Cleaning lenses

For clean the outside the lens, you know you can do it. But don't try to clean inside the lens, because the dust or something can deposite inside the lens when you open up the lens in your home.

Lenses are multi element and the elements inside are set with extreme precision and cannot be cleaned (or should not be cleaned at home). The outer visible surfaces can be cleaned as the above posters have stated.

Thanks for all of your help. I ended up taking all the lenses apart that had problems and cleaning them really easily. It was really easy to undo the screws take them apart, clean them with some metho (i looked up the lenses and they were so old they didn't have coating on them, so it was just glass that I was cleaning so the metho wouldn't have damaged it). It was a little tricky putting them back together but they now work fine with the converter. I would not suggest this be done with a modern lense though, as they have coating on the glass so you have to take special care when cleaning, and they have very complex mechanisms (especially if they have autofocus).
Ubrales, if you had bothered to read my post you would have seen that if I didn't clean them they would have been unusable anyway, so you're post is not any help whatsoever

Best answer selected by slrboy.

I read your post in detail!

You have NO concept of lenses. When the inside elements get bad, the entire lens is a piece of junk! The elements cannot be aligned by hand even by the most competent photographer! You think you have something that works; but it is a piece of junk by your dis-assembling and then re-assembling it!

This is true for MODERN lenses. But old classical lenses can be taken apart by someone who knows what they are doing VERY EASILY.

However, it is worth noting, that if you have lens mold, there are two things to consider here. 1) the mold may have etched the glass surface, in which case the damage is permanent. 2) the lens area is actually NOT IN FOCUS - so you wont see any slight mold/dirt anyways - it has to be prettty substantial to see it on the picture taken. and at that point its usually eatched the glass anyways.

Thanks nathan   it's good that somebody on this forum actually knows what they're talking about. I believe it does have some minor etching on the glass, but its only noticeable when exposed to excessive glare, so I'm just using a polarising filter and a hood so its all good. They're only hobby lenses anyway, I have the real deal (autofocus and image stabilising) for proper photography.

Any more innuendos?

When you stated " ...Ubrales, if you had bothered to read my post you would have seen that if I didn't clean them they would have been unusable anyway, so you're post is not any help whatsoever......" you accused me of not reading your post!

I had the courtesy and the courage to address your irresponsible comment directly.

Innuendos are not signs of leadership!

Sorry I must apologise, perhaps I am being a little harsh, and I thank you for trying to help. I'm sorry if my question wasn't clear enough.

But I do have to ask, when did this post become about leadership?
If you want to discuss leadership, here goes:
I was captain of my school, also an active member in my local community where I volunteer at aged care homes, coach a local soccer team and work on environmental regeneration projects. On top of that, I am currently studying criminal law and working as a paralegal aid for a legal aid centre. Here's the real kicker; I also won the local government's young citizen of the year award for, wait for it, outstanding leadership in service to the community.

Furthermore, innuendos are sophisticated literary devices, and in this case you were not the only one I was referencing, so instead of addressing each answer individually, I chose to address them as a whole.

Further addressing your comment about precision and alignment, I agree that with modern lenses this is a very valid point, however with these older valueless lenses, the lenses actually work fine and were easy to take apart and reassemble, as everything screwed together and had its place. No, they are not perfect, but then having sat in a cupboard getting mouldy for 20 years, I'm not surprised. In terms of picture quality, they actually have very interesting light qualities due to the etching, as nathanbarlow pointed out, but this simply adds to the character of photos and suits my shooting style.

Love old lenses, it was build with the quality, back than : )

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