RE: [Leica] There Is More To Life Than Lens cleaning

["Buzz Hausner" <buzz.hausner@verizon.net>]

Seth adds some sound advice to my cleaning prescription and to Ted's.
While I have never yet resorted to lens cleaning fluids, I understand
they have a place, though I have never seen a lens so filthy that it
needed more than the condensate from my foul breath as a cleaning agent
and I have never heard of a filthier lens than Ted's Noctilux, which he
also cleaned without any sort of detergent.  Seth also reminds me of the
one occasion on which I do use a filter.

I have spent most of my professional career in disaster preparedness and
response.  When I have a Leica out in hurricane force winds or greater,
that is, winds in excess of 75 miles-per-hour, I will use a UV filter
because you would be just amazed at the objects a 75-mileper-hour wind
can toss around, like tree branches and pebbles.  Also, sand storms can
be hard on lens elements.

	Buzz Hausner

- -----Original Message-----
From: owner-leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us
[mailto:owner-leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us] On Behalf Of Seth
Rosner
Sent: Friday, August 01, 2003 6:41 PM
To: leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us
Subject: Re: [Leica] There Is More To Life Than Lens cleaning

Buzz, I'm with you. Most of my M lenses are the older designs from the
60's
and 70's. Better and more resistant coating than lenses from the 50's
and
very early 60's.

I don't use well-washed (and rinsed in pure water) cotton undergarments
often; usually airbrush to blow away surface stuff, a breath of
condensation
on the lens surface and very light and circular stroking with Leica or
Kodak
lens tissue. For anything that remains, lens cleaning fluid but never
directly on the lens, only on lens tissue and then applied to the
surface in
the circular motion. The real answer is: keep it clean in the first
place.
Unless one is in very schmutzy surroundings, salt air or spray, sand,
dust
etc. one doesn't need a filter to keep the front surface clear and
clean.

Seth


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