The Altura Photo Professional Cleaning Kit is a complete, inexpensive kit for almost all of your camera cleaning needs. Let’s look a little closer.
Some time ago I found myself in need of a camera cleaning kit to safely remove smudges and dust from my lens. The Altura Photo Professional Cleaning Kit has been highly effective at that task and useful beyond my original intent.
Why Get a Camera Cleaning Kit?
Every photographer gets to the point where they can’t stand how dirty their lens is, see aberrations on their images because of dust specs on their sensor, have a smudged LCD screen, or simply want to keep their camera clean. Camera cleaning kits like the Altura Photo Professional Kit provide all the tools necessary to keep your lens, LCD, viewfinder, and sensor clean. Kits like this one are also useful for cleaning phone screens, laptops, glasses, and telescopes.
What Does it Include?
There are many tools provided in the various camera kits available on the market. This kit perfectly rides the line between the right number of useful tools and remaining inexpensive.
Included in the kit are:
- Altura Photo Lens Cleaner 2 oz. Bottle
- Altura Photo Lens Cleaning Pen
- Altura Photo Lens Brush
- Altura Photo Air Blower Cleaner
- Altura Photo 50 Sheets Lens Cleaning Tissue Paper
- Extra-large MagicFiber Microfiber Cleaning Cloth
- 2x Original MagicFiber Microfiber Cleaning Cloth
Now let’s get into how useful and effective these components are individually.
Lens Cleaner Fluid
The lens fluid comes in a 2 oz. plastic spray bottle. There is no alcohol or ammonium. It is surprisingly odorless. When used properly, it’s safe to use on lenses, glasses, phones, tablets, computer monitors, and TVs. So how do you use it properly?
The recommended (and best) way to use it is by spraying a small amount on a microfiber cloth and wiping the surface to be cleaned in a circular pattern. I recommend following that up by wiping in a circular pattern with a completely dry microfiber cloth. Using this method, I frequently clean my computer glasses and less frequently, my lens. It is very effective and leaves no streaks.
Note: Always use the air blower first to remove larger particles that may otherwise scratch your surface when wiping.
Lens Cleaning Pen
The lens cleaning pen included in the kit is decidedly plastic, but highly effective. The retractable brush at one end works well for removing dust particles and other larger things without scratching the surface. The felt tip at the other end is very useful for getting the nooks and crannies of surfaces dust and grime free. It’s especially useful for the corners of glasses and lenses.
Lens Brush
In my opinion, the brush is a bit redundant given the brush on the pen tool, but it could be useful for dusting off larger surfaces. It’s about 2.5x bigger than the brush on the pen tool, so some may find this useful. I don’t find myself reaching for it, though.
Air Blower
The air blower is probably my favorite tool in the kit, but not because of its effectiveness. It’s just fun to use. Something about shooting air is kind of fun. Anyway, it is effective. I frequently use it to get dust off my keyboard and less frequently to remove dust specs from my camera.
To clean your camera sensor with the air blower:
- Start by removing your lens.
- Then, if you have a camera with a mirror, go into your settings and find lens cleaning. Choose manual lens cleaning. The mirror should flip up, exposing the sensor. If you have a mirrorless camera, this step is unnecessary.
- Flip the camera so that the sensor is facing the ground.
- Point the air blower towards the sensor without touching it and remove all dust.
Note: This is the only method you should use to clean your sensor. If further cleaning is required, take your camera to a professional as you could easily damage your sensor with other cleaning methods.
Lens Cleaning Tissue Paper
The lens tissue paper is another way to clean surfaces besides microfiber cloths. Tissue paper is better at removing oils and fingerprints from surfaces than microfiber. The paper can be used with the cleaning fluid by spraying a small amount onto the paper and then cleaning in circular motions. I don’t find myself using these much, but some may prefer this over microfiber cloths.
Microfiber Cloths
Microfiber cloths are great for removing tiny dust particles, grime, and streaks. The Altura Photo Professional Cleaning Kit comes with three cloths. Two (one black, one gray) are a standard size of 6 x 7 inch, and the third (black) is a much larger 16 x 16 inch. The small sizes are what I use most often and are very effective. The larger size is useful for computer monitors and televisions.
The cloths require very infrequent cleaning. Cleaning them is also simple. All you must do is rinse them thoroughly in water, gently wring them out, and allow them to air dry. Do not put them in the dryer as that will ruin the microfibers.
Conclusion
This truly is an effective lens cleaning kit at an affordable price. It’s useful for much more than just cleaning lenses though. I use mine for my computer glasses, monitors, camera LCD screen, phone, and keyboard as well. It is important to use the kit to clean following the recommended methods explained in this review. Overall, this kit is a great value and I highly recommend it.