how often you need to clean a lens.

 

[tmL]

Okay that makes things pretty clear
Maybe I'll pick up a blower down the line when my lungs get too tired, but for now consider this case closed!