Rain water on the lens?

[horacekenneth]

I have some light rain on both sides of my lens. Wipe it off or air dry? It's an old 20's lens, so uncoated for sure. I've got a box of Zeiss Lens Cleaning Wipes, pre-moistened. Use them? Or what?

[Thomas Bertilsson]

The drops will leave drying marks if you don't wipe them off.

[bdial]

Wipe or blot them with some dry lens tissue, ideally. Other alternatives might be a clean cotton t-shirt or similar, or even a kleenex. If you're resorting to alternatives, avoid wiping, just touch the paper/cloth to the drop and let it pull it in without touching the lens.
Pre-moistened wipes aren't very useful for this.

[horacekenneth]

thanks

[Two23]

Some kleenex type tissues have lotion-gunk in them. I use the Zeiss wipes from Walmart and they work great. For simple raindrops (liquid, not dried) I would just use my t-shirt-gently.


Kent in SD

[ROL]

Given that rain, or any type of sky water, is about as free of impurities as any on earth (unless scouring an exceptionally dirty atmosphere), I can't think why there would be any marks if left to dry. I have carefully, and perhaps unnecessarily, blotted large drops on occasion, but normally let rain, mist, snow, etc. dry on its own without evidence. When shooting in mist or rain, I sometimes use a clear filter (warming, UV) to protect the lens, and have likewise never seen any evidence of unblotted drying marks on the filters. Last summer, my unprotected LX5 became wetted during an unplanned dunking in "clear" river water. I took the battery and memory card out and left it on a rock to dry overnight. The next day it was, and remains, in perfect working order, including its unblemished lens.

[Sirius Glass]

Use a soft cloth to blot the rain water. Or wipe in a circular motion - why? I do not know but that is what we hear all the time.

[Pupfish]

Dried water spots are sooner or later inevitable. I used distilled water on a q-tip to rehydrate and remove them.