Isopropyl alcohol vs. 96% ethanol?

[Photo Engineer]

Paul ron, I would just as soon use a chisel to remove coatings as use Ammonia on any of my lenses.

PE

 

[paul ron]

but i want to strip the coating off a lens. i tried everything people say is bad for coatings including wd40 which someone said melted thir coating right off! so far nothing has worked! my next experiment will be battery acid.

so are people overly cautious about delicate coatings? perhaps thses coatings are much tougher than everyone thinks?

edit... i tried household ammonia n it did nothing to my coating... it just left it clean.

 

[Photo Engineer]

Some coatings are sputtered elements onto glass and others are organic or chemical washes. These are on the glass surface. Type of coating and type of glass will determine the "solvent" which will remove the coating. Each element in the lens is a thin piece of "glass" glued one on top of another with a particular type of glue. It too is subject to dissolution by some things that you might apply to the glass surface. The lubricant is also subject to removal or damage.

I suggest you have an expert do it.

PE

 

[paul ron]

hahaahaha pe, ive been repairing cameras n cleaning lenses of all types for almost 50 years n havent had anthing remove a coating yet.

i have thought about trying to restore a few fungus eatten elements over the years by just removing the coatings but to no avail, nothing disolves them as easily as people think. so i cant help laughing seeing people treating coatings as if they were delicate flowers. yes they can be scratched very easily by using the wrong or dirty cleaning cloth, but as for solvents... im very sceptical.

so can you recomend a coating stripper? ive got a closet full of beautiful lenses that would love you for it.

 

[Photo Engineer]

I'm not the guy. All I know is that Ammonia is not good. And since you didn't know that, I'm not going to trust my lenses to you. Sorry.

PE

 

[Fujicaman1957]

I worked for 9 months every Saturday in a camera repair shop in Philadelphia in 1992. The owner told me to NEVER use rubbing alcohol on a lens as the denaturing agent could attack the coating. He used Ever-Clear from the liquor store (it's really just 190 proof grain alcohol). It's also sold under the Clear Spring brand name.

 

[CMoore]

So.....does anybody have a picture of a lens that Is Known to have been ruined by Ammonia...not just a picture of a bad lens, and Somebody Says it was ruined by Ammonia.?
I have no Idea/Knowledge about lens cleaning...cameras are not my main hobby, but.....this discussion is like so many I have read on my Gun and Guitar Amp forums.
For example....."Be careful, capacitors in a tube amp store enough voltage to be lethal...!!"
It IS true that many caps can store 300-400-500 VDC, and that CAN be lethal. But I have NEVER seen any proof of anybody that EVER died from cap storage, or died from working on an amp at all. You are Much More likely to be Injured/Killed by getting across the mains supply at the fuse, than by grabbing both ends of a cap that zaps you with 417 VDC at 121 mA. But the warning gets repeated Over and Over and Over gain, as if one or two guys get killed each year.
Things get repeated over and over, and become "fact". Sometimes they are repeated by VERY Knowledgeable people that just happen to be wrong about the One Thing of topic.
Again...I am NOT saying Ammonia is a good idea, it might be The Worst Possible choice, just curious to see some record of the damage done.
And again...not talking about Ammonia, but something you would use for a camera lens...maybe 97% distilled water and 3% Ammonia solution ...in a little bottle carried in your camera bag.
Thank You

 

[Patrick Robert James]

Acetone works well but don't get it on any plastic or painted surfaces. If you want something to carry in your bag, Zeiss lens cleaner or ROR are both very good, with a nod to ROR.

The best cleaner I have ever used is OptiClean. It gets the lens microscopically clean. Don't know how much it costs these days but I know it is expensive. A less expensive solution might be collodion. I haven't tried that yet but astronomers use it for telescopes.

 

[eli griggs]

I like ethanol in the form of 190 proof Everclear, its good at cleaning lenses and very good at making rosin flux, making shellac, removing epoxy from hands and many other things. I've never used it or other fluids for mirrors and until recently, I've not owned B&W brand filters, so I appreciate this thread for the info it allows us to consider.

 

[paul ron]

I'm not the guy. All I know is that Ammonia is not good. And since you didn't know that, I'm not going to trust my lenses to you. Sorry.

PE

WHY?


its not about me not knowing., im deliberately trying everything everyone says is bad for coatings. so far all i see are myths being perpetuated. and im very surprised you would back the voodoo without more concise data. it makes me doubt your qualifications.

has anyone tried what they say is bad for coatings or just passing assumtions n hear say? please post pix of your results?

ill take pix of my before and afters as i collect more myths.

btw, those large storage caps in amps do kill. that can be googled for the stats of deaths over the years by radio operators... thats fact, not myth.

 

[onre]

You might try with vinegar. I had a very badly fungus-infested rear element from a 28 mm lens, and thought that as there's nothing to lose, let's try this out. After some scrubbing with Q-tips, I decided to put it in a vinegar bath in a spare film canister. I promptly forgot about the whole thing, and as I opened the canister a couple of days later, the fungus was gone but so was all the coating from the area. I don't know if longer bathing would have resulted in more coating gone missing, but you could test this.

 

[CMoore]

btw, those large storage caps in amps do kill. that can be googled for the stats of deaths over the years by radio operators... thats fact, not myth.

