Carson Optical (www.carsonoptical.com) is an American company that is headquartered on the East Coast. Their line of products includes a large selection of magnifiers, spotting scopes, rifle scopes, monoculars, binoculars and pocket microscopes. These Lens and Screen Cleaners fall in the category of cool, new products introduced at the 2012 Las Vegas Shot Show.

I was immediately drawn to the Lens Cleaners at the Show, because I have a telescope with an 8” objective lens and obtaining a perfect cleaning job on a lens that big is quite difficult. I was looking for something new. These Lens and Screen Cleaners use a totally dry cleaning technology and contain a specially-formulated dry compound that is super fine carbon, essentially graphite. Graphite has long been known as an excellent cleaning and lubricating material. It is used in various types of filters and has great absorbent characteristics.

There are eight different models of the Carson Lens and Screen Cleaners. There are three reusable Lens Cleaners and two reusable Screen Cleaners. The other three models are disposable.

The Screen Cleaners are intended for cleaning Smart Phone screens and tablet screens. The cleaning surface is square, so as to clean the corners. The cleaning surface of the Lens Cleaners is round and comes in different sizes for different size lenses. The non-disposable Lens Cleaners include a retractable (lipstick) brush for removing dust and debris. The cleaning surface is protected by a cap. In the bottom of the cap are more micro-carbon particles. Simply snap on the cap, give it a quarter turn, and the cleaning surface is replenished.

I returned home from the Shot Show with a sample pack of three Carson’s disposable Lens Cleaners. When I went to the next Guns and Shooting Online staff meeting, I took the samples and used one to clean Owner/Managing Editor Chuck Hawks' eye glasses. At the next staff meeting, Chuck was begging me to give him a sample. He swore his glasses had never been cleaner and they stayed cleaner longer. His thinking was that the Cleaner neutralized the static electricity that attracted dust to his glasses.

I then contacted Carson and requested more samples for testing and use for this article. They not only sent more Lens Cleaner samples, they also sent a pair of 10x42 ED glass binoculars for a Guns and Shooting Online review.

I thought this was a perfect opportunity to really put the Cleaners to a test on lenses that I don’t own. Over a three day period, I scrubbed one of the objective lens of the brand new Carson binoculars for a total of 5 hours of cleaning--more cleaning than any lens would probably see in its lifetime. I then took the binoculars to a staff meeting to see if anyone could determine which lens I had scrubbed. Nobody could. That tells me the Cleaner won’t damage lenses and I feel safe using it on my telescope.

Carson made a clever decision in retailing when they priced all eight Lens Cleaner models at $10 MSRP. If you buy disposable Lens Cleaners, depending on the size, you get a 12-pack, 14-pack or 16-pack for $10. Another thing I realized when scrubbing their binocular lens, was that the disposables are not one-time use only. When scrubbing the lens for five hours, one disposable lasted 15 minutes. It shouldn’t take more than 30 seconds, on average, to clean the lenses of eyeglasses or binoculars. If you take care of the disposables, they can be used a number of times.

In total, Carson sent me fifteen of the Lens and Screen Cleaners, in a variety of models. After leaving the subsequent staff meeting, I only had two left for myself. They turned out to be a hot commodity!