I am not a professional photographer, by any means, but I have been taking pictures with some decent equipment since I was about six years old. My father had that bug and passed it on to me. One thing he was always very particular about was making sure the equipment was well-maintained. Well, ultrasonic cleaners are a godsend on that front. And I know if I find them useful, people that do this for a living will surely enjoy the benefits.
There are three major benefits to using an ultrasonic cleaner for photographic equipment:
- Deep cleaning
- Preserving integrity
- Efficiency
Deep Cleaning
If you read our blog regularly, you know there is no better cleaning process available right now that can match an ultrasonic cleaner. If you are a photographer, you also know the moving parts on lenses, not to mention the lenses themselves, can get dust and debris all over them. The cavitation that creates those microscopic bubbles can get into places you have no chance of doing a deep cleaning when cleaning your equipment by hand.
Preserving Integrity
Because of the nature of photographic equipment, you have to be careful using abrasive cleaning techniques as well as the cleaning solvent or detergent used to clean the parts. Our non-abrasive method of cleaning ensures the equipment will not be damaged during cleaning. And all of our cleaning agents are water-based, so you don’t have to worry about harmful chemicals ruining your equipment.
Efficiency
As we briefly noted above, hand-cleaning often leaves debris behind, which means you end up cleaning the same parts over and over again. With an ultrasonic cleaner, those parts are cleaned right the first time, every time. Additionally, because your role in the cleaning is done after you load the tank, you can do other things while the parts are cleaning, make your work time far more effective every day.
Think about that aspect alone… if you spent an hour every day cleaning your camera parts, and now you role is reduced to about 15 minutes, if that, how much more work can you get done with an additional, three hours or so of productivity?
Extra Advice
First and foremost, never lower a camera body or equipment with electronic parts into the cleaning tank. You should be focusing on glass and metal parts only.
Choose the proper cleaning solution, which our team can help with.
Once the parts are cleaned, they need to be rinsed with distilled or ionized water to ensure all detergent residue is removed. Use an air blower to ensure the parts are properly dried throughout.
Don’t overclean. For most optical equipment, about three to five minutes is all you need.
As we always recommend, if you are going to use an ultrasonic cleaner for such delicate equipment, we highly recommend you give us a call at 888-989-5560 to discuss your options. We can help you choose the right tank, cleaning solution, the proper settings, as well as go over the type of equipment you want to clean to ensure you do not put something in the tank that should not be cleaned in it.