I would be happy to look at one of your links.....but am not convinced we are even talking about the same thing. I have been working on guitar amps for 15 years, and I have never read about anybody dying from a guitar amp, that was turned OFF, and the person was killed by residual voltage in a filter cap.
Like I say...I could be wrong, and will be happy to read any of the links you are talking about.

 

[barzune]

My optician (when I used to wear specs) used Ronsonol lighter fluid to clean the lenses. I asked, and was told that it does not have any effect on the coatings of prescription lenses.
Although I've never tried using it, I wonder if anyone has a valid opinion on that.

 

[Photo Engineer]

WHY?


its not about me not knowing., im deliberately trying everything everyone says is bad for coatings. so far all i see are myths being perpetuated. and im very surprised you would back the voodoo without more concise data. it makes me doubt your qualifications.

has anyone tried what they say is bad for coatings or just passing assumtions n hear say? please post pix of your results?

ill take pix of my before and afters as i collect more myths.

btw, those large storage caps in amps do kill. that can be googled for the stats of deaths over the years by radio operators... thats fact, not myth.

If you repair lenses, you should know that a common coating is vacuum evaporated MgF2. This is not water soluble under normal conditions. However, it is made from MgO and (NH4)HF2 as shown here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnesium_fluoride

This reaction produces Ammonia and thus can be reversed by application of Ammonia.

The chance of this taking place depends on temperature, humidity, time of residence, concentrations and a lot of other things. A simple search will turn this up. However, it may turn out that nothing happens, but only because the conditions were not right or the coating was something else. But then, conditions vary and coatings vary from mfgr to mfgr. Will you know what coating is there on any given lens? I doubt it.

There are many other coatings to reduce flare and other characteristics. Silver, Gold and Aluminum are among those used. All can be affected by Ammonia.

PE

 

[MattKing]

I would be happy to look at one of your links.....but am not convinced we are even talking about the same thing. I have been working on guitar amps for 15 years, and I have never read about anybody dying from a guitar amp, that was turned OFF, and the person was killed by residual voltage in a filter cap.
Like I say...I could be wrong, and will be happy to read any of the links you are talking about.

The photographic example is the use of large capacitors in electronic flashes - particularly studio flashes.
I haven't any experience with death arising from them, but I know people who were seriously hurt by accidental discharge.

 

[CMoore]

It is not about chemicals, but another often discussed topic..."Lens Scratch"
It starts about 9:15.
Like with a lot of Videos/Opinions...it is not meant to be definitive, or the final word, but it does shed some light on the "repeated wisdom" that is often printed about the frailty (what we are discussing above) of camera lens, and that Maybe they are a bit more robust than some people want to believe.

 

[Old-N-Feeble]

Oh, please stop suggesting that everyone be practical logical pragmatists!!

 

[Gerald C Koch]

The following mixture is a very close copy of solutions used to clean optical equipment.

Isopropyl alcohol 150 ml
Triton X-100 6.0 ml
Water to make 1 l

Triton X-100 is very syrupy and hard to dissolve in water although it will eventually do so. The trick here is to mix the isopropyl alcohol and the X-100 together and THEN add the mixture to the water. Yes, X-100 is the same surfactant used in Photo-Flo. So if you buy it you can make not only a lens cleaner but also a Photo-Flo substitute. I got mine from The Chemistry Store www.chemistrystore.com. It is not expensive and a quart should last anyone a VERY long time. Go to the Chemicals A-Z sections. They sell lots of other chemicals such as glycols, sodium sulfite and thiosulfate, sodium metaborate, ...

 

[Old-N-Feeble]

How much Photo-Flo would one use to substitute for the Triton X-100?

 

[Gerald C Koch]

How much Photo-Flo would one use to substitute for the Triton X-100?

I wouldn't use any dilution of Photo-Flo on a lens. It contains other things besides X-100.

 

[Old-N-Feeble]

I wouldn't use any dilution of Photo-Flo on a lens. It contains other things besides X-100.

Thanks for that. I didn't know. I love learning new things. Sadly, I'll forget by tomorrow morning.

 

[Jim Jones]

It is not about chemicals, but another often discussed topic..."Lens Scratch"
It starts about 9:15.
Like with a lot of Videos/Opinions...it is not meant to be definitive, or the final word, but it does shed some light on the "repeated wisdom" that is often printed about the frailty (what we are discussing above) of camera lens, and that Maybe they are a bit more robust than some people want to believe.

Some people will do anything to impress those who may know even less. Polarizer filters definitely have their use, especially when used properly. Scratched lenses certainly degrade images. Over many years I've had to retire two favorite lenses due to scratches, a collapsing 50mm Summicron and a 203mm f/7.7 Kodak Ektar. At least the Ektar might still be useful to simulate the soft effect of a true portrait lens. I could have done the same by scratching a plastic UV filter (if they are really available).

 

[AgX]

My optician (when I used to wear specs) used Ronsonol lighter fluid to clean the lenses. I asked, and was told that it does not have any effect on the coatings of prescription lenses.
Although I've never tried using it, I wonder if anyone has a valid opinion on that.

So far I have not yet encountered visually any harm by any organic solvent I used so far.