Cleaning lenses

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peterpa
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Cleaning lenses

#1 Post by peterpa » Fri Nov 25, 2022 7:08 pm

I need to clean the objectives of my Olympus BH2, I have lens papers but wondered whether microfiber cloth might be better. Any comments welcomed.

Alexander
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Re: Cleaning lenses

#2 Post by Alexander » Fri Nov 25, 2022 10:21 pm

Micro fibers will damage your glass for sure. They are not as soft as they appear but quite abrasive.

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imkap
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Re: Cleaning lenses

#3 Post by imkap » Fri Nov 25, 2022 10:44 pm

Sensor cleaning swabs worked nice for me, distilled water is great (I use the one from my clothes dryer.), alcohol if there is something that needs dissolving on the surface. Just make sure there are no particles which may scratch on the cloth or the lens. I always blow everything off first.

If you're looking at the through a stereo microscope while cleaning, you'll never be satisfied :D

I once talked to a guy who claimed that either isopropyl or ethanol should be used depending on the manufacturer. I'm not sure if that's a myth or truth. He claimed one should buy the genuine cleaning liquid for a specific brand as it has the chemicals that surely won't damage the coatings. Not sure where would I get this, not that I really want to, but maybe I would if it wasn't overly expensive
EDIT: Olympus says 70% ethanol
https://www.olympus-lifescience.com/en/ ... icroscope/
Last edited by imkap on Sat Nov 26, 2022 12:14 am, edited 1 time in total.

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imkap
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Re: Cleaning lenses

#4 Post by imkap » Fri Nov 25, 2022 10:47 pm

Alexander wrote:
Fri Nov 25, 2022 10:21 pm
Micro fibers will damage your glass for sure. They are not as soft as they appear but quite abrasive.
I use cloth used for cleaning spectacles too, a bit damp. You don't mean this by microfiber cloth?

Tom Jones
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Re: Cleaning lenses

#5 Post by Tom Jones » Sat Nov 26, 2022 9:54 pm

Use a reversed 10x wide field objective as a magnifier to check the lens condition prior to and during cleaning. Just Look at light reflections off of the surface of the objective lens to see any contamination or remaining film.

70% to 90% isopropanol and good cotton swabs work fine. I actually use Q-Tips on my own scopes. I use cotton balls on eyepieces. I like 90% as it leaves less film to remove afterward. I just exhale on the lens as a last pass to lightly dampen it then wipe it off with the cotton swab. A delicate touch is a really good idea just in case there's some crunchy stuff there. If there is, blow it off first just in case. Check with the reversed eyepiece and you'll know for sure before hand. Some folks have heart failure about it, but I've been doing it for many, many years without damaging anything. I even use it on my high-end Oly U-PlanApo's.

Some recommend naptha. I've tried it but don't see any benefit over isopropanol.

The last time I checked, even Olympus lens cleaner was just isopropanol and a little acetic acid. Isopropanol takes old oil off pretty well too. In a pinch, in clinical labs, I've even used 70% isopropanol alcohol wipes to clean objectives and eyepieces. Prior to the common use of 40x or 50x oil lenses you'd be surprised how many folks would swing the lower power lens into the oil remaining from 100x oil examination of a blood or body fluid smear, or gram stain. Then they would wander off leaving the oil contaminated objective for the next poor soul to clean.

Depending on the contamination, for body fluids and other water soluble material, I use one drop of dish soap in about 50ml of DI water. You can try it with straight DI water first, but the soap makes it a lot easier and is easily removed afterward. Chase it with straight DI or isopropanol to get any remaining film off. I've even used acetone or MEK on badly contaminated student scopes where you have no clue what you're dealing with. Be careful of that stuff though. In excess you might start to de-cement lens elements, particularly antique ones.

Whatever you do, carefully remove the lens from the microscope first. Do NOT just put your fingertip against the bottom of the objective lens with a flat piece of anything, dry or wetted with lens cleaner. That's a perfect way to destroy your lens!

