Camera care tip: Your cameras mirror box assembly has a black coating on it to reduce glare and reflection, and is often rubbery feeling to the touch. Well, that said, please do not touch it! You can deposit finger oils, and even makeup residue on it which can attract dust and dirt. In fact, the ONLY thing you should introduce into the chamber that is your mirror box assembly, without touching it, is a puff of air from a bulb style blower, if necessary. It may be tempting to try to reach in and wipe out a piece of dust or dirt, or blow into it, but you can, without realizing it, make the problem worse by introducing additional contaminants that either add more dirt by itself, or help attract more dust and dirt. There are cleaning kits out there you can buy to clean inside your camera, but they should be used with extreme caution. We say this not because we want you to only use us for camera cleaning, but because these kits often have devices that touch your sensor plate and other areas in your camera, and many of them (especially if the kit is an older one), may contain a wet swab solution that may be chemically incompatible with your sensors cover plate, or introduce fiber debris that can adhere to things other than your sensor, resulting in problems for your auto-focus system, or introducing other image anomalies caused by these fibers. Many of these kits can produce good results, and are good products, but they are not substitutes for professional cleaning, and should ONLY be used with extreme caution and care. Avoid buying cheap or off brand kits as their components may not be up to par. You spent good money on your camera gear, this is not the place to be using a blue light special type of item. Your sensor cover plate can have a coating on it that, if a wet system is used on it that is not compatible, can cause clouding streaks on the plate cover that show up in your images. The wet system swabs can leave fibers behind that stick to the rubberized coating on some mirror box assemblies. You should NOT use cans of compressed air as the refrigerant in them can discharge. This can damage coatings, including your sensors cover plate! These cans also have plastic tubes that can be launched by the can and can impact things inside your camera! You also should NEVER use a cloth (even a microfiber or supposedly lint free swab, or lens cleaning tissue inside your mirror box! These products can leave debris behind that may not be visible on your photos, but can wedge and adhere to things in your mirror box that can cause later damage. Ok then... all these Donts.... what about a Do ? Just what should you use to get dirt out between professional cleanings then? A bulb style blower! This should be used very carefully too, as the tips, or other parts of the blowers should not be allowed to touch your reflex mirror, Fresnel glass, sensor cover plate, shutter blades, etc. inside the mirror box as it could cause damage, and/or transfer dirt. As with changing a lens (see earlier tip), you will want to point the camera down, and dismount the lens or body cap, then use the blower to gently blow away contaminants. Note too that this should be done without pressing the shutter release or locking the mirror up first. Just blow out the mirror box area carefully, then, in a second or third pass, lock the mirror up, and do it again. Then you can finally use the lock mirror up for cleaning or Clean manually option on your sensor cleaning menu, to blow around another time, again doing all these with the camera body tilted down and in as calm an atmosphere as possible to avoid adding in contaminants. One other thing to keep in mind is the back end of your lenses! Yes.. the rear objective lens and surfaces of the back of your lens mate with your camera body and can transfer dust, dirt, and debris into your camera body. Dont forget to clean BOTH front and rear lenses on your gear! All these measures are not a substitute for a professional cleaning, but can help in a pinch, or be used for interim maintenance. So, just how often should you get your gear professionally cleaned? Well, it does depend on how you shoot and where. If you change your lenses a lot, and/or are in dusty, dirty, or even pollen filled environments, then you should be on a good preventive maintenance schedule with at least every six months, and preferably every three if it has been a long time since your last cleaning, then go to every six months after a couple of 3 month interval cleanings. For the more casual shooter, an annual check should be done. Of course, if you see an artifact on your photos you should not wait for the next cleaning that is preventively scheduled, but rather get it addressed as soon as possible, and then still keep up with your regularly scheduled cleanings. This is important because of the nature of some contaminants and where they can get into your camera. If something like a sand particle gets in between your sensor cover plate and shutter blades, for instance, you can be abrading your sensor cover plate and shutter blades, causing possible damage! Other things like lint and other things can get into moving part areas and cause everything from mechanical wear and tear, or jams, to interfering with the ability of your camera to auto-focus. As many of our clients can attest to, letting things go too long can cause issues that become very expensive to fix, so preventive maintenance coupled with regularly scheduled professional cleanings can keep your gear ready for action and extend its service life! If you have questions about any of this, or want to schedule a professional cleaning, feel free to contact us!
Posted on: Sat, 24 May 2014 20:40:00 +0000
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