How often you cleaning your gear?

[Sbpw1216]

I always was afraid to clean sensor or mirror of my camera. Even when I'm doing for lens, there is always a slight if dust remains inside. And to be honest, I never used fluid to clean lens or camera. How safe is that?

I understand your fears about cleaning the sensor. I haven’t had to clean one yet, so I’ve been lucky in that regard. With regard to the cleaning fluid, I spray it on to a microfiber cloth so it is just slightly damp. It works really well, a specially if there ends ups being a smudge from accidentally touching the lens or a harsh environment. I haven’t had a problem with using the cleaner.

 

[Jack]

I understand your fears about cleaning the sensor. I haven’t had to clean one yet, so I’ve been lucky in that regard. With regard to the cleaning fluid, I spray it on to a microfiber cloth so it is just slightly damp. It works really well, a specially if there ends ups being a smudge from accidentally touching the lens or a harsh environment. I haven’t had a problem with using the cleaner.

thanks. I think I need to try it. Also looks like on my lens or my camera there is some dirt inside, when shooting, always have some small spots. How you’d recommend to clean ?

 

[Sbpw1216]

If the dust is inside your lens, I won’t worry about it because you would have to disassemble the lens. If it is on your mirror and sensor, I would hold the camera with the lens mount facing down and use an air blower to remove the dust. If that doesn’t work I would use a sensor cleaning swab. If you don’t feel comfortable doing that, I would have a camera shop do it.

 

[Baenki]

Great topic. I normally just wipe my gear and polish the lenses when there are visible smudges. The body itself I don't worry about too much, as long as screen, viewfinder and sensor are clean. When I was in dusty conditions I will blow some air over it.

But right now I'm anxiously awaiting one of the probably most agressive cleaning products I've ever ordered. An UV-C lamp. I store all my equipment, lenses, body, etc in a glass cabinet and that's fine normally. But i also store other stuff there. About two weeks ago I put an old headphone in there and the cushioned earpieces seem to have gotten wet somehow. Anyways, they started molding. Don't ask me why it happened after I stored them in the cabinet or why they got wet, I have no idea. But now I'm scared of lens fungus so what to do???

I wiped down everything in the cabinet and the cabinet itself with desinfectant, but I really don't want my equipment damaged by fungus, especially the non-weather sealed vintage lenses. And as I can't be sure I've gotten every last spore, I'll nuke them with agressive UV-C radiation. I know this works because I used the same method for killing fungi in the lab.

But those lamps are no joke and a serious health hazard. So while I'll be blasting my equipment and by proxy the whole room with radiation I have to make sure noone enters or is inside because the strong light will seriously damage your health. This type of UV will give you heavy sunburns in minutes (normal sunblocker wont help, but there might be an option), destroy your eyesight and in addition will transform the oxygen inside the room into ozone, which can also have really bad effects on your lungs. So the plan is to replace a normal light with this bulb from hell, place my lenses beneath, shut all blinds, switch it on and leave the room, after 15min, switch it off, turn the lenses around, and give them another 15 minutes, ventilate afterwards for about an hour.

 

[Jack]

If the dust is inside your lens, I won’t worry about it because you would have to disassemble the lens. If it is on your mirror and sensor, I would hold the camera with the lens mount facing down and use an air blower to remove the dust. If that doesn’t work I would use a sensor cleaning swab. If you don’t feel comfortable doing that, I would have a camera shop do it.

I don't think it's dust, there are some spots. To be honest I'm not sure where is the issue, on my lens or my m50 sensor. I will try to change the lens to my 7d m2 to see if I still have those spots on images. If no, I would have to clean the sensor. Do you clean same way the mirror less sensors?

 

[Jack]

Great topic. I normally just wipe my gear and polish the lenses when there are visible smudges. The body itself I don't worry about too much, as long as screen, viewfinder and sensor are clean. When I was in dusty conditions I will blow some air over it.

But right now I'm anxiously awaiting one of the probably most agressive cleaning products I've ever ordered. An UV-C lamp. I store all my equipment, lenses, body, etc in a glass cabinet and that's fine normally. But i also store other stuff there. About two weeks ago I put an old headphone in there and the cushioned earpieces seem to have gotten wet somehow. Anyways, they started molding. Don't ask me why it happened after I stored them in the cabinet or why they got wet, I have no idea. But now I'm scared of lens fungus so what to do???

