Use a microfiber cloth to remove dirt from a digital camera lens.
When daily dirt, fingerprints and dried raindrops collect on your digital camera lens, the resulting build-up can add a slightly hazy, unclear look to your images. Your digital photographs are only as clear as your camera lens. Cleaning your digital camera lenses and accessories gives you a smudge-free chance at creating sharp photos.
Cleaning Supplies
Before cleaning your digital camera lenses, stock up on photography-approved cleaning supplies. Using a dish towel, the cuff of your shirt or chemically-treated eyeglass cleaning tissues can potentially scratch a camera lens. Instead, have a hurricane-style bulb blower with brush attachment, soft lint-free microfiber cloth, photography lens cleaning tissues and camera lens cleaning fluid handy.
Cleaning Lenses
Start by using the bulb blower and brush attachment to remove any visible pieces of dirt. Blow and brush the debris off the lens rather than picking at it to avoid scratching the lens. Next, moisten a photography lens cleaning tissue or microfiber cloth with a few drops of lens cleaning fluid. Gently rub the lens with the moist tissue or cloth in a circular motion. Start at the center of the lens and work outward. Dry the lens by using clean, dry lens tissues or a microfiber cloth and the same circular motion. Follow this same cleaning procedure with digital camera lens accessories -- including lens hoods, lens caps or filters -- to reduce the spread of dust or fine grains of dirt to the newly cleaned lens.
Precautions
When rubbing the lens, don't press too hard. This can cause tiny pieces of dirt captured by the lens cleaning tissue or cloth to create fine scratches on the lens. If the lens still appears dirty, avoid the temptation to spray cleaning liquid directly on the lens. Excess moisture can seep into the lens and cause a moisture build-up --and later rust or mold -- on the internal elements. Repeat the cleaning process a few times until the lens looks clean or have the lens professionally cleaned.
Preventative Measures
In addition to using a lens cap when storing the lens, attaching a UV or skylight filter to the end of your digital camera lens for everyday use provides a layer of protection between the lens and the world. Although designers created these two filter types to reduce the haziness of ultraviolet rays and enhance sky tones, filters also act as inexpensive insurance policies against sticky children's fingers or an accidental splash of soda on the camera lens. Since digital camera lenses have a protective coating on the outermost lens element, avoid the need to clean it by using lens filters.
Tags: camera lens, digital camera, lens cleaning, microfiber cloth, your digital, your digital camera