Are lens cleaning pens supposed to remove smudges easily?
Asked 5/30/2013
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I bought a Nikon lens cleaning pen and like the brush, but the cleaning tip seems disappointing. It barely removed a small dried water spot on a new lens unless I breathed on the glass first, and even then it took a lot of rubbing and seemed to smear the mark around. I also tried it on my camera LCD screen with oily fingerprints and it mostly spread them. Is this normal behavior for a lens cleaning pen, or should it remove fingerprints and smudges much more easily? What's the proper way to use one without risking damage?
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
13y ago
2 Answers
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The lens cleaning pen isn't a single "you only need this" solution. Lens cleaning should ideally be handled in multiple steps:
- No-contact cleaning with a blower; I like Giottos rocket blowers.
- Minimal pressure, light contact cleaning, such as the brush in the lens pen.
- Dry contact cleaning, such as the lens pen.
- Wet cleaning solutions, such as methyl alcohol.
These are in an important order: they start with being able to clean the lightest problem (dust, hair) and escalate to the toughest problems (liquid spots). The corollary is that they are in an important order: the potential to be least damaging and escalate to the potential to be most damaging. (Using your lens pen or a wet cleaning solution to scrub sand off, for example, will likely damage the lens, but a blower will likely remove sand with no problem.)
If you've got a water spot, I would try the lens pen. Sometimes they come off pretty easily. But if they don't come off, you need to look for a wet cleaning solution.
Originally by user8473. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user8473
13y ago
0
Generated from our catalog & community — verify before relying on it.
Yes—this is fairly normal. A lens pen is not an all-in-one cleaner, and it usually works best only for light smudges. It may help with fingerprints in the field, but it often struggles with dried spots or oily residue, and older pens can start smearing rather than cleaning.
A safer, more effective cleaning order is:
- Use a bulb blower first to remove loose dust.
- Use a soft brush lightly if needed.
- Use the lens pen for minor dry smudges.
- For stubborn water spots or oily marks, use a proper wet lens-cleaning solution with appropriate lens tissue or microfiber.
The order matters because you want to remove grit before touching the glass, reducing the chance of scratches. Don’t rely on the pen alone for every type of contamination, and don’t scrub hard. Also, LCD screens may respond better to screen-safe cleaning methods than a lens pen.
So no, you shouldn’t expect the pen to effortlessly remove every fingerprint or spot. It’s best viewed as a limited tool—especially useful for quick field cleanup, not as a complete regular cleaning solution.
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