> 2) How do you deal with dust, and how do you store and protect > your lenses?
> I keep my lenses in a closet in a bedroom my wife and I use as an > office. Until recently, this office was also the bathroom for our > cats, hence I believe this dust is composed of tiny particles of > kitty litter. I thought I was fairly rigorous in my regime of > keeping that closet and the office tidy, but I'm afraid I was not > successful. I personally feel that some dust in unavoidable in many lenses, that it is not usually picked up in a lens during storage (unless perhaps the lens is sitting unprotected in a ~very~ dusty place), and that much (or most) of the internal dust in many lenses is picked up while focusing and/or zooming. Many lenses suck air in, as well as push air out, of course, whenever the internal air volume changes during focusing and/or zooming. Unless the air passes through some sort of an air filter on the way in (such as with the VS1 600/8 and 800/11 Solid Cats), dust is going to be sucked in along with the incoming air. Of course, some lenses (e.g., internal focus designs, typically) do not suck air in while being adjusted, and may be freer of dust because of that. Fred
