Recently, I saw a heartbreaking post on a Facebook group about cleaning a vintage camera lens with Hydrogen Peroxide. The photographer wanted to get rid of fungus on the lens. But instead, they ended up destroying the optics. They cited photographers on YouTube who say this is the thing to do. And unfortunately, that’s the problem. Lots of photographers on YouTube aren’t experts. If you wanted official information on something more pressing, it’s often best to check out .edu, .org. or .gov websites. Don’t get me wrong, we’re a .com website. But we’re also an accredited source of information. And besides, over the past decade, we’ve asked some of the best and brightest minds how to do this.

Here’s a screenshot from the thread that I’m referencing. Personally, I’ve never heard anyone talk about Hydrogen Peroxide. So I did some Google searches on “cleaning your camera lens” and a few other inquiries. Crazily though, our own website came up. Indeed, we are pretty big on researching and squashing misinformation on this. But here are a few refreshers.

Isopropyl Alcohol: All the Experts Agree When Cleaning a Lens

Some of you folks are probably wondering what isopropyl alcohol is. It’s a standard alcohol that you can find at a pharmacy, electronics store, and a load of other places. You can’t drink it. It’s much different from the alcohol that’s in beer, wine, whiskey, etc.

We’ve primarily written about it with cleaning your lens contacts. And indeed, that’s what it can be used for. Here’s a reference from a previous article we’ve written:

“So why would you go about cleaning the contacts of your lenses? You’d be amazed what it can do. If suddenly you start finding the autofocus of your camera to be sluggish, then part of it could have to do with the contacts.

Cleaning the contacts removes dirt, grime, dust, and anything else that can hinder the communication between the camera and the lens.

With isopropyl alcohol, just use the cotton swab dipped in the alcohol and rub it into the contacts. That should take away any sort of dirt blocking the full communication.”

You can find more about how to do this in the previously linked article. And indeed, isopropyl alcohol is pretty great at cleaning both lens and camera contacts. You don’t need to worry about whether the camera or lens is weather-resistant either.

So what about the glass itself? What if the lens elements get dirty? What if there’s fungus? Well, believe it or not, years ago, Pop Photo did an article about cleaning your lens with Vodka. It sounded pretty sketchy and much unlike something the once stellar publication would do. So we asked experts to verify this. Indeed, many manufacturers said that it probably isn’t such a great idea when we talked to them. Brandon Remler, National Account Director of Fujifilm North America, told us it’s not such a great option.

“I would run my vodka first through a Brita or similar filter system 2x to remove any of the impurities that exist in cheap vodka,” explained Mr. Remler. “Vodka is good but not great since it is lower in sugar content than say dark rum and less residues. The impurity is what messes up the cleaning process, of course. Don’t want sticky fingers or sticky lenses.” He continued to say that he believes it’s less than ideal compared to isopropyl and rubbing alcohol.

And believe it or not, a bunch of other industry folks supported him:

The late Chuck Westfall of Canon said they only recommend conventional lens cleaning fluids.

Our Nikon reps pointed us to an article on their own website.

John Carlson, a former VP at Pentax, said that they only recommend isopropyl alcohol.

Tom Curley, a former head of Business Development at Panasonic, said using Vodka is a myth.

Tokina said that it’s not the best cleaner, but it won’t hurt the optics.

Sony said that it depends on the level of impurities.

Zeiss said this is a bad idea. They also make their own cleaning wipes.

A former Leica Product Manager told me that it’s a bad idea and to no...