A well washed 100% cotton T-Shirt is fine as long as it hasn't been near sand Probably better at mopping up the gunge than lens tissue etc.

Vodka is supposed to be quite good 40% ethanol and distilled water
and it can be used for other things Must go and get some

Gorgeous bird... Well captured, the lighting is spot on!

The 2nd shot Charles Bridge, Prague, Czech Republic looks softer on the left hand side than the right? ....... yet he's submitted it as an example of what the lens can do?

I didn't know there was another 6 O' Clock!

Unless a user has done thorough comparison tests against the
best lenses available, because the differences are so minute
the opinion of the user is I'm afraid worthless. You can't
compare one item against itself

A friend of mine used to own/run one of the most successful pro
photographic printing labs in the country and really strived
to produce to quality work. He really believed it was the
best that could be done and if he saw anyway of improving
it he went for it. I didn't have the heart to tell him that
he should compare it against the work other labs were
producing.... he would have seen that the work his lab
turned out wasn't the best available. The labs still going
but they have moved into other areas as well.

It was the same from the photographers side people were
sending work in and were pleased with what they got back
thinking it was as better than other labs produced.

You get it with pro photographers, they think that their
work is the top of the tree..... then they go to a seminar
and get bowled over

Now I'll wait for the usual post of a picture of a
flower in the centre of a frame saying it's a
great lens..... see this!

Nice to hear that leytono.

It would probably be on a lens like this that you would
gain several stops, especially if it was dirty link

Edit: Just noticed on the link to the distributor that
Mannesty gave:

Until now, the majority of lens cleaners have been simply silicone, alcohol or glycerin based products. Instead of removing the embedded pollution from the pores and surface of a lens, they tended to coat it, thereby defeating the original intention.

ROR has redefined the science of lens care by utilizing a formula of natural ingredients that finally removes the counterproductive, ineradicable microscopic oil residues from the surface and pores of glass and plastic.

So it's not just me calling glass porous

Excellent shot

Good idea John.... put a UV filter on it

His review of the Pentax-A 28mm f/2.8 link contained some of the
most idiotic drivel I've ever seen in a lens review
Fancy complaining that a lens has half-stops, I ask you!

It always surprised me the number of pros, using slide film
and full stop lenses which wouldn't allow them to go half a stop
under and over. It had to be full stops or nothing at all

The effect is similar to what you get using a diffuser on
an enlarger. The shadows bleed into the highlights. It's
the opposite effect to what you get with a diffuser on the
camera.

It's OK for a couple of shots now and again but I wouldn't
do a whole bunch like that

It looks like a good building to photograph in the traditional
manner.