How-To: Clean Your Camera Gear

Inspired by a conversation on Twitter I thought I’d tell you how I clean my gear. I read many posts by professional photographers out there that suggest to use commercial and expensive stuff like Lens Clens, Eclipse and so on, but most of them are just re-labeled alcohols. I also read through several forums about alternatives, but it often becomes a question of faith.

I used to use Methanol, but it can be hard to purchase here in Germany  because it’s highly toxic. Now I use Ethanol, it’s non-toxic (in fact it’s drinking alcohol). You can get it inexpensively in most pharmacies and it works almost as good as Methanol. Don’t use Isopropyl. It’s hygroscopic and leaves a lot of residue after evaporation.

My cleaning procedure is pretty simple and inexpensive. Except the (M)Ethanol you need a Rocket Blower, a Microfiber Cloth, Lens Tissues and some Q-Tips.

The very first thing I clean is the Camera body and the lenses. To do so dismount the lens from the Camera body and put all the caps on. Then use a dampish microfiber cloth and wipe off all dirt from your body and lenses. If you have a zoom-lens that extends when zooming, zoom it all the way out.

The next thing I clean are the front element of my lenses and my filters. Take off your front-cap and use the Rocket Blower to blow away any dust because it might scratch the glass. If you have fingerprints or spots on the front element, put one drop of Ethanol on a wadded lens tissue and wipe it with very little pressure in circulating movements from the inside to the outside. Don’t do this on the rear element of your lens because they are very damageable! Just use the Rocket Blower to blow away any dust!

From time to time I also clean the contacts of the lens and the lens mount. To do so, put some Ethanol on a Q-Tip and twist it along the contacts.

The last thing I clean is the sensor. I don’t do wet cleanings myself, but I usually don’t even need to. Just don’t change your lenses in dusty environments. If I ever get visible dust on my sensor (which only happened once after shooting in the desert and on the beach on my Trip to Egypt) I bring my camera to a local camera store and let them clean it.
All I do myself is blowing the dust off. To do so you need to lock the mirror up in your camera’s menu (full batteries required). Then use the Rocket Blower and throw some hard blows on the sensor from a short distance. But take care to not touch the sensor.

How often should you clean your gear? Well… as less as possible and as often as you need to. I have cleaned my coated lenses with Ethanol for a year now, and I don’t see any damage to the coatings, nor have I found any serious reports on the Internet about it. But you should be careful and don’t overdo it. I usually clean the body and lens after each shoot and the front element only if it’s dirty.

Also have a look at the YouTube videos of Lilkiwiguy87.