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Cleaning Your DSLR Lenses
For many this is obvious but there are many who will get themselves a DSLR to make videos with and not know what to use or how to clean their lens and if you are like myself, the first clean can be quite worrying after all your camera and lens cost a lot and you dont want to damage it by cleaning it using the wrong tools or methods.
Don't fret though, cleaning a lens is very easy, you only need a few things to do it and there are many ways of cleaning your lenses. There's a few good ways to clean them and this guide is based on what I do myself. You may already do it differently yourself and if you do feel free to share your methods in a reply to this post to help others.
Things you will need:
Lens Blower - http://amzn.com/B00017LSPI
Microfibre cloth (best to get a decent one) - http://amzn.com/B00506HD2M
![lens-blower-micro-fibre-cloth].jpg](/data/attachments/14/14536-926fd30e50a93ff992d032ba867f9cc0.jpg)
If it only has a little bit of dust on the lens you may not need to clean it all that much and a quick blow of the lens blower could clean the dust right off, if it has substantial dust/dirt and fingerprints it likely is a good idea to clean it more thoroughly.
To begin cleaning take your lens blower and squeeze it a few times holding the lens upside down so that any dust falls off of it. It can be a good idea keeping your camera body facing down to help prevent dust landing inside of it although that is inevitable and you are bound to get dust inside eventually.
Make sure to check for any grit on your lens especially if you have been to the beach with your camera to ensure it is fully clean before using a lens cloth and make sure your lens cloth is clean and free of any grit as you wouldn't want to rub that up against your lens accidentally. If there is grit you can try blowing it off using the lens blower, using a brush or canned air.
Next what I do is breathe on the lens (front element - front of the lens) and then proceed to clean it by giving it a few small rubs in a circular motion with the lens cloth. If it is still not clean I repeat the process until it is clean.
If the rear element (back of the lens) has fingerprints and dust use the same method as above to clean it.
If you are cleaning your lens it is also a good idea to clean out all of your camera bags and equipment which will be stored in the same place as your lens to help prevent dust getting on the lens or in the lens. I also tend to clean my lens caps by using the lens blower to blow any dust that is trapped by squeezing the sides of the lens cap when using the blower, its a good idea to give your camera a quick blow over too.
When buying a microfibre cloth try and get a good quality one, ones that are for cleaning screens on mobile phones are not usually of high quality, you can pick up a decent lens cloth on eBay or Amazon for around 5 pounds and you can wash it in the washing machine whenever it gets dirty.
It is always a good idea to store your lens cloth in some kind of pouch or wallet somewhere which is dust free and dirt free and always use separate cloths for cleaning the LCD and viewfinder as these can collect oils from when you have your eye and face pressed against it and these can end up on your lens by sharing cloths and are harder to remove than prevent.
Something I have found useful is keeping the lens hood on the lens most of the time. I have had hardly any fingerprints on the front element ever since doing that, you can get yourself a cheap lens hood if you don't already have one on eBay. The brand doesn't really matter as they all do the same job.
Make sure to take care when cleaning your lenses and not clean them too often and only clean them as and when you need to, you will find that a few small specks of dust on your lens doesn't make a noticeable difference to your photos and videos and that it doesn't always need to be cleaned and a lot of the time, a quick blow with the lens blower will suffice.
I hope that this helps some of you out
For many this is obvious but there are many who will get themselves a DSLR to make videos with and not know what to use or how to clean their lens and if you are like myself, the first clean can be quite worrying after all your camera and lens cost a lot and you dont want to damage it by cleaning it using the wrong tools or methods.
Don't fret though, cleaning a lens is very easy, you only need a few things to do it and there are many ways of cleaning your lenses. There's a few good ways to clean them and this guide is based on what I do myself. You may already do it differently yourself and if you do feel free to share your methods in a reply to this post to help others.
Things you will need:
Lens Blower - http://amzn.com/B00017LSPI
Microfibre cloth (best to get a decent one) - http://amzn.com/B00506HD2M
If it only has a little bit of dust on the lens you may not need to clean it all that much and a quick blow of the lens blower could clean the dust right off, if it has substantial dust/dirt and fingerprints it likely is a good idea to clean it more thoroughly.
To begin cleaning take your lens blower and squeeze it a few times holding the lens upside down so that any dust falls off of it. It can be a good idea keeping your camera body facing down to help prevent dust landing inside of it although that is inevitable and you are bound to get dust inside eventually.
Make sure to check for any grit on your lens especially if you have been to the beach with your camera to ensure it is fully clean before using a lens cloth and make sure your lens cloth is clean and free of any grit as you wouldn't want to rub that up against your lens accidentally. If there is grit you can try blowing it off using the lens blower, using a brush or canned air.
Next what I do is breathe on the lens (front element - front of the lens) and then proceed to clean it by giving it a few small rubs in a circular motion with the lens cloth. If it is still not clean I repeat the process until it is clean.
If the rear element (back of the lens) has fingerprints and dust use the same method as above to clean it.
If you are cleaning your lens it is also a good idea to clean out all of your camera bags and equipment which will be stored in the same place as your lens to help prevent dust getting on the lens or in the lens. I also tend to clean my lens caps by using the lens blower to blow any dust that is trapped by squeezing the sides of the lens cap when using the blower, its a good idea to give your camera a quick blow over too.
When buying a microfibre cloth try and get a good quality one, ones that are for cleaning screens on mobile phones are not usually of high quality, you can pick up a decent lens cloth on eBay or Amazon for around 5 pounds and you can wash it in the washing machine whenever it gets dirty.
It is always a good idea to store your lens cloth in some kind of pouch or wallet somewhere which is dust free and dirt free and always use separate cloths for cleaning the LCD and viewfinder as these can collect oils from when you have your eye and face pressed against it and these can end up on your lens by sharing cloths and are harder to remove than prevent.
Something I have found useful is keeping the lens hood on the lens most of the time. I have had hardly any fingerprints on the front element ever since doing that, you can get yourself a cheap lens hood if you don't already have one on eBay. The brand doesn't really matter as they all do the same job.
Make sure to take care when cleaning your lenses and not clean them too often and only clean them as and when you need to, you will find that a few small specks of dust on your lens doesn't make a noticeable difference to your photos and videos and that it doesn't always need to be cleaned and a lot of the time, a quick blow with the lens blower will suffice.
I hope that this helps some of you out
