Keep It Clean: LensPen Review.

Keeping your lens clean is verrrrryyy important. Dust dirt and fingerprints or smudges can degrade your image quality, and even obscure your image. So what I use to keep my lens clean is the LensPen.
"A superb new tool in optical lens cleaning technology.
Perfect for cleaning camera lenses, binocular lenses, small aperture spotting scopes and telescopes, eyepieces, and other optical items. Comes with a handy retractable dust removal brush and a special non-liquid cleaning element, designed to never dry out. Safe and very easy to use."
(text from LensPen.com)

Ive been using the LensPen for a few years now, and in my opinion, it beats all the competition. Everything from microfiber cloths to cleansing sprays. 

The LensPen has a brush at one end, to remove dust and debris. The brush slides out and locks into place. The bristles are very soft, and will not scratch or damage the lens at all. I havent experienced any shedding. At The other end of the pen is a unique non-liquid carbon compound cleaning element. Carbon absorbs oil, so this tip removes fingerprints like nothing else Ive ever used. Inside the cap is a little sponge, which cleans the tip of the pen with just a slight turn of the cap. Since this doesnt use liquid it will never dry out, and will last much longer, since it wont run out of liquid.

You clearly see a fingerprint on the lens, before using LensPen.

No fingerprint or residue, after using LensPen.

You can find LensPen at most camera supply stores. I got mine at Allens Camera, which is right down the street from my house. I got it for $9.99. You might be able to find it as cheap as $6-$7 online. (just be careful of fakes)

I bought a few things off Amazon.com a while back, and it came with a LensPen knockoff, here you can see the differences.

 LensPen is on the left in all images, knockoff is on the right. You can see its shorter. The brush is not as full, and not as soft. The brush actually doesnt lock in place and stay up, you have to hold it up to keep it from going back in when brushing off the lens. The cleaning tip (Im not sure if its made out of the same stuff as LensPen) you can see that its not curves like the LensPen, its slightly smaller, but seems to work basically the same. As with everything, if you buy a knockoff its not going to be as good as the origonal, so buy from a reputable store that sells authentic merchandise.

No matter how many new microfiber cloths come out, no matter how fancy and expensive they are, I will always buy LensPen. (or at least until something truely better comes out) LensPen is extremely affordable and works better than any expensive cleaning cloth or spray Ive ever used.

Hope this review helps. Feel free to leave requests of anything youd like me to review. Thanks for reading. And remember:

Keep on shooting. :)

Disclaimer: All photos are mine, unless otherwise stated. All opinions are my own. No monetary exchange occurred in exchange for this post or review. All items mentioned in this review were purchased by me, for my own personal use, and not for review purposes. I am simply sharing my opinions.