How much more prone to damage is an expensive lens

ethan · 31 Aug 2020 at 15:12

... compared to a sensor?
Maybe a silly question but I couldn't help noticing that the VGSO sensor swabs are of the same material as one of the lens cleaning cloths sold by Wex. I'm not saying it's fine to go prodding your sensor with the cloth, but I couldn't help thinking that if you can wash and reuse the cleaning cloth, why can't you wash and reuse (if you are careful) the sensor swab? Maybe given the price some would not think it was worth it?

Donnie Fisher · 31 Aug 2020 at 20:07

I think the sensor is magnitudes more sensitive to stuff touching it than the glass. Generally, at most on a lens, you'll either leave a spec of dirt / dust, possibly scrape a tiny bit of the coating off the glass, but that isn't really going to affect end image quality much. Which is probably why you can re-use the cloths.

Leave the same spec of dust / tiny scrape on the sensor, and you'll see it, in every photo.

ethan · 1 Sep 2020 at 00:34

I was curious about the reusing of a washed swab having come across somebody who claimed they were consistently reusing them once cleaned. They were claiming there were no issues as long as the swab didn't contain anything that was likely to cause damage and that checking and using it was the same procedure as taking a new one from it's sealed package. Justification for their argument had been likened to the reusable printer cartridge debate.

Raymond Lin · 1 Sep 2020 at 00:58

Given that swabs are like £10 for a pack of dozen or something and not something I use daily or even weekly or monthly, I’m not risking reusable ones.

ethan · 1 Sep 2020 at 02:42

Raymond Lin said:
Given that swabs are like £10 for a pack of dozen or something and not something I use daily or even weekly or monthly, I’m not risking reusable ones.

I agree. It's not like you would be replacing it for £30.00 every time you needed like you would with a printer cartridge. Saying that, I've just come across the Angry photographer wrapping a pec pad around a Q-tip

mrgubby · 6 Sep 2020 at 18:28

You could rinse out a condom and use it again...

But you wouldn't.

Would you ?

Nutloose · 2 Dec 2020 at 15:26

mrgubby said:
You could rinse out a condom and use it again...

But you wouldn't.

Would you ?

Just turn it inside out...

JohnStewart · 2 Dec 2020 at 19:39

mrgubby said:
You could rinse out a condom and use it again...

But you wouldn't.

Would you ?

Police raid in Vietnam finds more than 300,000 used condoms being packed for resale - CBS News !!