That $90 lens cleaning kit was a total bust for me

I bought a fancy ultrasonic cleaner from a shop in Portland last month thinking it'd save me time on old Zeiss glass. Cost me 90 bucks and it left a weird residue on three lenses I had to redo by hand. Anyone else had bad luck with those ultrasonic tubs for delicate optics?

3 comments

3 Comments

paige33112d ago

Yeah actually I gotta disagree a bit here. Those ultrasonic cleaners can work great but you gotta use the right solution and not just tap water or the cheap stuff. The one I got from a camera store in Seattle was around the same price and it does fine as long as I follow the instructions exactly. Sounds like maybe yours had a setting too high or the wrong fluid. The residue issue could be from the tank not being cleaned before use too.

anderson.piper11d ago

My buddy tried cleaning his vinyl records in one of those once. Ruined a perfectly good copy of Rumours.

sean_cooper5812d ago

Hold on @paige331, I gotta push back a little on that residue thing. Most decent ultrasonic tanks actually come with a little pre cleaning step in the manual to rinse them out with distilled water first, so that's usually not the main cause. The bigger issue is usually the cleaning solution itself. Tap water has minerals that leave a film, and if you don't degas the fluid (run it empty for a few minutes) before putting your stuff in, you're just shaking up air bubbles that stick to surfaces. The wrong solution is definitely a common mistake, a lot of people grab whatever degreaser is handy and wonder why their stuff comes out cloudy. You're right about following instructions though, that's what really makes or breaks it.