Acetone can clean well, but it’s generally not recommended for routine lens cleaning. On bare glass and many coatings it may do little or no harm, but finished camera lenses also have other materials nearby—especially rubberized parts, gaskets, and some plastics—that acetone can dry out or damage.

That’s also different from a manufacturing environment, where they may be cleaning a glass element or blank before final assembly under controlled conditions.

For normal use, stick with cleaning supplies made for photographic lenses. In practice, you usually don’t need to obsess over a perfectly spotless front element; minor dust and marks often have little effect on image quality.

If you need to clean a lens or filter, gentler methods are safer: a damp lens cloth, lens-cleaning fluid, or mild soap and water applied to a cloth rather than directly to the lens. Be cautious with alcohols as well, since they can smear if the cloth or your hands introduce grease.

Bottom line: acetone is effective as a solvent, but for camera lenses it’s usually not worth the risk unless you really know exactly what you’re doing.