On Mar 21, 2006, at 6:34 AM, Leon Altoff wrote:
I've just been cleaning my equipment and I began to wonder how
everyone else out there looks after their precious Pentax equipment.
I tend to use my cameras on the coast and subject them to salt
spray so I feel cleaning is important and I tend to clean all the
equipment I have been using at the same time and adopt a staged
approach.
First stage is cleaning the outside of everything with a warm damp
(not wet!) cotton based paper towel followed by immediately drying
it off with a dry cotton based paper towel. These towels leave no
lint or dust behind and are wonderful - they used them for hand
drying in our local Qantas club. Lenses are left fully extended to
ensure any residual moisture evaporates.
Stage 2 is to clean all the mounts - body and lens with the same
towels.
Next comes cleaning the actual exposed optics. Filters, front
elements if they have been exposed to the open air, all rear
elements and viewfinders. First I use canned CO2 to blow away any
loose dust, followed by a Lens pen brush (regularly replaced) and
then microfiber (also regularly replaced). I use Eclipse and Pec
Pads on anything stubborn.
Finally the sensors using a sensor brush. I then test for stubborn
dust and use a sensor swipe and Eclipse if need be. As an aside
did you know that the *istD will not let you clean the sensor if
the batteries are not reading full? It throws up a message saying
that the batteries do not have enough power to clean the sensor.
I once accidentally dipped the corner of my AF360FGZ flash in salt
water and pulled it apart and cleaned every part inside the head to
make sure there was no lasting damage.
So what lengths do you go to to clean your camera when you take it
places a good camera shouldn't go?
I think you're overdoing it, Leon.
Rear lens elements should hardly ever be cleaned. Same with
sensors. Most amateur photographers clean their lenses far more
often than necessary. A little dust on the front of a lens isn't
going to hurt anything, and cleaning too often always risks
scratching. I clean the front elements of my lenses maybe once a
year or so unless I notice a big glob of something stuck to one. I
wipe the outside of lenses and cameras occasionally with microfiber
cloths. That's it. As for front lens caps, I don't even know where
the front caps for most of my lenses are. I always have a proper
lens hood on every lens, though.
Bob
