Cleaning a UV filter
 

My UV filter has some dirt on it, and I would like to clean it. But I don't want to mess up the coating. Is there a particular cleaner I should use? Would water + lint-free cloth be OK?

Distilled water would be the best, but it won't get rid of any oils on the filter. You'll need to use a dedicated lens cleaner for that. Tiffen, ROR & Zeiss make really good lens cleaning solutions, and use a microfibre cloth or lens cleaning tissue. Some of the low-end brands like Hoya, Kenko, Tiffen, Marumi have coatings that are a pain in the ass to clean, so be prepared to take a little time.

Even just breathing on the glass and using a CLEAN cotton shirt is okay.

Lens cloth + breath. Good enough.

Yeah it looks like they are a bit oily. It is a cheap Hoya filter I keep on when lugging my camera around. I usually take it off, which probably explains why it got dirty :lol

Thanks, I'll go pick up a Tiffen, ROR, or Zeiss cleaning kit. Wing Shing here I come :)

Ah, but re-using a lens cloth too many times results in scratches due to minuscule dirt & dust particles caught in the cloth grinding against the coatings and glass surface. I personally only use lens tissues.

Fair enough. When I clean mine I wear a latex glove to keep the cloth free from oils.

However. How many times could you clean a filter before you damaged it to the point of where it would affect the quality of the images? Probably not an issue, really. (for day to day amateurs). I don't worry at all about the filter. They are easy/cheap to replace. The lens itself is an entirely different story though.

With a crappy filter with soft coatings, even a few cleaning cycles can damage the coatings severely enough to affect image quality, but if you use a cheap filter on your lens it is already potentially causing noticeable image degradation anyways.

Well, I guess it depends on how picky you are.

Do multi-coated filters extend cleaning cycles?

I use the Zeiss Lens cloths (http://www.amazon.com/Zeiss-Pre-Moistened-Lens-Cloths-180ct-Pack/dp/B000J46LZU). They're pretty much just alcohol moistened lint free wipes. It was like $5 for 50 of them at Walmart and as a bonus, their packaging look like condom packaging. :D

how many times can you clean a camera lens before it damages the coating? i used to put uv filters on all my lenses but now im deciding to go without. Even if the image quality difference is in significant with a good B+W filter, you'll still get an extra set of lens flare with a UV filter =( But im deciding if that's worth the trade off from deteriorating the lens coating from cleaning rather than cleaning the UV. Any thoughts senna?

Still at walmart? And I guess they're in the "photography" section if they still are?

Actually, it was in the optical section (where they sell glasses) in the Walmart by Queensboro Bridge.

Oh sweet thanks I'll stock up then!

Cleaning lenses and filters is generally the same for me: Blower, glasses cleaner liquid and then lenspen (brush then carbon tip). Basically takes anything off, the carbon tip is great for oil on glass and any lcd screen.

how long do those lens wipes last? i'm asking b/c some similar products dry up after a while

Since they're alcohol based, they dry up pretty quickly$ I'd say they're dry within 5 mins.

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You guys see the vids for the new Hoya HD filters? They're supposedly "shatter proof" and claim they're easier to clean. I bought one off maxsaver and yeah they seem more resistant to getting finger prints, but still you have to clean it if you have them.

i mean through their lifetime when they're still in wrapper and box

Should be years if they're the sealed packages.