How To Clean Your Camera

After water, dust is the greatest threat to the delicate electronic circuity of digital SLR cameras. The image sensor is the most precious element in terms of protection from dust and any other small, unwanted objects.

Unfortunately, 2 things work against digital SLR cameras in terms of dust:

Electronics inside your digital camera can attract dust particles;

Every time you change lenses the camera body is open to elements in the air. Even though the sensor itself is not directly exposed to the air, it does increase the possibility of that dust particles can find their way onto the image sensor.

The way you can determine if dust has gotten onto your image sensor is if you see small spots on your images. You can remove these spots with image editing software like Adobe Photoshop CS5

, but it is better to try avoid this problem first.

The manufacturers are aware of this problem and work hard to alleviate the problem. They use specialized manufacturing processes to reduce the amount of dust which accumulates on the image sensor. These processes involve placing a low-pass filter cover on the image sensor, anti-static coatings on vulnerable surfaces and screens placed in front of the image sensor that stop any particles.

Removing Dust

Should some dust particles attach themselves to the image sensor and become a significant problem there are a couple of things you can do:

• Take it to a reputable camera repair shop to have the dust removed professionally;
• Try to remove the dust yourself.

To remove the dust yourself you will need to first lock the camera’s mirror in the up position. This can be done through the camera’s setup menu.

Then, use a bright flashlight beam to illuminate any dust particles on the sensor. If necessary, use a magnifying glass for smaller particles. Once you locate the dust particles use a hand powered bulb blower to remove the dust particles. If this doesn’t work consider using some compressed air, but be warned if it is too strong the compressed air may damage other parts of the camera.

Remember, keep taking lots and lots of photographs of your kids. You will be glad you did!