The best way to keep your camera lenses clean is to, first and foremost, keep your lens caps on when your lens is not in use.  When changing lenses, be sure to immediately cap the lens after you remove them from the camera body.

The most important part of the lens is the rear part of the lens, the part that is closest to the camera’s sensors.  If any dust accumulates on the back part of the lens, it is more likely to cause problems with the way the sensors capture your image.  It is important, of course, to keep the front of the lens clean too.  But the cleanliness of the back of the lens is much more critical.

Now, before you start rubbing your lenses clean with a micro-fiber cloth, stop!  If there is anything on the lens that is abrasive and you begin to use a micro-fiber cloth to rub it off, you could actually be doing more harm than good.  You could be scratching the lens!

Experts recommend using two simple tools.  A blower and a lens pen.  Both are inexpensive and available online or at your local camera supply shop.

Step one is to use the blower.  The blower, like the Giotto’s Rocket Air Blaster gently removes any dust or particles from the surface of your lens.  It is simple to use and takes about 3.5 seconds of your time to manually blast air over the surface of your lens, blowing dust and other particles away.

Step two and three is to use the lens pen.  A lens pen has two functions.  One side of a lens pen is a small, gentle brush and the other side is a small, carbon coated felt pad.  Use the brush side first to remove any larger particles from the lens that perhaps were to difficult for the blower could not remove.  Then, use the padded side to rub the glass of the lens to a crystal clear finish.  These two steps takes about 10 seconds of your time.

Step four is to use the blower one more time to remove any residual that the carbon coated felt pad may leave behind.  Your done!  Put the cap back on your lens.

Reserve those micro-fiber clothes for emergency use only.  The micro-fiber cloth is a quick way to solve an emergency, but you should finish the job when you get back to your studio using the 1-2-3-4 steps outlined above.

Happy cleaning!