How To Clean your Camera Sensor | camsham.pk
Let’s start with some facts:
- Dirty sensors can affect the quality of the image.
- There are many methods to clean lens and filter optics.
So, let’s try to keep things simple, and find the best and safest way to get your lenses clean.
1. Don’t clean your lens unnecessarily
Glass is relatively hard and durable. However, when advanced coatings and other chemicals are added to the lens, it becomes a surface that’s more vulnerable to scratches and damage from chemicals and contact. Because of this, we want to try to keep our lenses and filters free of fingerprints and dirt, and avoid repeated physical interaction.
2. Dust happens
Dust is everywhere and everywhere is dust. It will get on and inside your lens. Lenses are manufactured in extremely clean factories, where manufacturers go to great lengths to try to eliminate dust from the environment. Even then, brand-new lenses may have dust between the lens elements. Trying to keep your lenses dust free through continual cleaning may serve to shorten the life of your lens, as you run the risk of scratching the lens surfaces every time you clean the glass.
3. Beware of rear smudges
Oily fingerprints and smudges on the rear element will have the most dramatic impact on image quality, because of the way that the light is focused narrowly through the back of the lens.
The good news is that the rear element of the lens is less susceptible to dirt and oil because, when mounted on the camera, it isn’t subject to kids’ sticky fingers, your sticky fingers, or other environmental dangers.
Cleaning your optics is easy to do, even in the field
Here is a simple, three-step process for effective lens and filter cleaning:
- Remove as much dust and dirt as possible from the lens with a blower or soft-bristled brush.
- Apply a few drops of lens cleaning solution to a lens tissue or cleaning cloth.
- Using a circular motion, gently remove oil, fingerprints, and grime from the lens surface, working from the center outward.
Analysis
Remember, you can perform those three easy steps in the field when needed but, unless there are greasy fingerprints or oily smudges on your lens, avoid unnecessary cleaning. You don’t need to be in a dust-free “clean room,” and don a vinyl suit and rubber gloves to clean your lens.
The parts of the lens that are most exposed to the environment are the front element and the barrel of the lens. The best way to protect the front element is to attach a high-quality filter. The filter, generally much less expensive than the lens itself, will serve as a sentry that absorbs the gunk headed for your expensive lens optics. The filter will be cleaned in the same manner as any other lens.
A dirty lens barrel will not degrade image quality, but keeping the lens barrel clean may help avoid potential issues with the mechanics of the focus and zoom mechanisms. Use a lens cloth or tissue and lens-cleaning solution to keep your lens barrel clean.
Brushes and Blowers
When it comes to dust removal by air, the best method is to use a blower, and to avoid using compressed air. Without a blower, you can always blow on the lens with your own lung power,
There is a multitude of lens-cleaning brushes on the market. A high-quality one is recommended. Camel hair works very well.
Cloth, Tissues, and Cleaners
Lens tissue is relatively inexpensive. One use only, please. Discard the tissue after cleaning your lens.
Microfiber cleaning cloths are popular as well. There are a few precautions to help ensure their beneficial use. Keep them clean, as they will likely be used for multiple cleanings, and you do not want to re-apply dirt and grime or particles that may scratch your lens.
Cleaning Technique
Wiping in concentric circles will reduce the occurrences of streaking more than working across the lens.
Working from the center to the edge will move debris to the edges of the lens, away from the center of the image circle, in the event the objects do not get removed.
When wiping, apply only enough pressure to remove the offending smudge.
Lens-Cleaning Miscellany
On a DLSR (or SLR), when you look through the viewfinder, many times you will see lots of dust specs throughout the image. This dust is on the camera’s mirror, and will not affect the photograph. The mirror can be cleaned, but the silvering is very delicate. Also, using air blowers here may blow dust from your mirror onto your digital sensor, which will definitely affect image quality.
A note to users of sport optics, telescopes, and night photographers: beware of inspecting your lens for cleanliness with a color-filtered flashlight, as some of the dirt and smudges may not appear.
Finally, you may clean your lens mounts (camera and lens) with a cloth and lens-cleaning solution. The digital contacts that allow the lens and camera to communicate may require occasional cleaning. Be sure to use a different cloth from that used for the optics, as wiping a metal lens mount to clean it may impart tiny metal debris on the cloth that should never be introduced to the glass.
Remember the three simple steps, remember that dust happens, and be sure to spend more time making photographs than cleaning your gear.
