I always thought those cheap lens cleaning kits from the mall kiosk were junk, but one saved my butt on a job

Had a client bring in a Leica M6 with a viewfinder full of haze, looked like fungus. I was ready to do a full tear down, but I was waiting on a special spanner wrench. In a pinch, I grabbed a kit I got for free years ago from one of those mall camera stands. The little rubber lens pen in it was the only thing that fit into the tiny gap around the viewfinder window. Gave it a careful scrub and the haze came right off, it was just some weird oil residue. The whole job took 20 minutes instead of 3 hours. I still think most of that stuff is trash, but now I keep that pen in my kit. Anyone else have a tool they wrote off that turned out to be useful for a weird fix?

3 comments

3 Comments

rowanellis2mo ago

My entire opinion on those kits was formed by a guy in a bad suit trying to sell me one in 2012. He told me it would also clean my phone screen and my glasses. I mean, I guess he was technically right, but I still think of him every time I see one. That's hilarious it actually had the one weird tool you needed. Maybe the secret is that every kit has exactly one useful item, you just have to get lucky and find it.

umamoore2mo ago

My brother bought one of those kits at a gas station in 2015. It had a tiny flathead screwdriver that saved us when a battery cover got stuck. We threw the rest of the junk away.

nathan_torres3415d ago

@umamoore that tiny screwdriver is the only reason I haven't thrown away my gas station kit from 2016.