Static charge - how to remove?

I just obtained the DA 55-300 second hand from a user on this forum and to be honest I could not be happier - it is in absolutely mint condition and looks and feels brand new like it was bought from the store yesterday.

The only one problem is that in comparison with my other lenses the front element seems to attract dust like a magnet. With the lens cap removed indoors it seems impossible to keep it completely dust free for more than a few seconds at a time. I can only assume it has picked up a slight static charge at some point.

I've had a look on Amazon for anti-static cloths but those I found all had customer reviews which stated they tended to leave fibres behind on surfaces, so I'm not sure where to go from here.

I was wondering if anybody has had a similar problem, or any advice about the best way to 'de-static' a lens without causing it any damage? Thanks!

Sounds a bit odd, the static should dissipate from the front element as soon as you touch it....however, lens pens claim to remove static.

Good tip, I'll look out for a lens pen. As for touching the front element, I haven't. Not with 'skin contact' anyway - I prefer to avoid having to remove fingerprints by not making them in the first place!

Strange... It shouldn't affect image quality though unless it ends up caked in dust.

Or you could walk around the house with it to dust your house! Dust magnet!

Fibres left behind aren't a problem - a quick blast with a rocket blower or twitch of a soft brush will remove them.

I have a Hama-branded lens pen and would recommend it as the first thing anyone should buy after their camera. Best device ever for cleaning fingerprints and greasy marks, there's a brush in the other end to sweep away any loose particles so they don't scratch the glass when you use the pad end.

This is the first time I've heard of such a thing - certainly my 55-300mm doesn't attract dust.

If you need to disperse a static charge theree are small guns, carbon fibre dusters and probably other solutions. Perhaps a clean with lens cleaning fluid would remove whatever is causing the problem.

If the lens is indeed electrically charged with static, there is only one way to dissipate it. Cloths, lens pens, etc will not dissipate an electrical charge.

The one and only way to equalise the electrical charge on the lens is to make an electrically conductive circuit between it, and ground.

One way to achieve this would be to remove your shoes and socks, go out side with the lens and stand on bare earth. Then remove the lens cap and touch the front element for a few seconds. Now you have a fingerprint to clean off, but the static will have discharged through your body. Now, the ground, you, and the lens, will all be at the same electrical potential.

This effort will all be useless however if your home is filled with artificial fibres, the generators of the static in the first place.

Perhaps the household also needs a new vacuum cleaner?

or you could just touch your kitchen sink/faucet...

turn on your humidifier if you got dust and static problems at home, as for the lens...
lenspen brush and rocket blower are best.

Where is the main source for dust, lint and hairs showing up on your lens?

Where do you put your lens cap when you take it off? Your pocket?

Well I did say one way Don . . .
Touching the Kitchen sink/tap in my house wouldn't work. The sink is plastic/resin and all our water pipework is plastic and has no earth bonding anywhere. The cables are there, but nothing to attach them to.

Or anything else earthed for that matter. The radiators for central heating are often earthed, except in newer houses where the piping is plastic, not copper.

You guys may have missed the point I was making... putting the lenscap in the pocket is probably the source of the debris... I leave mine in the bag while shooting..

Knowing at least a little bit about static electricity I have come up with a theory that it is just because the lens has been (as stated by the seller) sitting around unused for several months, thus giving a static charge an opportunity to build up. Regularly cleaning a lens should disperse any small amounts of static but if it hasn't been used for quite a long time it's probably had a chance to build up a bit more than usual.

If that's the case the charge should disperse naturally with regular cleaning - so in other words once I've used it a few times it should return to normal anyway. I shall therefore wait and see if my theory is correct.

Lens pen still sounds like a good investment though.

That's not my understanding. Static charge can be transferred between non-conductive objects by contact and the more the contact (i.e. rubbing with a cloth) the more can be tranferred. Obviously I have cleaned it a couple of times with a cloth already, but it may just take more repeated efforts.

Also earthing a non-conductive object wouldn't remove all of the charge unless you earth the entire surface... because it is non-conductive charge will not generally move accross the surface to the point that is earthed (i.e. it's going to take multiple fingerprints, not just one).

I think if you just use the lens outside, any static charge will dissipate naturally. Air conditioned and/or centrally heated homes generally have a drier atmosphere which aids the build up of static as it can't dissipate through the air.

Touching the front element of the lens in multiple places will probably be a fruitless exercise anyway. A lens pen has a plastic (insulating) barrel and is likely to be ineffective at dissipating any static charge. Rubbing with a cloth is more likely to produce more static electricity than remove it.

Yes, static can be transferred from one non-conductive surface to another, but it's best to have some control over which way it is transferred. Also, the charges on the two non-conductive surfaces can only be equalised by contact (rubbing), not wholly transferred.

That said, by holding the cloth, and if you yourself are grounded, the static may eventually dissipate from the lens surface to ground via the cloth and your own body.

Probably the best solution to your problem is just to use the lens outside.

Which is probably why there is a static charge in the first place. As stated by the person I just bought the lens from, it has been sitting unused for several months, no doubt in an air conditioned and/or centrally heated home. Like I said after thinking about it I'm sure the charge will dissipate naturally over time with use.