Taking Care of your Digital Camera

Taking Care of your Equipment

Crash-landing, dirt, dust, moisture and electrical charges are the greatest enemy of your equipment.

I have not much to say about crash-landing except that if you drop that consumer camera on the asphalt, it wouldn't probably be worth the time required to gather the remains. Even if you do so, the manufacturer will probably be forced to charge you more than the equipment price trying to put it back. Therefore, do slip your palm through the hand-strip or the neck-strip. No, you won't look foolish.

If you are generally dirty with your hands (come on, we all know you are not!) or if you have dabbled your fingers in unseemly things, be wary of touching the camera, especially the lens! The lens has special quotes and if you leave a smudge that requires generous swipes, you may do permanent damage to the thin layers. Its best to have a lint-free cloth if at all you have to clean it. Clean with two to three smart circular swipes. For specialized cleaning solutions, to be used sparingly, better contact your manufacturer's website or service centre.

Its a great idea to have a rubber bulb blower to blow away the dust gathered on the lens. Do keep that lens cap on and where the lens cap is inbuilt, keep the camera off in dusty conditions. Before storing the camera use the blower generously and clean away the body with the soft cloth avoiding the lens.

Do not bathe your camera in water. If you are fond of shooting while at the pool or on one of those scuba diving trips, do look for one of the water-resistant models that Pentax sells. Don't expect it to shoot at the sea-bed though. Please take special care of humidity by storing a pouch of silica gel along with the camera. The blue indicating type silica gel is usually available with standard chemists. The advantage of blue indicating type silica gel lies in that it turns white once it absorbs moisture. It can be reused two to three times by exposing it in a microwave oven for a mere two minutes where it will get dehumidified and again turn blue. Then there are specially designed cabinets that control humidity levels.

Its best to use a cheap card reader for transferring the images to the pc. Otherwise, you better be careful while connecting and disconnecting your camera to the computer. Please do not pull off the plug before properly disabling the connection or else you may end up with an internally fried device.

Do not leave it on your car dashboard / boot exposed to the sun for an extended period.

And last, but not the least, there is something called 'RTFM'. Sorry, I can't expand this but you can get the answer on the net. A good artist knows his tool like the back of his hand. You'd do well to thoroughly understand the functioning of different buttons and dials of your camera so that you don't unwittingly abuse it.