I had a chat with a museum curator that flipped my view on cleaning old lenses

I was fixing a 1950s Leica for a local history museum, and the curator, a guy named Frank, asked me to leave the cleaning marks on the front element. He said, 'Those tiny swirls are part of its story, like patina on bronze.' I've always aimed for flawless, but he argued over-cleaning erases character and can devalue a piece. Now I'm torn between perfect optics and preserving history. For you all, when do you stop cleaning a vintage lens?

3 comments

3 Comments

seth_shah15d ago

It's like keeping the dents in a favorite old car.

michael66915d ago

A camera repair blog made a good point about this. Some collectors see cleaning marks as proof a lens was actually used by photographers, not just stored. That history can be more interesting than a perfect but sterile piece.

evan_green5215d ago

Yeah, that tracks. Next they'll be selling lenses with "authentic photographer fingerprints" at a markup. I can see the listing now, "minor fungus included for character, tells a story." It's the same logic that makes people pay extra for pre-distressed jeans. At least the jeans don't have haze that ruins your pictures.