I wiped down everything in the cabinet and the cabinet itself with desinfectant, but I really don't want my equipment damaged by fungus, especially the non-weather sealed vintage lenses. And as I can't be sure I've gotten every last spore, I'll nuke them with agressive UV-C radiation. I know this works because I used the same method for killing fungi in the lab.

But those lamps are no joke and a serious health hazard. So while I'll be blasting my equipment and by proxy the whole room with radiation I have to make sure noone enters or is inside because the strong light will seriously damage your health. This type of UV will give you heavy sunburns in minutes (normal sunblocker wont help, but there might be an option), destroy your eyesight and in addition will transform the oxygen inside the room into ozone, which can also have really bad effects on your lungs. So the plan is to replace a normal light with this bulb from hell, place my lenses beneath, shut all blinds, switch it on and leave the room, after 15min, switch it off, turn the lenses around, and give them another 15 minutes, ventilate afterwards for about an hour.

I usually keep my cameras in bags and lenses in their own bags which came with when purchased. And most my lenses are dust sealed. The thing is when you change your lensews, that's the moment when is a risk to dust to get in.

So how UVC lamp will get rid of dust?

 

[Baenki]

Jack It's not about the dust. It's about the somehow moldy headphones. I'm pretty sure nothing will happen, but if there is mold in one location there is a chance that it produced spores and these might have gotten onto my equipment, which if I'm unlucky could lead to fungus inside the lenses, which would pretty much destroy them. So just preemptively I will use the UV-C to kill off any potential spores. The problem is UV-C is blocked by normal glass, so there is no chance to get it inside of a lens with all it's additional coatings. But it can sterilize the outer surfaces, and prevent worse things from happening. So you could say it's prophylactic treatment, but it gives me peace of mind.

 

[Jack]

Jack It's not about the dust. It's about the somehow moldy headphones. I'm pretty sure nothing will happen, but if there is mold in one location there is a chance that it produced spores and these might have gotten onto my equipment, which if I'm unlucky could lead to fungus inside the lenses, which would pretty much destroy them. So just preemptively I will use the UV-C to kill off any potential spores. The problem is UV-C is blocked by normal glass, so there is no chance to get it inside of a lens with all it's additional coatings. But it can sterilize the outer surfaces, and prevent worse things from happening. So you could say it's prophylactic treatment, but it gives me peace of mind.

Alright, now I got you. But I guess depends how often you are using your lens too. How expensive is the uvc lamp?
For me sounds like the lamp is killing all microps which are present on any equipment when you use it?

 

[Baenki]

Jup, the lamp will pretty much kill anything the light falls on, viruses also. That's why they are in high demand right now and there are a lot of fakes. The one bulb I ordered is around 30€.

I wouldn't recommend getting one to anyone that doesn't have experience with them. They are also generally unsuitable for home use, as the aggressive UV light will also degrade wood surfaces and plastic material if exposed too long. So this is pretty much a one off use case. Afterwards I'm thinking of creating a sterilization chamber from it. So take a carton, punch a hole inside and install the lamp there. This could be used for groceries, reusable masks etc... Not the dumbest idea during a pandemic.

 

[Jack]

Jup, the lamp will pretty much kill anything the light falls on, viruses also. That's why they are in high demand right now and there are a lot of fakes. The one bulb I ordered is around 30€.

I wouldn't recommend getting one to anyone that doesn't have experience with them. They are also generally unsuitable for home use, as the aggressive UV light will also degrade wood surfaces and plastic material if exposed too long. So this is pretty much a one off use case. Afterwards I'm thinking of creating a sterilization chamber from it. So take a carton, punch a hole inside and install the lamp there. This could be used for groceries, reusable masks etc... Not the dumbest idea during a pandemic.

It's a lot just for an bulb. Then it's better to have such of lamp in garage. I would agree that will kill all microbes from equipment, but to be honest how often you are shooting in such of dirty environment which will require and uv-c lamp to be used?