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iconoclastica
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Re: Cleaning lenses

#6 Post by iconoclastica » Sat Nov 26, 2022 10:10 pm

Last week I saw this video at iBiology. I tried their method on my objectives and it worked well and looks super safe.

peterpa
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Re: Cleaning lenses

#7 Post by peterpa » Tue Nov 29, 2022 9:44 pm

Thanks for all the helpful replies. I saw on another website a suggestion about using microfiber cloths for cleaning vinyl records and wondered if they would be useful for lenses. I think that idea has bit the dust. I will go with the ideas presented here.

lorez2
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Re: Cleaning lenses

#8 Post by lorez2 » Tue Nov 29, 2022 9:55 pm

Follow Tom Jones' suggestions. He's spot on. (See the pun?)

lorez
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sreynolds
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Re: Cleaning lenses

#9 Post by sreynolds » Wed Nov 30, 2022 12:17 am

I would offer this pdf from Zeiss that another member referred me to when I had the same question.
Steve

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imkap
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Re: Cleaning lenses

#10 Post by imkap » Wed Nov 30, 2022 12:28 am

sreynolds wrote:
Wed Nov 30, 2022 12:17 am
I would offer this pdf from Zeiss that another member referred me to when I had the same question.
Nice, thanks for this

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blekenbleu
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Re: Cleaning lenses

#11 Post by blekenbleu » Wed Nov 30, 2022 5:21 pm

One refinement:
  • while spiraling along glass, slowly twirl dampened swabs.
Supposing that swabs encounter abrasive debris,
twirling lifts debris from the glass, rather than dragging it along.
Zeiss or Bausch & Lomb lens cleaning solutions are generally available.
https://www.zeiss.com/content/dam/Visio ... -spray.pdf
Metaphot, Optiphot 1, 66; AO 10, 120, EPIStar, Cycloptic

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iconoclastica
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Re: Cleaning lenses

#12 Post by iconoclastica » Thu Dec 01, 2022 1:49 pm

blekenbleu wrote:
Wed Nov 30, 2022 5:21 pm
Zeiss or Bausch & Lomb lens cleaning solutions are generally available.
https://www.zeiss.com/content/dam/Visio ... -spray.pdf
Are you sure this is the proper stuff? According to Zeiss it is for spectacles and should be used in combination with a micro fibre cloth.

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blekenbleu
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Re: Cleaning lenses

#13 Post by blekenbleu » Thu Dec 01, 2022 2:32 pm

iconoclastica wrote:
Thu Dec 01, 2022 1:49 pm
Are you sure this is the proper stuff?
No, but I am not the only one using it on microscopes.
should be used in combination with a micro fibre cloth
Modern eyeglass lens coatings are typically harder (more durable) than coatings
on (particularly older) microscope lenses.

Two lens cleaning solutions of which I am aware (but have never used)
that specifically mention microscopes are Sparkle and AmScope, e.g.
https://amscope.com/collections/microsc ... aning-kits
Metaphot, Optiphot 1, 66; AO 10, 120, EPIStar, Cycloptic

Chas
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Re: Cleaning lenses

#14 Post by Chas » Thu Dec 01, 2022 3:02 pm

MSDS for Sparkle:
https://www.tedpella.com/msds_html/8091 ... PR2014.pdf

Is the 2 butoxyethanol in the Sparkle a very different creature to the 2-(2-butoxyethoxy)ethanol in the Zeiss lens cleaner (being aware of my poor spelling!) ?

I must admit that I have started using the Zeiss spectacle lens cleaner (since Phill Brown recommended it for prisms) and it seems quite good ..more of a water & detergent mix than some others.

Rodney
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Re: Cleaning lenses

#15 Post by Rodney » Sun Dec 04, 2022 6:15 am

I`m not aware of any home perfect solution, I took a look at this years ago and found out that the least mineral free water you can find will leave less residue. You can clean with alcohol but clean the alcohol residue back off with what I described.
Anything not clean like the cloth can go back on the optical glass.

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