How to clean our camera

I always want all my equipment to be clean. I’m not a neat-freak, but I think our precious cameras and lenses deserve to be cleaned regularly. There are some reasons why it’s important.

We use our cameras in many different environment daily so the first obvious reason is hygiene. Especially in street photography in a few hours we might encounter with dust, rain, put our camera on the pavement or grass or sand just to get the perfect shot. I think this is only natural, we all bought it to use it. But as we create, our equipment get dirtier every time.

If we don’t take good care of our lens, we might have a nightmare at editing. Ugly dust spots on the picture, or strange light effects because of the smudges. Even if we cannot really see obvious things on the lens, it can have an impact on the picture. And of course if someone swap lenses, sooner or later the sensor gets dirty too. Today, let’s concentrate on the camera body and the lens.

rocket blower - with filter

This should be the very first step. Many times it can be almost enough. It blows away any easily removable dust without any real effort. Personally I like to use one with a filter on its back to avoid blowing even more dust on the lens.

brush small or big

This is optional, but useful. I like to use it, have a really small one in my everyday bag, and have a bigger one at home for more thorough cleaning. This is another harmless thing that can help to clean a bit more sticky dust from the body. Here my only advice is that you use the brush only for camera cleaning and nothing else. If you keep it for your camera only, it won’t get dirty over time.

microfiber cloth

The most obvious one. I think any quality microfibre cloth does the job well. It doesn’t have to be an expensive one. It’s great for cleaning the body and the lens too. Any microfibre cloth worth its price is machine washable. So anytime it gets dirty, just throw into the washing machine and you’ll have a proper clean, almost new one.

Zeiss wipes

My personal favourite. Great for cleaning the lens, great for cleaning the body. And it’s very practical. Have a couple of these in every bag, or even in your pocket. I use them for many years and never had any problem with them. The best deal is to buy the bigger package with 200 wipes so you can put some in every camera bag you own. (probably I own too many)

Zeiss spray

Probably the same liquid as they use on their wipes. It is safe and great for cleaning on the lens or on the body. The best is to spray it on a microfibre cloth and clean with that. I don’t like to use directly on the lens. I don’t think it would cause any issue though.

What NOT to use

Personally I would stay away from compressed air. I know it can be effective, however it can easily damage your lens, viewfinder or back screen if you’re not careful. Because after a few seconds it can blow frozen air, which is absolutely bad for your equipment. Of course it is possible to handle it with such great care that this never happens, but honestly, cameras and lenses are very expensive and delicate things. Why take the risk?

Any cleaning liquid that comes from unreliable source. I know there are plenty available that does not contain alcohol, have some special ingredient, but in my experience most of them leaves residue on the lens. Maybe they are great for cleaning your phone or tablet, but not necessarily your expensive lens.

See you soon, enjoy taking photos!

Tamas