How to Clean a Personal Camera Lens

Series Summary

Though many people don't understand exactly how all of their electronics equipment works, from conductors to scanning to circuits, they don't have any difficulty noticing when one of their components isn't working. Whether its a skipping CD or DVD or a blurry camera lens that disrupts their photography or videography, even the amateur gadget owner requires a certain amount of know-how when it comes to upkeep and cleaning of their devices. While some methods for maintenance are fairly straightforward and intuitive, experts in the field of electronics care and repair can often offer tips and tricks for cleaning cameras, component systems and discs that the average user might not be aware of. Furthermore, some devices such as LCD monitors require certain types of care that owners might not be aware of. To ensure that your electronics last the full amount of their life expectancy and work as well as they can, it's mandatory for owners to take the proper precautions and measures when it comes to cleaning.

In this free video clip series, our expert will demonstrate and explain the best methods to employ when cleaning and maintaining your electronic equipment. Tips for caring for everything from DVD discs, cassette tapes and players, LCD monitors and camera lenses. Mini DV cameras require certain attention, and our expert will explain how to treat glass tube monitors as well. Additionally, tips for fixing scratched DVDs is included, a must-see for anyone that watches DVDs and has children who don't always remember to handle them carefully.

Video Transcript

" Hi! This is Bobby Hester on behalf of expertvillage.com. In this next clip, we’re going to demonstrate how to clean the lenses on your video cameras, your digital cameras, or your film cameras. They are all about the same. We’ll start off by opening…this particular camera I had to take the lens hood off, exposing the lens. If you notice this lens is actually pretty dirty. I purchased this cleaning kit. You can purchase this at any camera or photo shop. It comes with tissue, a blower with a brush on it, and then some cleaning solution. The first step that you want to do is, you want to make sure that there are no abrasive particles on the lens. If I had some abrasive particle on there, and I took some of my tissue and wiped it, it will create a really bad scratch on the lens. We’re going to use the blower first. It has a little hole on the back, and you got to cover it up with your finger, and you will blow off all the dust off the lens; all that abrasive stuff it is going to scratch the lens and causes some real trouble down the line. Once that we finished that, then you put the brush piece on. This is a really delicate process, you just very lightly wipe off any particles that the blower could not handle. Now that we have got all of our abrasive particles off the lens, then we can go and start to clean our lens. I’m going to use my cleaning tissues that I got in my kit. Just real lightly, wipe the lens. For the most part, this is all that you need to do. If you have a piece of grease, or something that’s really sticking to your lens, then you might want to use your lens cleaner. But this is only if you really need it. There is my lens cleaner. There is a little grease spot there so I’m going to wipe that down. I’m going to get a fresh piece of lens cleaning cloth. And our lens is nice and clean. The most important thing is don’t over clean your lens. If it doesn’t need to be cleaned, don’t clean it. Every time that you clean you run a risk of possibly putting a scratch on your lens, and you want to avoid that at all cost. A good investment will be to install an UV filter onto your lens. UV filter usually cost about between $15 and $30. They are just a glass filter that fits in front of your lens and that way it protects your lens, so that if you got a scratch, all that you would scratch is your $15 or $30 lens, versus your very expensive camcorder lens. "