Old timer told me to use lighter fluid to clean lenses and I thought he was nuts

Back in 2018, this retired repair guy named Hank told me to use Ronsonol lighter fluid for cleaning old greasy lenses. I laughed at him at first, thought he was pulling my leg. But after struggling with haze on a 1950s Summarit for hours I gave it a try. Worked like a charm, cut through the old lubricant residue in like 2 minutes flat. I still use it sometimes for stubborn stuff, just make sure to air it out fully before reassembly. Anybody else got weird old tricks that actually work?

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benwilliams5h ago

I heard somewhere that lighter fluid is basically just naphtha, which is the same stuff in some legit lens cleaning solutions. So Hank was onto something.