How often do you clean your camera?

Smoke

Senior Member
My wife just bought me a 55-300mm Nikon lens that came with a cleaning kit which includes:
  1. Air blower bulb
  2. Lens Cloth
  3. Lens Cleaning Liquid
  4. Brush
  5. Cotton Swabs
  6. Lens Cleaning Tissues

My question is how often do you clean your camera or how do you know when to clean your camera?

My other shooting hobby (Guns), I clean after a few hundred rounds of ammo. When I buy a new gun, they tell you to clean it real good before you even shoot your first shot. Is this principle the same for cameras? How indepth do you get when cleaning it yourself? I'm nervous about messing with the internal parts of my camera.
 
I am of the school that you really don't want to clean a camera any more than you absolutely have to. The lens will have to be cleaned a little more often. For that you might want to look into the LensPen. They work great and are easy to stick into your camera bag.

Now my guns get cleaned every time they are shot. And wiped off every time they get picked up except my carry gun and it gets cleaned up at least once a week whether it gets fired or not. Magazines get unloaded and let rest for 2 weeks while a rested one gets put in service.
 

Horoscope Fish

Senior Member
I don't like digging around in the guts of my camera so I use a big powder brush and canned air on the externals from time to time but that's the extent of it. The sensor gets cleaned maybe once a year but I have a shop that does that for me and while I know I could do it myself with a kit, it's something I really don't mind paying a professional for.

My DSLR is electronic, my pistols mechanical. I don't really see any correlation between their maintenance needs.

.....
 

hark

Administrator
Staff member
Super Mod
Contributor
My wife just bought me a 55-300mm Nikon lens that came with a cleaning kit which includes:
  1. Air blower bulb
  2. Lens Cloth
  3. Lens Cleaning Liquid
  4. Brush
  5. Cotton Swabs
  6. Lens Cleaning Tissues

My question is how often do you clean your camera or how do you know when to clean your camera?

How indepth do you get when cleaning it yourself? I'm nervous about messing with the internal parts of my camera.

When my D90 showed a couple of dust bunnies in photos, I used the camera's sensor cleaning option which took care of them.

Then I got a D600 which has the oil spots, and I began wet cleaning the sensor. Initially I was VERY apprehensive to try it until BackdoorHippie posted a video in this thread which very clearly describes how to do it.

How do you know if your camera needs cleaning? Take a couple photos of a blue sky with the aperture set to f/16 or f/22 (or you can take a photo of a plain light colored wall). The spots usually only show up in photos taken with small apertures. Enlarge your photo on your computer--you might have to adjust the photo's contrast a little to make the spots more visible--IF there are any.

You should at least learn the proper steps for using a blower. You don't want to insert the blower inside the camera body. If you watch the video, the blower is used first anyway for a wet cleaning, and the video is extremely helpful. The guy is dry but spot on (no pun intended) with his instructions. ;)
 

mikew_RIP

Senior Member
After reading different things on here my cameras get a upside down blow job every time i change lenses if ime at home or on return if i have changed lenses out side,the back of the lens gets the same,the front is a bit different as i have filters on so not so worried about over cleaning them.
My new D7000 was direct from Nikon with no shutter count but had dust on the sensor filter when i took the first test shot.

mike
 

gqtuazon

Gear Head
My wife just bought me a 55-300mm Nikon lens that came with a cleaning kit which includes:
  1. Air blower bulb
  2. Lens Cloth
  3. Lens Cleaning Liquid
  4. Brush
  5. Cotton Swabs
  6. Lens Cleaning Tissues

My question is how often do you clean your camera or how do you know when to clean your camera?

My other shooting hobby (Guns), I clean after a few hundred rounds of ammo. When I buy a new gun, they tell you to clean it real good before you even shoot your first shot. Is this principle the same for cameras? How indepth do you get when cleaning it yourself? I'm nervous about messing with the internal parts of my camera.

I think what you received are cleaning kit to wipe your lenses; air blower for the sensor and not to conduct a wet swab on the sensor.

How often you want to clean your camera and lenses depends up to you just like with your guns, car, etc.

I know my hands gets really oily so at the end of my use and before I store them, I get a clean damp cloth, wipe out the external rubber, allow them to dry and store them in my bags. What I want to avoid is for the rubber to peel off in the long run.
 

mikew_RIP

Senior Member
Since starting in photography the out side of my cameras and lenses are cleaned occasionally with a soft unused paint brush,the camera especially due to it having places where dust ect can gather.

mike
 

BackdoorArts

Senior Member
Not often enough, apparently. Usually when I come back from shooting outdoors in fields and the like, and changing lenses in that environment, I will always blow off the sensor with a bulb blower and shoot a dust reference photo. I did that Friday morning, and then had to get right to work, so I didn't have time and completely forgot when I went out to take photos in the fog Sunday morning. Let's just say that a white background makes for a LOT of cleanup. :(

I will blow the sensor clean when changing lenses before going out (never in the field unless it's a clean environment, and wet clean when needed, which is today for my D600.
 

Nero

Senior Member
I haven't really cleaned my camera body. I don't use it as much as I'd like. I clean the lenses once in a while though.

Sent from my GT-S7560M using Tapatalk 4
 
Top