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How to show your camera some love this Valentine’s Day

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It’s that time of year again. That time where we show those nearest to us how much we love them. Perhaps you’ve been neglecting them a little recently? Maybe it’s time to show them a little affection and give them a good scrub?

This video from the folks at COOPH offers up some good care and maintenance tips for keeping our cameras running in tip-top condition. While we can’t always protect them the way we’d like – after all, gear’s for using – there are things we can do to help reduce the chances of early death.

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This is how they clean camera sensors at the Leica Camera AG service centre

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Cleaning our sensors at home is a fairly straightforward thing to do. I’ve been doing it since I was shooting with a pair of Nikon D100 bodies back in 2002 because sending your camera off to be cleaned was prohibitively expensive back then. These days, most camera stores will offer some kind of cleaning service.

But how do they do it when you send it back to the manufacturer? Specifically, how does Leica do it? This 20-minute video from Leica Society member Hari Subramanyam lets us see the whole process after he took his Leica M (Typ 240) and Leica SL into Leica Camera AG for a sensor clean.

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How to safely clean your camera lenses and filters

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I used to clean my lenses religiously. Every time before I left the house with the camera, and again when I got back home. These days, my attitude towards it is a little more relaxed. I don’t worry about dust anywhere near as much as I used to. But I still try to avoid cleaning them the wrong way. And yes, there are some wrong ways.

If you struggle to keep your lenses clean or want to minimise the risk of damaging your lens while cleaning them take some pointers from Joe Edelman. In this video, he shows a couple of ways to absolutely not clean your lenses and talks about why. But he also demonstrates his method for cleaning his own lenses safely and effectively.

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This is how you clean your camera sensor and lenses by yourself

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If you listen to the wider DSLR & mirrorless owning community online, cleaning your own sensor is the scariest thing in the world. We’re talking Pennywise, Freddy Krueger, and Jason Voorhees all rolled into one kinds of scary. So, we ship them out or feverishly wait for the next photography show, to take our camera for cleaning.

But, it’s really not all that scary. I’ve been cleaning my own DSLR sensors since 2002. After you do it a couple of times, the worries disappear. In this video, Peter McKinnon talks about his dirty camera issues on his recent trip to Africa. He then walks us through the process to get your sensor clean and sparkly again. He also covers some tips to keep your lenses clean, too.

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How to remove fungus from lenses using soap, water and vinegar

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Fungus isn’t an issue most of us have to deal with when using modern glass. It comes pretty well sealed, and it’s usually not old enough to let major fungus issues develop yet. But, if you’re buying older lenses at the rate Mathieu Stern does, it becomes inevitable. Usually, you’ve got a couple of options. The first is to simply sell it on and find another. But the more productive route is to just give it a good clean.

In this video, Mathieu shows us how to open it up and get to those elements. Then, an easy way to get them clean using soap and water, then vinegar. Finally, how to reassemble things so that everything works as intended.

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5 easy top tips for keeping your lenses clean

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Getting dust and muck on your lenses is just a fact of life. There’s pretty much nothing we can do to escape it in the real world. But, there are things we can do to help reduce its impact. And, there’s also things we can do to safely get rid of it once it’s there. When you’re out on location, wiping it on your t-shirt is an option that many take, but it’s not really healthy for your lens.

This video from YouTuber Fangs shows us five tips for caring for our lenses properly. Both how to get rid of dust and dirt on our lenses, but also helping to prevent it from building up so quickly. Keeping our lenses clean falls under general gear maintenance.

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Save yourself some money and learn how to clean your own sensor like a pro

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Learning to clean your camera’s sensor is one of the most valuable skills a photographer can learn. At least when it comes to camera maintenance. It’s a task that many are afraid to learn, worried that they’ll kill their camera. These things are a lot more solid than most give them credit for.

In this video from f64 Academy, Blake Rudis shows you how spot that you even have a dust problem, and then several ways to get rid of it.

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