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  • Hey all, just changed over the backend after 15 years I figured time to give it a bit of an update, its probably gonna be a bit weird for most of you and i am sure there is a few bugs to work out but it should kinda work the same as before... hopefully :)

Finger oil and lens coatings

david farland said:
I'd be more concerned about 'diamond polishing' with dust/grit on the lens pens.
Also my lens pens (still in packaging) doesn't have a cap on the brush end, only on the cleaning tip end.
D
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Excuse me david but, what do you mean by diamond polishing?
 
david farland said:
Matt,
I thought Acetone (nail polish remover) was quite a bit more stronger than some of the alcohols, i.e methanol, iso-propyl, so I tended to use iso-propyl. Is this correct?
Maybe I'm giving acetone a bad rap as it seems to dissolve certain plastics. Still, I'm only worried about the coating or black around lens, but after years of experience I'm sure you know. I suspect % concentration may have an influence.
The other thing is brand of cleaning fluid. I find Eclipse fluids seem purer and leave far less residue than say any Visible Dust product or general methanol, iso-propyl products I have.
D
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Acetone will not damage the coatings if used properly. Wiping is fine, rubbing is bad!
Also, you shouldn't have to worry about edge paint, as you mentioned. As long as you take my advice and ONLY spray liquids onto the tissue and NOT the element itself, you'll be fine.
 
Would you be able to see these small scratches? If you looked closely at the lens?
 
That's frightening! I've used a micro fiber cloth with nothing but my breath to clean fingerprints. You're saying I probably wiped small microscopic debri all over my lens?

Do any of the problems we speak about here have any discernable effect on image quality?
 
DS Williams said:
That's frightening! I've used a micro fiber cloth with nothing but my breath to clean fingerprints. You're saying I probably wiped small microscopic debri all over my lens?

Do any of the problems we speak about here have any discernable effect on image quality?
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Yes

Over time Yes
 
By the way Mathew, thank you for contributing your invaluable advice to this thread.
 
yes, thank you stephen for your input. Sorry if I seemed I was ignoring advice.
 
DS Williams said:
By the way Mathew, thank you for contributing your invaluable advice to this thread.
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You're welcome. Consider it my duty to the film industry.
That's why Im starting to put together a little website for myself.
I don't want to rely strictly on REDUser.net to host material.
 
Matthew Duclos said:
You're welcome. Consider it my duty to the film industry.
That's why Im starting to put together a little website for myself.
I don't want to rely strictly on REDUser.net to host material.
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That would be abolutely awesome and helpful
 
Hey Matt,

Pretty much agree with everything you said here. I have noticed that acetone, at least in my experience, dries so fast that it will always leave a streak somewhere, usually requiring a second pass with a water/alcohol based cleaner. But acetone will remove contaminants that the water based cleaners won't remove.

I've been in the glass cleaning room at Carl Zeiss. I got lucky that one of the ladies that worked there spoke Spanish and she gave me the inside scoop. They use little pieces of chamois on the end of wooden sticks with their own cleaning fluid. Not quite sure how they get them clean after use (should have asked that). The whole room is positive pressure filtered air and they wear those fluffy hats (like surgeons).

They gave me a little sample of their cleaning fluid and it worked better than anything else I tried. The solvent power of acetone without the streaks. But the bottle is tiny and the stuff evaporates quickly. Then they want you to buy an entire cleaning kit just to get 30 ml. Not practical.
 
Mathew..

What is your opinion of Lenspen?

I have used one on my lens to remove finger prints after clearing any grit or dust away, and the lens looks very clean. But perhaps I have caused micro scratches.

I just bought some kimwipes and pancro, to cover all my bases. I wish I had access to that awesome prefiltered air blower you have, as I have been pretty stupid and accidently sprayed that cold air fluid on a lens once!
 
Matt,
In further begging to your sense of industry duty.....what's envolved in gettting a lens recoated or if scratched....reground/polished. what are the options/how much?
D
 
Matthew Duclos said:
Haha.. Jorge, I've used Ziess' "lens cleaner". I'm not a fan.
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Are we talking about the same thing? Little brown bottle with a dead fish graphic. "Optikmischung L" or something like that?

BTW, I'm machining a new iris drive lever "fork" for a LOMO anamorphic. I had to let you know 'cause I know how much you love stuff like that :)

Remember: "When you spin, both feet in".
 
david farland said:
Matt,
In further begging to your sense of industry duty.....what's envolved in gettting a lens recoated or if scratched....reground/polished. what are the options/how much?
D
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Everyone always wants to know "how much". It's different for every single lens. There is no one answer. But it is usually more costly than most lens owners anticipate.

In general, unless the damaged element is not available from the manufacturer or extremely costly, it does not make sense to polish and re-coat. Very time consuming process, and a lot of preparation when you have to re-install the reconditioned glass.

The coating used is a modern multi-layer coating, but it may not match the manufacturer's specs exactly. On external elements, especially front elements, I don't think it makes a noticeable difference.

I discourage lens owners from recoating when the lens only has light coating scratches. Back when things were flying high (in other words - when we had a functioning economy) I used to replace with new glass any scratched elements on the Zeiss primes I would recondition and resell. The resale price justified it, and because the buyers were paying good prices, I wanted to deliver a lens that was as close to new as possible.

In today's environment I'm not sure that makes sense anymore. In any event I have several used elements in decent condition, mostly S16mm T1.3. Some of them I had reconditioned (as described above). When Zeiss runs out, I will be able to supply elements for a while.
 
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