Gear Maintenance Pt.2
/In the previous article we talked about how we can protect our gear to minimise it from being damaged or become dirty. However, in the real-world no matter how hard you try your camera gear will become dirty at some stage and you will most likely be caught out in a rain shower once or twice. In this article we will focus on how to clean and maintain our gear after the shoot. It may sound like a no-brainer, however using incorrect cleaning techniques can actually end-up damaging your gear.
So this is how I do it and my camera gear has never worked better.
Cleaning tools
Now that we know how we can minimise our gear from getting dirty it is not enough to keep it working optimal. I do also clean my gear on a regular basis. This way my gear stays fresh and working for longer. The gear I use to clean my and maintain my camera, lenses and tripod is quite few and simple to use.
Hurricane Blower
You may know this by other names such as rocket blower, air blaster, rocket blaster, air blower etc, whatever the name it usually refers to the same pice of equipment. The key thing to remember is that you want a rocket blower that has a filter, some also come with one-way vales. Without the filter the blower will not dispense clean air onto your gear.
A standrad rocket blower to blast away dust and dirt
Lens cloths
Lens cloths must be one of the most common ways of cleaning your lenses. These cloths are made of fine microfibre so to not scratch the lens glass surface. Usually you can wash these once they get dirty enough so it is a great investment for cleaning your lenses, viewfinder and the display on the back of your camera.
The classic lens cloth always a friend in the field
Lens Pens
I exclusively use lens pens to clean my lens glass. They have a built-in brush to brush away dust and other particles. They also have a cleaning tip made of a carbon compound similar to what is found in newspaper ink, (which is why it clean glass surfaces so well), the carbon compound can absorb massive amounts of oils and other contaminants. Oily fingerprints or streaks are gone in a second using the lens pen leaving the surface crystal clear.
DSLR Pro kit from lens pen an even better friend
Towel
The ordinary towel comes in when you have wet gear from rain, snow, frost or ice. Any towel will do but, the better it is at absorbing water the better. Usually I rarely carry a towel around with me, although I definitely should have at some stages, lens cloths will do a similar job just not as well as an actual towel would as they don’t have the same absorbing properties.
Cleaning your gear
Now that we know what we need there a few things to keep in mind when cleaning your gear so it is done properly. This is how I clean my gear.
Towel
Use the towel to pat around the camera and lens while still attached to each other if the camera and lens are wet. Likewise I use a dry towel to clean my off water from my tripod using the tapping motion allowing the towel to absorb the water. With a damp towel I use a tapping moving to absorb dirt or sand from the tripod.
Do not use a wiping motion with the towel, this can push water and dirt into the crevices of your gear or locking mechanisms of tripods causing damage.
Hurricane blower
I use the blower to blow away dirt, dust and sand from the camera and lens before taking the lens off the camera. We don’t want dirt to fall into the camera chamber as we remove the lens from the camera body. Once this is done I detach the lens from the camera and if I feel the need I hold the camera with the opening facing down toward the floor, lock the mirror up then I give the inside of the camera chamber a good run around with the hurricane blower, essentially blowing out any dust inside.
Try not to put the nozzle of the blower inside the camera chamber, doing so you may hit the sensor or cause damage to other moving parts like the mirror, I hold the blower nozzle just outside the edge of the chamber.
Lens cloth & pen
If the lens mount on the camera is dirty because I haven’t cleaned it in a while or lubricants and oil has found it’s way there I give the lens mount a clean with a cloth before I put the cap back on. Then I wipe the back screen. I use a lens pen to clean the viewfinder then put the camera body away.
Keeping the back of the lens clean from dirt is just as important as the front
For my lenses I start with the front element of the lens, where I use the brush of the lens pen to brush away any dust. If there are heavier contaminants like fingerprints, dried water stains or streaks I use the tip of the lens pen to get rid of these using a circular motion. I then do the same for the rear element of the lens.
Finally if the lens mount has not been cleaned in a while and seems dirty I clean this with lens cloth and wipe the mount clean, as well as ensuring the communication contacts on the lens is cleaned. This ensures the lens can communicate with the camera properly so functions such as autofocus and setting apertures work as expected. Then I put the lens caps on and store the lens away with the camera body.
The takeaway
That’s pretty much all there is to it, it’s not a big time consuming process and it’s not an expensive one. At the very least I would recommend you invest in lens cloths or a lens pen kit.
How often you should clean your gear is all up to you. If you are someone that almost always shoots indoors in a studio you gear will become a lot less dirty than someone that is out shooting landscapes in all kinds of changing weather conditions. I clean my lenses more often than I clean my camera body or tripod, likely I give my lens a quick go with the brush from the lens pen after each shoot just to keep it nice and clean.
Keep our gear well maintained will not only make it last longer but it will also save us time from cleaning our photos while doing post-processing saving us time.
Thanks for reading, stay tuned and polish away!
