the obvious...

[Voyager]

Here's one of those obvious things we tend to overlook or take for granted: my camera lenses sparkle like gems--I have a static brush, a micro cloth, and squirty lens fluid. Last week, while changing the Beseler from 35mm to MF, I casually glanced at both lenses, and was absolutely shocked at the gunk that had accumulated on those glass surfaces. And when's the last time you...etc., etc.

 

[kaygee]

I take my enlarger lenses and glass elements apart about once a month and do a scrub down (of course, not literally ). I have a dust problem though.

Inbetween those complete tear downs I generally wipe everything down every time I use the enlarger, and even in between exposures if I have to.

 

[Mike Wilde]

It's spoting that drives me for clean ups

The enlarging lenses might get a tidy from time to time. I have them on lens boards, and have them hang from an under shelf holder so that there is a limited chance for dust to fall on them - it would have to be drawn in by static.

I do clean up when I get to printing and then have more than a tolerated number of dust sopts to spot out of a print. I usually take the sorriest looking j-cloth scrap in the sink, dampen it, and wipe the floor, after wiping the walls adjacent to and behind the sink. It then gets bagged so as not to release any chamical crystals once it dries out, and gets tossed.

I then vaccuum from the top down with a hose connected to my homes central vac. The worst of the tiniest dustaroos are then shot through the filter in the garage, but once they are out of the house I could care less. If it were a conventional portable vaccuum located inside the house then I would be concerned about the amount of recycling going on.

I have a vertical pring washer that I keep water in to keep the air in the darkrrom from getting too dry and static generating. When the print washer gets too slimy I dump a cup of laundry bleach into it, and let it run full tilt for an hour before dumping the whole thing out in the sink.

 

[radiantdarkroom]

Yes periodic lens cleaning is always a must in a darkroom, you may notice sharper, more contrast and color shift just after cleaning a lens.

 

[ann]

don't forget to clean consendors as well.

 

[dpurdy]

After finding all my lenses had haze one day and replacing them all. I now check my lenses everytime I mount them on the enlarger. In a basement with over 50% humidity you gotta be careful. I found a spot in my basement that is lower humidity than general and I keep my lenses in a box there.