Everything gets dusty, dirty, and smudgy. You know that, for instance, because you have a phone. Most of the time, your phone's screen looks like it sunk with the Titanic. If you have a digital camera—either a compact camera or a digital SLR—it's even worse, because the optics are delicate and it doesn't take much gunk to adversely affect your photos.
The good news is that it doesn't take a lot to keep your camera clean and in top form. Depending upon the kind of camera you have, there are at most a handful of parts that you'll want to keep clean. The lens should always be free of gunk, of course. If you have a camera with removable lenses, you'll also want to care for the rear lens element, the connections, and sensor. Here's what you need to know—and the tools you need to do it.
Cleaning the lens
There are a lot of cleaning kits, cleaning cloths, fluids, and gadgets to choose from when it comes to cleaning your camera lens.
All you really need to keep your lens clean is a package of inexpensive lens cleaning tissue and some lens cleaning fluid. For the most part, these are pretty much all the same; you can find perfectly serviceable cleaning tissue on Amazon, for example, for pennies per sheet. A 50-pack of Tiffen paper is $6.35. Just be sure that you're using lens cleaning paper, and not general purpose tissue that's treated with moisturizer or that will leave behind fluff. You'll also want a small bottle of lens cleaning solution, like Zeiss lens spray, which costs under $10. You don't need a lot; a small bottle lasts a long time.
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