talk to me about camera 'maintenance'...

[ShooterChick]

I've had my DSLR for almost a year now, and I've come across a few threads on here which have made me think about camera maintenance/upkeep. Which I know nothing about.

So.. what do you do on a regular basis to maintain your camera, anything? If so, what/when/how often etc etc etc?

Hope you don't mind the 'newbie' question! I'd rather get advice here though, then from a camera store which will always be trying to sell me something!

:)

cheers

[mwphoto]

Re: talk to me about camera 'maintenance'...

To be honest I don't do much - tend to keep them clean anyway with regular dusting/brushing!

[colin C]

Re: talk to me about camera 'maintenance'...

I don't do much either:

• Keep it protected from knocks and scrapes when not being used.

• Wipe over the outside with a microfibre cloth before putting it away.

• Ensure I have a fully charged battery available before putting away.

• Return my camera settings back to standard when finished a shoot.

• Very occasional sensor clean to remove oil spots etc.

Apart from a sensor clean maybe a couple of time a year, all the rest takes seconds to do.

Colin

[MX5]

Re: talk to me about camera 'maintenance'...

ColinC's point 4 above is very important (lenses as well to AF and IS on). If like me you sometimes see something in the garden or sky and grab the camera and click. Now if the the lens was MF or the camera to M or 1600ISO or whatever ... anyway I always kit set to my defaults.

[Nathaniel]

Re: talk to me about camera 'maintenance'...

I go along with what Colin C has said. I'd just add the following, from my own personal experience & use.

(i) Keep camera and lenses in one or two good camera bags- like Lowepro.
(ii) keep either a skylight or UV filter permanently on your lenses.
(iii) Remove batteries from camera if not using for any period of time.
(iv) Format memory card in the camera after off loading images to computer.
(v) Keep the camera and lens inside a Neoprene camera case when carrying your camera out of the camera holdall. Protects the camera against small knocks when entering confined spaces like pub, toilets, restaurants and similar.
(vi) Always use a neck strap when carrying the camera.

[Rasputin]

Re: talk to me about camera 'maintenance'...

I only format the card once I have backed the images up off the laptop onto an external HDD

[ShooterChick]

Re: talk to me about camera 'maintenance'...

Hey thanks guys! :)
Mostly some posts made me think/worry I was neglecting something like 'sensor cleaning' - but sounds like it is not such a common thing to clean then??
My lenses all have filters on for protection, my camera lives in it's nice lowpro bag, my memory cards get reformatted to empty them - but why set the camera back to default settings before putting it away? This is the only one I dont really understand - other than for making sure it is at default settings when I take it out next time?
Cheers!

[Muscat]

Re: talk to me about camera 'maintenance'...

If for example you had been using the camera with a 10 second delay and the EV to +2 stops and forgot to set them back to single shot or multi shot the next time you went to take a picture you would have to wait the 10 seconds and the shot will be 2 stops over exposed, this may not be a problem but it frequently means that you miss the shot that you wanted.

The guys don't mean set the wholeof the camera settings back to default only to set the ones that you have changed from your normal base starting point so that you always have the same settings to start with, i.e. you may have as a norm the ISO set to 100, the apature to f8 if using the AV mode or the shutter to 1/250 if using the TV mode with a single shot mode and the EV / FEV set to 0. Just reset these and you should be OK