How to Remove Fingerprints From a Camera Lens

Video Transcript

"Hi I'm Chris Rokosz, actor, director, producer and I'm going to show you how to remove those fussy finger prints from your camera lens. First off you shouldn't be touching your camera lens to get the finger prints on there but that's beside the point. No seriously, don't, you want to treat your glass like it is gold. It's the heart and soul of your camera. Other things can replace but the thing where the money is invested is in the glass so you want to take care of it. You also want to make sure that you don't get any scratches or dust on it because gosh that will ruin the fidelity and your ability to pick up nice sharp objects especially when you are in either wide or macro close up focus. Basically the glass is this. You want to treat it like a professional piece. Now to get some basic debris off of it use compressed air. If that doesn't blow it off because fingerprints have grease on them you want to use a lint free cloth to wipe it off and you want to wipe in downward and/or circling motions. You want to use not a lot of pressure but you want to get in there. You don't want to really dig deep in there because if there are little particles underneath it you may go ahead and scratch it, microscratches you know like on your car and stuff. You want to make sure it is there. Believe it or not the best solution to clean your lenses is human saliva. If you are a diver or a photographer you know this trick. It is to hock a giant lugie but I've got a little bit going on there and lay it right on the lens but I'm not going to make you sick by doing it personally but that is by far your best cleaning agent for it. They do make professional lens cleaning kits that is going to have lens paper, a disposable piece of lint free paper that is in there that you can throw out and professional lens cleaners. Again never use a Windex. If you have to in a pinch you want to use just a damp, and I mean, you touch it and you are not even sure that there is water on it. It is just not dry how about that not that it is wet it is just not dry and do that if you are in the field and getting it. Protecting your lenses is an important thing. I highly recommend if you buy no other accessory you get what is called the UV protector for your lens and basically it is just a clear lens that goes on top of it so that is what gets dirty, that is where the finger print is attached to and that can be thrown away and easily replaced more than the main lens of the unit if anything happens to it. Remember your mouth holds the best cleaning agent for glass. I'm Chris Rokosz. We'll see you in Hollywood."