I haver never been so frustrated with flashlight lens, because only now i really tried to clean them and make them as new. How does one clean this god damn things? they are super sensitive and get dust/foggy very very easy. I tried soap and watter, doesent work! i tried everything nothing cleans them out! its just getting worse and worse, also they are so easy to get tiny scratches, whats up with that? my friend theory is that, they use low end glass, and low end AR coating, thats why they are so bad.
How do you guys clean the lens? please give me any tips i’m getting frustrated over here.
I tried once cleaning the lens without AR using dishwashing liquid. Wipe the water with soft cloth and finally using scotch tape on the part that goes inside the flashlight to remove small lints. I think the better material than the tape would be the protective film you get when buying new phone or tablet.
So i looked around, and looks like the lens pen solution would work best for me.
Where to get genuine one? there are like tons of different version from China and from EU, what version if the real one? (genuine) what difference is from one to another? looking at Ebay, and this FT version.
If you are really serious about cleaning flashlight lenses, get a Manfrotto or equivalent “lens cleaning kit”. If it’s good enough for my Nikon gear, it’s good enough for flashlights. It has all you need: cleaning cloth, cleaning fluid, air blower “rocket”, microfibre etc.
Hi cpfdaniel, unfortunately, that type of kits is good for high quality glass/lenses, keep in mind that flashlights have average/low quality lens, which are not the same as DSLR camera and similar stuff with good optics.
I already know that lenspen works, (and doesn’t remove the film) so i want to keep it simple, thanks for the help!
Flashlight lenses are quite high quality glass, usually.
They have to be very flat, you know, and not mess up the beam.
Your ordeal sounds like bad coating.
BTU Shocker, TK61/TK75 i have a very hard time to to clean up completely the smudges, they are clean but still fogy a bit…like there are lines - paths, in different directions left from the wiping with 100% cotton towel, after i washed them and added a very little soap, then i wiped of the water, still there are foggy parts, i tried microfiber same results.
I’m just guessing here, but it sounds a little like you’re taking off the coating…
But I read about this kind of troubles, like the Jacob A60 lens, which is (usually) horribly coated or something.
The guy used steel wool, which was a tip from an old glass guy.
With some soap and don’t press too hard and make tiny circular movement.
I use ammonia [w/o added soaps], distilled water and bilbous lens cleaning papers. Just a bit of ammonia mixed w/ the distilled, mist the paper [NOT THE LENS] then gently wipe clean. Works well on $$$$$$$ microscope optics as well as flashlight lenses.
