Care and cleaning tips
Whether you pull out your binoculars for a closeup of a Drew Bledsoe completion or the almost as rare Dickcissel, you’re going to want clean optics.
There evidently are appropriate and inappropriate ways to clean these expensive lenses. First give them a regular cleaning once a month. Much more and you are going to end up scratching the lenses or damaging the coating that helps with better viewing.
First use a soft camel hair brush, brushing around the eyecups as well, where sand and dirt can collect. Another option is a hand held blower, but stay away from the canned air type as there is often moisture and fine particulates that can mess up your lenses. Get some lens cloth or lens tissue and wipe the lens carefully.
Your bandanna or sleeves are binocular no-no’s along with paper products like toweling, toilet paper or Kleenex as they can easily scratch the lens. Once you find some cleaning material that works well (look for supplies at a camera store) store them in a sealable plastic baggy to keep out extraneous sand and dirt. Then enjoy the close-up action.