Huh? We all, or I hope we all, do know how important both vinegar and honey are in the kitchen but what on earth do they have to do with photography?
Vinegar? I photographed Jason and Ali's wedding almost two years ago. Jason is keen amateur photographer and has kept in touch since mostly with little questions about his camera. Ali bought him a new one recently and I helped Jason decide on a new lens which would be used primarily for photographing dance. Well on the day the lens arrived Jason e-mailed me saying " What's the best way to clean lenses? For regular glass we use vinegar. It breaks up oils well and dries without streaks. But could vinegar damage a lens?
Yes, don't dare. Was my swift response and I promised a more detailed explanation here.
The coatings on the front elements of modern camera lens are, to say the least, extremely delicate and great care should be taken to avoid doing anything which can cause them damage. The use of any fluids on a lens should be kept to an absolute minimum. I've had this bottle of lens cleaning fluid in my bag for many years and it's still more than half full.
The really important thing here is the packet of lens cleaning paper, without a doubt in my mind the best thing that Kodak ever produced with the possible exception of Kodachrome :)
These are the mainstay of my lens cleaning kit. They are the only tissues I will use on my lenses.
First though I blow off dust with a blower, holding the lens upside down, the ol' gravity thing you know.
Canned or compressed air is super for removing crumbs from one's keyboard it should not be used for blowing dust off a lens.
Then I bunch up a single layer of tissue
I then breath on the lens and while the moisture is still present I begin to gently wipe the lens, from the center and in a circular motion. "Gently wipe" being today's understatement, remember we're cleaning a glass lens with a very fine coating which will be damaged if we attack it with gusto as we might if we were polishing marble.
Only if, after doing this a few times, some "matter" remains on the lens will I then repeat the process using the fresh tissues lightly dampened with some of the lens cleaning fluid.
So Jason, there's no place, that I can think of for vinegar in your camera bag and your bottle of lens cleaning fluid should last you for eons :)
Honey? Quite a simple one really. James the gentleman who's redesigning the website I wrote about earlier this week contacted me a couple of days ago. He has the flu so we're holding off on the launch for a few days to give him a chance to get over it.My first question for him was not "When will the site be ready?" rather it was "You do have honey in the house don't you?"
For without honey you can't make a "hot toddy".
You'll also need; hot water, the juice of a whole fresh lemon and some Whiskey, preferably not the good stuff :), brown sugar is optional.
Stay dry, stay warm and James get well soon.
