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65 of 68 found the following review helpful:
 Great starter cleaning kitAug 16, 2005
By D. Kim
"bummster"
Great Kit, and I use it a lot.
First, here's what's inside.
SMALL rocket blower - great little thing, tends to whistle through the red plastic tip though. so, it's not great in quiet places.
Retractable brush - great little thing, tends to shed hairs, but not terribly.
Cleaning Solution - i did notice it lifted some color off of a multicoated lens. oddly, it only did that on one lens, and only once. the lens looks fine, and still takes sharp pictures without any flare. jury's out, but i still use it w/o fear.
Cotton Swabs - never used em, but they look nice.
Microfiber cloth - nice full sized cloth. very soft, and great when buffing out the spots.
28 of 28 found the following review helpful:
 Handy Kit @ Good PriceMar 25, 2009
By AVE
I bought this cleaning kit to help maintain my lenses and camera body. Actually, I was mainly drawn to this product because of the included Rocket Blower. The one included in the package (the smallest one Giottos offers) usually costs around $13 by itself BEFORE shipping. I believe Adorama and B&H do not offer free shipping for the blower alone. So, for me, this is a Rocket Blower and extras package for a price only $2-3 more than the blower itself WITHOUT shipping costs. A very good value, in my opinion.
On to the products, the Rocket Blower is the one I've used most. It is the smallest one offered by Giottos, the other two being 1 and 2 inches longer, I believe. The advantage of the larger Rocket Blowers is that they have an elongated shape, which allows them to fit in the palm entirely so that you can get a really good squeeze on them. The small one included in this package is more ball shaped, and with my larger hands, it feels very small in comparison. Sounds bad, but being so small is it advantage. I keep my camera gear in a Lowepro Slingshot A200, and this little guy fits in the upper storage area very well and doesn't take up too much room. I borrowed a friend's 6.5 inch Rocket Blower, and while it isn't much longer, that little bit of extra room it takes up is enough for me to appreciate the small one in this kit. Aside from the convenient shape, it works as advertised. The little inlet valve on the bottom really does prevent the blower from taking in dust, which is a huge enemy of camera bodies.
The included microfiber cloth works well for removing smudges on filters or a lens' front element. The cleaning solution and swabs work very well on front elements and viewfinders. There are 10 swabs included in the kit. They each have a pointed end on one side (works great in tighter spots), and a round end on the other like a regular q-tip. The cleaning solution comes in a small 30mL spray bottle. The last accessory is a small retractable brush that, according to the brush, uses goat hair. I don't know if that's supposed to make it any better, but it works well enough for me.
While I do love this kit, I've read a few reviews about some problems that may arise. I think it's fair to go over the ones I've read about most. Some have said the hairs on the retractable brush fall off easily. Also, some say that dust and dirt can easily enter the brush and get trapped in the hairs since it does not have a cap. About the cleaning cloth, I've also read that it can absorb dirt very easily. My solution for those problems: zip-lock bags. Keeping the cloth and brush in zip-lock bags should help prevent any stray dust/dirt, and that will help you from transferring them onto your costly camera gear.
So, do I like this product? Yes. It's a basic kit with accessories that most people will find useful for their cameras.
19 of 20 found the following review helpful:
 The "Microfiber-Magic Cloth" is anything but lint-freeAug 31, 2006
By Pooya Monajemi
"p.m."
I got it just today and used it for cleaning my lens. The solution might be useful, the blower is useful, the swabs can be useful with their pointed tips, but the so called "magic cloth" is anything but magic. It kept leaving lint on my lens.
7 of 7 found the following review helpful:
An excellent value: buy it for the blower and the brushNov 06, 2009
By Glenn Carpenter
Giottos Rocket Blowers, which are available in three sizes, are, by virtue of their careful design and high quality, the best in the business. They have no real competition. I can't say that about the rest of the pieces in this kit. However, the kit currently sells for less here on Amazon than the small blower by itself, and it comes with a good brush and some other, fairly ordinary but necessary supplies, and because of that it's a great value and a complete no-brainer if you don't already have the blower.
Aside from the blower, which every photographer should have, the brush is the most important thing here. Any particles of dust not removed by the blower should be moved away gently with a soft brush, and only then, if necessary, should any cleaning liquid or tissue paper touch your lens.
The brush itself is a bit cheap-feeling, and mine fell apart, after which I glued it permanently back together - but it gets the important things right: the bristles are densely packed and very soft, and because they retract into the body, they will not fray over time.
Here's a cleaning tip I learned years ago and assumed everybody else already knew, but apparently it's no longer a matter of common knowledge: before you use the brush, blow air through it a few times, using the blower (in the direction of the bristles, so as not to fray them). This puts a small static charge on the bristles themselves, and after doing this they will lift dust off the lens very easily, without any real effort and without just moving them around on its surface.
Only after dust is blown and then brushed off the lens, and only if necessary, should you use a wet cleaner and cleaning tissue on the lens: cleaning is the single most common cause of lens damage. Even then, most people recommend that a microfiber cloth should NOT be used to clean the glass area of a lens. The cloth is nice for cleaning the lens body and other camera gear, but because it traps dust each time it's used, it shouldn't be rubbed on the lens surface itself. The only thing most experts recommend for safe cleaning of the lens itself is lens tissue designed for the task: a fresh piece every time guarantees that you will not be grinding your cloth's supply of old dust back into the lens' coating when you clean it. The lens tissue itself will leave a little residue, but that's not a problem: just blow it away with the blower, and you're done.
The fact that this kit does not include lens tissue is a striking omission. Do yourself a favor and get some, and don't let anything but the tissue and the brush touch your lens' surface.
I give the kit four stars based on the quality of the blower and the nice enough, if cheap-feeling, brush. It's a good value for the money. If you need it, get it.
5 of 5 found the following review helpful:
useful kitApr 25, 2008
By D. Nguyen
I actually bought this for dealing with sensor dust, and only the air bubble is for that purpose, the others are fine for lens cleaning. This blaster is the small size one, so no matter how I tried, there are still 2 or 3 small points of dust in my sensor not blown off. It would be better if I bought a more powerful blaster.
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