Caring For Your Camera

Interchangeable lens cameras, like all electronics, require some amount of care to keep in good working condition. The good news is that, with just a little bit of knowledge and a few easy steps, you can protect the delicate parts and keep your camera and lenses functioning for many years to come.

Protecting Your Gear

Protecting your camera and lenses is important step that is easy to forget. Having a decent bag and ensuring you have front and back lens caps and using them goes a long way toward keeping your gear from getting damaged. Camera bags come in all shapes and sizes. The most important things to keep in mind when choosing yours are:

1. Proper Padding: does the bag have thick sides or just one thin layer of fabric?

2. Enough Space to Grow: You need room enough for the lenses, wipes, filters, etc. that you have now, plus a little bit of extra for any new lenses, flash units, etc. that you have your eye on.

3. A Good Rating: Make sure to read reviews and make sure people have written a review after owning the bag for a while and not just a first look review. "Seems to have good stitching" is not the same as "I took it around Europe for a summer, using it and abusing it and it held up great."

4. It Doesn't Have to Be a Camera Bag: A good quality bag plus a more affordable insert with dividers for your camera and lenses can be just as good as a high-end bag, just do your research and know what you are getting. The word "Camera" automatically adds to the price of a bag, so if you need to spend less, look into this kind of alternative.

Batteries

Digital cameras use lithium ion (Li-ion) batteries. Li-ion batteries require a specific rate of charging based upon their size and capacity, noted as milliampere-hours, or mAh. The best way to charge your batteries is to buy a battery charger specifically designed for them.

Today, cameras do not come with a charger, so you have to buy one separately. The good news is that you can get additional batteries and a charger sold together. Having at least one, if not more, additional batteries is highly recommended as cameras can drain a battery fairly quickly and there is not a lot that can compare to the disappointment of being on-site with the shot you want but no power left in your battery. Personally I like to have at least four batteries for my camera. This allows me to not only have back-ups but I also rotate through them so I am not draining and charging the same battery constantly. All batteries eventually fail, but the more you rotate them, the longer you go before you have to start replacing them. That said, using a little care, our original Sony battery for our NEX-5T is still as strong as our newest ones 10 years after we first bought it. That is with regular but not professional level use.

It is also important to change your battery either when you get a low warning or before; don't run them all the way out. Your camera/batteries have a built-in feature to prevent battery damage if you accidentally do this, but the less often you run a battery until your camera shuts off, the longer it will last. Lastly, if you are going to have to store them for a while, like multiple months, the best practice is to drain them down to 30-50% first.

Your Sensor

The sensor is the eye of your camera: it collects all of the light that is gathered by your lens and sends the information to the camera's processor. As such it is one of the most vital and also most delicate parts of the camera. Normally, when a lens is on, the sensor is protected by the body and lens. When you change lenses you expose this important piece of hardware. It is for this reason that lens changes should be done carefully and planned out. If you can avoid doing them when out in nature where dirt and dust, wind and water exist, then that is the best practice. If you need to change them in the field, then take the following steps to limit the time your sensor is exposed:

Lens ready for camera

1. Find a place out of the wind/elements. If you cannot get to a place out of the wind (and of course rain, snow, etc) then it may be better to just take a picture with the lens you have on. After all, if you get your sensor dirty, or worse, wet, you won't get any pictures worth using and may damage your camera.

2. Prep the lens you are changing to. Find a clean and dry place to set your lens you want to use down and take the back cap off. It is even helpful to have it aligned so when you bring it up to your camera you don't have to rotate it much.

3. Remove your current lens and gently place it down also on a clean and dry surface. Keep your camera in your hand and face the sensor down when you do this. If the opening to your sensor is facing down you have the least likelihood of wind blowing something onto your sensor.

4. Quickly put the new lens on, taking care not to bash it against your camera in your haste. Don't panic, you're better off with the "slow is smooth and smooth is fast" mentality here. The key to being "quick" is simply not stopping to do anything else. You can put the back cap on the lens you removed after the new lens is in place. Lenses are a lot easier to clean than a sensor.

5. Properly cap (front and back) and stow your lens in your bag and go take more pics.

These same steps should be followed even if you are at home in a clean room of your house, as dust can happen anywhere.

