Looking After Your Digital Camera

If a digital camera develops a fault it is usually because something has happened to it, such as sand or liquids getting into it. Here are a selection of the most common causes of camera faults, and how best to guard against them.

Sunscreen and Insect Repellent

While sunscreen and insect repellent are essential items when you are out of doors, you should do all you can to keep these greasy lotions away from your camera, as greasy lotions can cause cameras to malfunction when they come into contact with one another. Make sure that you wash your hands in fresh water after applying greasy lotions or creams like sunscreen, helping to prevent any damage. Also, never put them inside in a bag along with your camera, for although this may save a lot of space, it could be potentially disastrous in the event that one of them should burst and leak.

Sand and Grit

Sand can be a real problem, and it, can be a serious headache when it gets inside your camera. Even one solitary sand grain can inhibit a camera from functioning properly if the grain works its way into certain mechanisms, like the camera shutter mechanism. The only failsafe way around this is to not take your digital camera to sandy places like the beach, but this may not be particularly feasible on a beach holiday for example. Another way to keep sand away from your camera is by taking your camera within an airtight bag and pack some cleaning brushes to hand the the event that any sand or grit manages to find its way onto or into the camera equipment. Always to avoid changing lenses, batteries or memory cards when you are by the beach, but if this is unavoidable, you should try your best to keep your camera as far away as possible from people playing football or volleyball.

Dust can be damaging

Unlike sand, dust is not abrasive, but it can cause problems of its own when it gets inside your camera. Dust settling on your camera can work its way inside the camera body and sit on the image sensor, causing it to perform poorly or stop working altogether. You can prevent this problem by wiping down your camera every day, keeping it in a sealed bag, and taking extra care when changing the lens. It is well worth getting the sensor on a Digital SLR cleaned professionally, as this can have a marked effect on the quality of your images.