One fairly recent new material, microfiber cleaning cloths, are very helpful to easily and thoroughly remove dust from a lens.

Sounds like in addition to dust, you have a static electricity issue. You might want to try brushing your lens with a staticmaster after you've cleaned it.

StaticMaster? Old technology, microfiber cleaning cloth is much more effective in removing dust particles.

The staticmaster isn't for removing dust - it's for neutralizing static electricity. If you read my post you'll see I suggested using it after cleaning the lens

The Static Master was ineffective when introduced many, many years ago and remains so for the purpose and effect you describe. the attraction of dust by a lens is primarily the function of the smooth surface of the glass, not static.

thanks for all your help, i will look into some of the cloths out there and let you kn ow how it goes..

Even WalMart has microfiber cleaning cloths, but the ones Costco carries are much better quality of fabric. Put the cloth in a plastic baggy to keep it clean because just hanging around in a camera bag it will act like a vacuum and suck up much of the dirt in your bag.

Quote:
The Static Master was ineffective when introduced many, many years ago and remains so for the purpose and effect you describe. the attraction of dust by a lens is primarily the function of the smooth surface of the glass, not static.

Hmm - I find that very interesting. I use a static master for brushing my lenses and negatives and find it quite effective. It removes all the dust from my lens and leaves it crystal clear - of course you need to replace the polonium regularly. The only time I'll take a microfiber cloth to a lens is if something in on it that I can't brush off.
I think another point that should be made that it is best to not worry too much about getting your lens perfectly clean. In nearly all shooting situations, a little dust on the front element will very little or no effect. The less you clean your lenses, the less likely you are to create wipe marks that reduce the resale value of your lens.

To each his own I suppose. I find compressed air and a sable brush served well for simple dust, but there are many situations even in a dry climate where stuff in the air gets on a lens surface that is more than just dry dust or lint.

Microfiber cloth has only recently gotten popular and inexpensive, but it has been a valuable material for many years (if kept clean) to wipe off the surface of a lens without leaving any mark or residue.

By the way, why a polished glass surface attracts dust is now much better understood than it was when anti-static was thought to be useful, due to a scientist who just the other day received a Nobel prize for his work studying surfaces and their properties.

Quote:
To each his own I suppose. I find compressed air and a sable brush served well for simple dust, but there are many situations even in a dry climate where stuff in the air gets on a lens surface that is more than just dry dust or lint.

Microfiber cloth has only recently gotten popular and inexpensive, but it has been a valuable material for many years (if kept clean) to wipe off the surface of a lens without leaving any mark or residue.

By the way, why a polished glass surface attracts dust is now much better understood than it was when anti-static was thought to be useful, due to a scientist who just the other day received a Nobel prize for his work studying surfaces and their properties.

Yeah - well I swore off compressed air when I had a can spray propellant onto my lens once. Got myself a squeeze bulb instead. Can you give a reference about polished glass attracting dust? I'd like to read it.

>>Yeah - well I swore off compressed air when I had a can spray propellant onto my lens once. Got myself a squeeze bulb instead. Can you give a reference about polished glass attracting dust? I'd like to read it.<<

I had a small specialized compressor used in commercial darkrooms and other applications where clean air is needed. It did not take all that many savings not buying cans of DustOff to pay for it.

Sorry I really don't have the time to do the research, but if you look up the name of this year's Nobel prize winner for Physics and then look up his publications on surface phenomenon you should find the reasons why polished solid surfaces like a lenses tend to attract particle to the surface.

Here is an excerpt from the Nobel Prize announcement:

Excerpts from the citation awarding the 2007 Nobel Prize in chemistry to Germany's Gerhard Ertl for studies of chemical processes on solid surfaces.

The Nobel Prize in Chemistry for 2007 is awarded for groundbreaking studies in surface chemistry. This science is important for the chemical industry and can help us to understand such varied processes as why iron rusts, how fuel cells function and how the catalysts in our cars work. Chemical reactions on catalytic surfaces play a vital role in many industrial operations, such as the production of artificial fertilizers. Surface chemistry can even explain the destruction of the ozone layer, as vital steps in the reaction actually take place on the surfaces of small crystals of ice in the stratosphere. The semiconductor industry is yet another area that depends on knowledge of surface chemistry.

It was thanks to processes developed in the semiconductor industry that the modern science of surface chemistry began to emerge in the 1960s. Gerhard Ertl was one of the first to see the potential of these new techniques. Step by step he has created a methodology for surface chemistry by demonstrating how different experimental procedures can be used to provide a complete picture of a surface reaction. This science requires advanced high-vacuum experimental equipment as the aim is to observe how individual layers of atoms and molecules behave on the extremely pure surface of a metal, for instance. It must therefore be possible to determine exactly which element is admitted to the system. Contamination could jeopardize all the measurements. Acquiring a complete picture of the reaction requires great precision and a combination of many different experimental techniques.

Gerhard Ertl has founded an experimental school of thought by showing how reliable results can be attained in this difficult area of research. His insights have provided the scientific basis of modern surface chemistry: his methodology is used in both academic research and the industrial development of chemical processes. The approach developed by Ertl is based not least on his studies of the Haber-Bosch process, in which nitrogen is extracted from the air for inclusion in artificial fertilizers. This reaction, which functions using an iron surface as its catalyst, has enormous economic significance because the availability of nitrogen for growing plants is often restricted. Ertl has also studied the oxidation of carbon monoxide on platinum, a reaction that takes place in the catalyst of cars to clean exhaust emissions.