CLEANING CAMERAS AND MOUNTS:

STUOOOOOO-PID !
Here is an old habit that's hard to break. Use your breath to clean and apply a small amount of moisture to your lens. You see it all the time. One clean whisk of moisture laden breath and the shirt tail comes out to polish the glass.

Someone once said you had a lesser chance of contacting something if you kissed your dog. Listen jerk, if you believe that you are really stooo-pid. Dog saliva can contain, fifty three variants of viruses and germs, some really dangerous. Kiss your cat, they only carry eleven strains of viruses and germs. I learned this on Animal Planet.

Why kiss your lens? Perfect breath doesn't exist and the problem is that breath is germ laden. For years manufacturers used a base called Agar-agar to cement or hold glass components in place. It's also that pale yellow stuff in Petri Dishes used in labs to grow things.  So let’s try an experiment. You get a Petri dish and breathe on it.  Place in a nice dark place like a camera bag and then throw it in the trunk of your car.  Wait a week...  then call Ripley to get rid of the Alien.

THE OLDER DAYS:
At least once a month in the store someone came in with a camera and lens that had Penicillin type growths.  We knew what it was.  Yes, lenses are sealed better these days but they cost more and have multiple lens components held together by...you guessed it agar-agar. In the old days a 200 dollar Vivitar One was decent piece of glass but you don't know how many went south and just too expensive to fix. They were not the best sealed glass made. Tamron was also susceptible especially here in Tampa, Florida, aka the "Arid Proving Grounds".

CAMERA CLEANING 101:
The best combo for cleaning contacts on the lens is ISOPROPYL Alcohol, not rubbing alcohol.  Much of this holds true for cleaning almost all camera components. Anything seems to get used for cleaning contacts. Rubbing alcohol is no good as it contains water and oil for application.

I have heard praise for Windex, erasers from pencils to contact cleaner. Some electrical contact cleaners may be too strong, some work but most are harsh and can affect plastic. Lenses that use agar-agar as the glue that holds elements together might also get effected. 

Windex leaves a residue from the blue dye and the ammonia or vinegar are no better. And one piece of that rubber from an eraser can spell the end for a perfectly good camera. It just has to get into the wrong place.

NOTE:  Erasers are good for cleaning pencil notes and rust off fishing lures, they have no business being around cameras. They are rubber with varying degrees of abrasives. If you must use an eraser, keep the vacuum going as you do it so none of the particles can contaminate what you are working on. This practice came from an old solution for cleaning battery terminals. One minute  particle can jam a mirror or ruin a sensor. I don't know who started that brain-fart but the rubber particles will ruin your camera. My God what were they thinking, sensors, motors, contacts.... idiots.

WHAT WE USE IN THE REPAIR STATION:
1-  Isopropyl alcohol – Suggested brand is LKG Ultra-Chem. I buy it at a good electronics store. Rubbing alcohol contains water and some brands contain a water soluble lubricant. That's NOT what you want. Isopropyl is used to clean and prep Solder joints, will not harm plastic and dries residue free. Again, NO RUBBING ALCOHOL, and don't drink it either.  See Amazon, search Isopropyl alcohol 99% to order. Most flammables are ground delivery only.

2-  Magnifying Glasses - Good ones are from Donegan optical aka Opti-visor.  Otherwise go to Sams and get a four pack of readers at whatever you can read your IRS refund check at. (Very small print) 

3- Turtle Wax Black Chrome – Is available at any auto supply store and it is incredible for restoring black rubber and Poly-vinyl's. Makes the black, black again and especially on those rubberized surfaces and fake leather. Use very sparingly.

4-  An Assortment of Brushes - Varying lengths and thickness. Some are soft, some stiffer or harder. Include toothbrushes and I use a two inch paintbrush of excellent quality statically charged to remove lint. The brushes go into a tupperware container so they do not get desk rot and contaminated.

5-  An Old White T-shirt – It’s soft and make sure it’s washed lint free. Check with your wife.  She took your old favorite ones and uses them to clean the house with. She knows a good rag when she sees one.  She married you.

6-  Lintless absorbent paper and cotton rags - That were made for industrial lint-free use. I found them at Sams in the car polish section or so. I have a ton of gun cleaning swabs in about every caliber I use that are great for this.

7- Bamboo Skewers - The sharp pointed little devils that the Pygmies coat with fallow and curare and bring down elephants. We use them as everything from non-electrical probes to removing glue from seals that we are replacing. Their advantage over dental picks... priceless...they don't scratch paint surfaces.  There are several other uses for them in cleaning. Most important to me is as a holder for the gun swatches rolled into a tip which are lint-free compared to lint-full "Q" tips.

8-  A clean work area - I really got tired of spaghetti sauce in my lenses so I stopped using the kitchen table and made a secure area for working on things. I call it a "work bench". Stainless rated NSF. Just don't put a battery pack down with exposed contacts on a stainless bench. So it has a soft rubber top so parts fall and stay there.

9-  Old Vacuum Cleaner- When I did do camera repairs, I had a vacuum we kept in the storage room to keep down the noise with a long PVC piped hose PULLING the air from my workbench. We used it when taking lenses and camera bodies apart. 
It produced very low pressure, just enough to catch dirt and lint. We made a filter trap from an AC house filter and could change filters. Ir also caught small parts. In the plastic hose line we made venting using a valve to allow changes in suction to lower the pressure just to keep a negative pressure on the lint and foreign matter. I made a much smaller unit here at my house and fits on an ORECK mini.., that ORECK is one tough vacuum. 

10- Common Sense:  Once in a while I see someone mention lighter fluid used as a cleaner. I have no problem with the lighter fluid as long as you don't smoke while working on cameras and you use isopropyl alcohol to remove the lighter fluid remnants. The isopropyl doesn't stink as much as the lighter fluid and if you have allergies as I do, you appreciate that.