Too many of you seem a little confused on how to clean your lenses properly, so I thought that I would put together a short tutorial based on my few decades of experience with cameras, binoculars and now watch crystals. Yes, most of them come with anti-glare coatings today, and they are a pain to clean and keep them dust and lint free until the watch is cased up. FWIW, repairing watches is my day job.
Use a squeeze blower (or your breath, if you can do so without spitting) to remove as many large particles of dirt and lint as possible. Now give a few short blasts from one of those Dust Off pressurized cans of clean air. My reason for not using the higher pressure blast of air first is because the force of it might cause larger particles to scratch the AR coating. One tip that I've found useful is to always do a quick short blast into the air before pointing at the lens, because sometimes the first blast contains some propellant residue.
Spray a tiny amount of lens cleaner, or 91% alcohol, onto the corner of your microfiber cloth and wipe the lens clean. Now you can go ahead and use a clean part of the same cloth to wipe away the residue from the cleaner in small soft circles, as if you were polishing the lens.
Voilà! Your lens should now be spotlessly clean, save for any scratches that you picked up through carelessness.
In all my years of trying out who knows how many different types of microfiber cleaning cloths, I have yet to find one that does a better job than the Microdear, which is available from Adorama - see the link below. This was highly recommended many years ago by Herbert Keppler from Modern/Popular Photography, and I tried it out based on his enthusiastic recommendation. It is very thick, exceptionally soft and washes out well when dirty. Rinse it in clean water without any fabric softeners.
http://www.adorama.com/CPCML.html?searchinfo=microdear
Name brand lens cleaning fluids and dust free pressurized air blowers are all pretty much the same, but I have included a pic of the products that I usually use.
Use a squeeze blower (or your breath, if you can do so without spitting) to remove as many large particles of dirt and lint as possible. Now give a few short blasts from one of those Dust Off pressurized cans of clean air. My reason for not using the higher pressure blast of air first is because the force of it might cause larger particles to scratch the AR coating. One tip that I've found useful is to always do a quick short blast into the air before pointing at the lens, because sometimes the first blast contains some propellant residue.
Spray a tiny amount of lens cleaner, or 91% alcohol, onto the corner of your microfiber cloth and wipe the lens clean. Now you can go ahead and use a clean part of the same cloth to wipe away the residue from the cleaner in small soft circles, as if you were polishing the lens.
Voilà! Your lens should now be spotlessly clean, save for any scratches that you picked up through carelessness.
In all my years of trying out who knows how many different types of microfiber cleaning cloths, I have yet to find one that does a better job than the Microdear, which is available from Adorama - see the link below. This was highly recommended many years ago by Herbert Keppler from Modern/Popular Photography, and I tried it out based on his enthusiastic recommendation. It is very thick, exceptionally soft and washes out well when dirty. Rinse it in clean water without any fabric softeners.
http://www.adorama.com/CPCML.html?searchinfo=microdear
Name brand lens cleaning fluids and dust free pressurized air blowers are all pretty much the same, but I have included a pic of the products that I usually use.
