Taking Care Of Your Gear

East Broad Top Narrow Gauge Railroad Engineer (click to enlarge)
Nikon D700, Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8 lens @ 62mm; 1/200th sec. @ f/8; ISO 200

When was the last time you sat down, gathered up all of your gear, placed it on a table under good light, examined each piece, tested all functions, cleaned it thoroughly as well as charged all of your batteries?  You should do this regularly so you can ensure yourself that every aspect of your gear is properly working as well as maintaining its reliability.

When closely examining your gear, it is also a good time to take a new inventory, record all of the make, model names/numbers, serial numbers, color and accessories for each piece of gear.  You could go one step farther and insure all of your gear from any loss.  I insure mine for any and all losses and it has paid off for me in the past.  An insurance policy on your gear is not expensive and can save you a lot of money in the case of drops, theft, water submersion, breakage, etc.

If you don't take care of your gear, it may not work as expected just when you need it to. I always perform a quick check and brief cleaning of my gear whenever I return from a photo outing, returning each setting to my personal "defaults" so I know what each setting is the next time I pick it up.  I don't want any surprises such as photographing on a beautiful morning only to later find out that I had left my ISO on 3200 from the evening before.  But beyond checking it each time I return, at least once per month, I get out all of the gear I have used and give it a thorough going-over as well as a cleaning.  I want to know every every button, lever, dial as well as menu items work as they should.

When going over your gear, do it under bright direct light.  You want to be able to see any possible hairline cracks, scratches, etc.  Also, have some "contaminant free" compressed air (never for the interior of your camera or sensor), a manual rubber blower bulb (to first blow off every surface or every piece of gear before rubbing with a cloth as you don't want to rub existing debris and scratch a surface), a soft brush, a micro-fiber cloth as well as some cotton swabs to get into the nooks and crannies.  Also, I clean my lenses with a high quality lens cleaning solution. A good lens cleaning solution (on the cloth and not the lens itself) will not harm your lens, but will allow you to remove anything from the glass surface that may not come off from just blowing on it.  Don't forget to clean the insides of your lens and body caps—especially the rear lens cap and body cap.  That is a primary reason you may get dust into your camera body or onto your sensor.  Many people neglect cleaning them.

Once I clean everything, I ensure all of my settings are set to my default.  I charge all of my batteries, then put everything away always in the same place.  Along with everything working as it should the next time out, I don't want to have to search for a particular piece of gear.  It should be in the same place time after time.

(NOTE: be careful when packing multiple batteries together; ensure they have something separating them and/or stack or immobilize them so the contacts can't touch; you don't want a fire in a pocket or bag!; I know of a guy who had a battery in his pocket with coins—shorted out the battery and caught his pants on fire!)

Take care of your gear and it will serve you well for many, many years.

Thanks for looking. Enjoy! 

Dennis A. Mook 

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