Lenspen iPad Cleaner

A product must be pretty good when it’s recommended and promoted by just about every lens manufacturer. That’s the case with Lenspen (www.lenspen.com). Many of you probably already use a small Lenspen to clean your lenses. At first blush, it doesn’t seem logical that a small pad impregnated with carbon is such a good idea. But it works. In fact, once you’ve blown dust and particles off a lens, there’s no better way to remove smears and fingerprints.

Lenspen now has a product specifically designed for the iPad, which gets covered in greasy fingerprints in no time, as a user has to smear his or her fingers all over the screen.

Lenspen’s SideKick is a larger unit than one of the kits for cleaning lenses. The pad is automatically refreshed with carbon when it’s placed in its holder. And when that runs out, a replacement pad is included in the kit, which sells for about $25. There is something magical about watching greasy fingerprints magically disappear when you slide a SideKick pad over the surface of an iPad.

As an aside, if you’re wondering about the pink balls on the iPad pictured above, they are iBallz (www.iballz.info), which is an interesting way of protecting an iPad when it’s being constantly used or abused. The company claims that you can drop the iPad without harm, as the pink balls keep it from being directly knocked. Obviously it’s not a very practical accessory for traveling, but around the house or in a studio, iBallz might just save the day when an iPad gets accidentally knocked over.     

John Rettie is a photojournalist who has been covering digital photography since its earliest days. He resides in Santa Barbara, CA, and readers are welcome to contact him directly by e-mail at john@johnrettie.com.