If you start to notice dark spots on your pictures, you probably have dust or other contamination on your lens or sensor. To find it, you can take a long exposure of a white or very light colored surface. Import this onto your PC and zoom in to find dark spots. These can often be made easier to find by increasing the contrast of the photo. If you find spots, clean your lens first using a lens cloth (more on this below). If that doesn't solve it, swap lenses and take the same picture again. You will know for certain that a dark spot is on your sensor if the same spot shows up in the same place on the picture after the lens swap.

At this point you can either take it in to a professional who will charge you somewhere in the neighborhood of $35 to $50ish in the US, or you can order a sensor cleaning kit and watch one of the many YouTube tutorials on sensor cleaning. I particularly liked this one by Nigel Danson:

https://youtu.be/b-7ciRxh6s8?si=dUBSHALc9oIKd3RW

Adverse Weather

Next up we have weather sealing and adverse weather. If you have seen photographers on YouTube taking pictures in the rain, next to a misty waterfall, or out in the snow, then you might be tempted to do the same. Just know, your camera and lens may not be as weather sealed as theirs is. Look up the level of weather sealing your camera has and decide just how much you want to risk before going out with it in a storm. Even if you have top notch weather sealing you may want to take extra steps to protect it; I've watched videos where a professional's camera succumbs to the elements and is done for the day or worse. If you really want to take rain or snow pics, maybe consider a rain jacket for your camera. No, they aren't cool to look at, nor are they a perfect solution in the most extreme weather, but if you aren't filming your shooting session for YouTube then it may be worth taking this extra step.

One Option For Rain Covers

Lens Care

The last bit of vital camera care advice I will give you involves lens care. Lenses can cost more than your camera body, so making sure not to ruin them is important. The first thing to know is which of your lenses is weather sealed like you did with your camera above. This is usually easy info to find on the manufacturer's website, but if you don't know and can't find it, assume your lens isn't weather sealed. Lenses that aren't weather sealed should be given extra care even just when it is cold out, as quick and extreme temp changes can cause condensation to form inside.

In addition to weather, you need to protect your lenses from damage when hiking around. A lens hood will go along way to prevent your delicate glass from impacting something if you trip, slip etc. You can also put a UV filter on to give an extra layer of protection, especially if your lens didn't come with a hood. A lot of pros will argue against this, because every piece of glass you put on your lens is another thing for the light to go through, and if you don't buy a high quality UV filter the quality of your pictures may suffer. For me, this is another balancing act. I'll put a good UV filter on my f/1.4 25mm manual lens that has no hood and I don't notice a difference in quality of pictures. For my large Tamron 18-300mm lens I have a hood. It also has a maximum aperture of f/3.5, so if light is lower, a UV filter could rob me of vital light. If I ever take this lens somewhere with high winds and a lot of grit in the air, I will put a UV filter on to avoid having a lot of lens cleaning later.

Lastly, regarding cleaning your lens; I make it a rule to only clean my lenses when I know there is something on them or if there is a strong chance something is on them, like if I was

Lens Cleaning Kit: Blower with Removeable Brush, Cotton Swabs, Cleaning Fluid, Cloth

out in inclement weather. Lenses have coatings that reduce negative optical effects. These coatings can become compromised if you are scrubbing away daily at your lens. Also, even with care and a soft cloth, there is always some small chance a piece of dirt can scratch your lens when you wipe it off. Because of this, I highly recommend buying and using an air blower to remove loose particulate first before you wipe your lens. Blowers often come with lens cleaning kits, which usually don't cost too much, so I would recommend buying one. A good kit will also come with a brush. Use the brush after the blower to gently brush off the big pieces the blower didn't get. Only then should you use the cloth to get the last of the dust or water spots. Lens cloths should not be used over and over again; they collect dirt and dust and that can then scratch your lens the next time you use it, so check your lens cloth before you use it and throw it out when you can see any dirt on it.

So, these are the big tips, but there are other things to consider: a padded camera bag, having a safe place to store your investment when not in use, and being careful where you take your expensive camera gear, as it can be targeted by thieves. I will discuss these other topics and more either in my tips section or in a future blog post. For now, remember, if you take good care of your camera it will serve you for many years to come.