Clean objective lens

Revision as of 12:43, 27 September 2010

Objective lens cleaning is very inmportant.

(organise and add more stuff here)

A question we wish was more common:

"When do you offer the next "lens-cleaning-training-session"? I would be very interested to attend!"

Anyone who wants to learn how to really clean a lens should just come and ask, and we will give you the basic / advanced version as you prefer. You can even book one of us for 30 min to secure your training slot! Bring you friends, and your dirty lenses.

The lens IS the microscope.
Dirty lens = crappy image.
as can be seen here: https://ifn.mpi-cbg.de/wiki/ifn/index.php/Gallery#Cleaning_an_objective_makes_sense

You need to know how to clean it - and really clean it, not just drag a wet lens tissue over it.
Never assume the lens is cleaned properly by the last person - clean it before you start.

The problem: "Everybody I ask seems to have a slightly different lens cleaning protocol depending on the type of the lens (oil/water/air), the manufacturer and the weather"

Correct.... it is much like sandwich making... everyone can make a sandwich, but the kind Joey from Friends likes are make by trained professionals.

"I tend to use the Zeiss "protocol", but what is the current state of art at the CBG? ... what is that exactly...?"

little known fact:

An eye piece from any microscope, inverted, works as a magnifying glass - you you can get close up and personal to your dirty lens and see if you really cleaned it.

What to clean a lens with

Use only proper lens cleaning tissues - they are available in stores. Never ever ever use kimwipes, these will scratch glass.

Immersion lenses (oil / Water /water oil/ glycerol etc):

====Zeiss immersion (oil/water) lenses==== on the Zeiss confocal and widefields: 70% ethanol - folded over lens cleaning tissue - keep going until the lens is clean as seem by an inverted eyepiece as a magnifying glass.

====Olympus immersion Lenses==== on the spinning disks : 70% ethanol , then finish off with ethanbol/ether ====Olympus lenses on the DVcore:==== chlorophorm (care - gloves please) saturated Q-tip to dissolve and get most of the oil into the Q-tip (no scrubbing , just rolling), then finish off with lend cleaning tissue folded over with a drop of ethanol/ether mix enough times to see its clean as seen under the stereo microscope with a ring light. Olympus also recommends a Corning solution whoch we have - for stubborn stains... its a bit nbasty, but we have the data sheet.

====Leica and Nikon immersion lenses==== - 70% ethanol.

Air lenses

should never get oil on them (...muffled laughter...) , so a manual air puffer can remove any dust (the spray can aerosols blow crap onto your glass, dont use those) To remove oil from an air lens ... try 70% ethanol... then more serious solvents as above until you get it clean.

General points

You should only need to clean the top lens (and maybe the back lens if its got a nice fingerprint on it!), but keep the lens body clean too! You dont want to get any fluid inside the lens body! Zeiss tell us the urban myth that they once got a lens for repair that was full to bursting with immersion oil.... apparently the user took the immersion instruction literally and filled it up. You don't want to do that, or drop it, or scratch it. But beware - aggressive solvents may dissolve the glue holding the lenses in place in the metal cylinder.... so go easy... Lens performance can be measured by imaging sub resolution bead z stacks - we have those. Point spread function measurement.

"What about some of you guys write a "white paper" on the topic to help avoid confusion? I think that would be extremely useful for all of us here - given the importance of high quality imaging and the price of the optics."

All manufacturers have info like this available (website perhaps)... bit opinion varies even between different people at the same company. see for instance http://www.zeiss.de/C1256D18002CC306/0/1205E8CBD68054EAC125701500404705/$file/50-1-0011_e.pdf

W2 DVcore special cleaning protocol:

Dear All DV core users and lens cleanliness freaks,

New lens cleaning protocol:

From Now on please finish off the lens with Ethanol/Ether (not Ethanol/Water as previously taught to you)

EtOH/Ether mix works better then the ethanol/water mix for removing the last greasy residues that the chloroform leaves behind. It is a better grease solvent and evaporates faster and leaves less residue on the lens

always use the stereo microscope with the Olympus ring light (not the octopus lights) so you can really see the dirt easiest.

For stubborn stains we also have the Olympus recommended Corning cleaning solution - just ask.

Happy imaging (and lens cleaning before AND after!)

your LMF team

more links

http://labrigger.com/blog/2010/07/15/cleaning-objectives-and-other-optics/