Safest way of cleaning my 100-400- pen & cloth?

Hi Michael

I went through the same decision a while back. I have both a cloth and lens pen. The lens pen is great for cleaning the odd spot of grease or small area or for getting into corners.

However, if I need to clean the entire surface of a lens, I use a "chamois" leather (actually a sheepskin) from this company

http://www.chamois.co.nz/

I think they are meant for car windshields. The micro-fiber cloths have similarly absorbent characteristics but are, of course, synthetic.

If you look carefully, a lens pen has a pad of what look exactly like chammy leather or something very similar.

What sold me on the chammy was a camera shop that recommended one but I said I was a bit nervous using one on any of my L lenses. He took down off the shelf a big, brand new Nikon zoom lens unboxed it in front of me, breathed on the front element and put a big sticky thumb print in the middle. He then used the chammy to clean it and the lens was pristine again. I figured he wouldn't be doing that if there was the slightest risk of damaging a new, unsold lens so I was er, well, sold. I've used it with confidence on my 200mm f2 with no problems.

Of course, you have to watch for grit or sand whether you use a pen or a cloth. Anything like that will embed itself in the pen or cloth and carve lovely scratches all over your lens so you need to keep your pen and/or cloth clean too.

As far as chemicals go, the liquids supplied by the camera lens cleaning aid manufacturers are safe but usually you wouldn't need them unless you have some really stubborn gunk on the lens.

Hope this helps.

Trevor