How to keep camera lenses
How to keep camera lenses | ||
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Your lens is the most important part of the camera or enlarger. It is important to prevent damage to its glass surfaces. On a camera you can help to do this with some form of lens cap, or a clear glass UV filter. Avoid carrying a camera over your shoulder or in a bag containing other loose items without some lens protection. A small speck on the glass is relatively unimportant – it just minutely reduces illumination, but a greasy finger mark, scratches, or a layer of dust will scatter and diffuse light, so your images have less contrast and detail. Loose dust and debris is best puffed away with a blower brush or gently guided to the rim of the lens. Grease or marks left by spots of rain may have to be removed with a soft tissue moistened in lens cleaning fluid. A scratched lens will probably have to be sent for repolishing. Don't become too obsessive about polishing lenses. You will do far more harm than good if you start to mark permanently the surface of the glass or top coating. Prevention is much better than cure. | ||