Digital Camera Care

Category »  Photography
Posted By Guido on 09 September 2006
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OK you have bought the camera here are some simple tips to help keep taking those pictures. Try to keep your camera in a camera bag when it’s not in use as the bag will help protect the camera from knocks, falls moisture and dust. Keep a silicon gel bag in the there to help reduce moisture, you may have got one or two with the camera if not they can be bought relatively cheaply from a camera shop or sometimes they may come with other high street purchases.

Keep it clean.

Like your car you want to keep it clean so it looks good it’s the same with your camera. Don’t use solvents to clean it, use a soft lint free cloth. If your camera has a LCD screen at the back to view your images breathe on it gently and then wipe with your lint free cloth or lens tissue.
Lenses are a different matter use canned air to blow the dust off the lens surface or if not available us a bulb brush available for a few pounds/dollars from a camera shop. Here again you can breathe on the lens and wipe with a lens tissue it not advisable to wipe a dry lens as this could cause scratching.
The beach is always a good place to get some good shots but it’s also a sandy place. Sand seems to get everywhere if you’re not too keen on taking your expensive camera to the beach buy a cheap disposable one. Also while at the beach you have sun creams and insect repellents these could contain oils or chemicals so limit places of contact i.e. hands keep them clean. Don’t what every you do fall into the trap of putting your sun cream or insect relent into your camera bag more than likely they will leak and you’ll have an expensive repair bill or an expensive paper weight if you can’t afford the repair bill.

Batteries.

Like anything, you pay for what you get. Batteries are no different some good some bad. A batteries life is dependant on a number of things brands, the length of use i.e. age of the battery, conditions the battery has been used in. Hot or very cold conditions can alter the battery life try to use your batteries at room temperature. Batteries for digital cameras are very demanding meaning that they use short bursts of high energy unlike convention batteries which are used for radios and torches. If you can try to by the manufactures battery as these are normally better than those rechargeable ones you can buy in the local supermarket. Now a days the manufactures produce a more expensive Ni-MH (nickel-metal hydride) rechargeable battery this type of battery is ideal as it’s best suited for use in digital cameras.
If you need to store batteries store them in a dry cool place. If not using your camera for a while don’t leave the batteries in the camera as the battery could leak. When storing your batteries use a sealable bag to keep the batteries in so that condensation can’t attack and should the worst happen and the battery leaks it should not harm much.
Fully drain a rechargeable battery once in a while as this will help with the battery life, you can use the LCD screen to do this as this uses quite a bit of power up quickly.


This article can always be found http://www.searchhuts.co.uk/portal/articles/activenews_view.asp?articleID=56

John Hutchison has been a professional photographer on and off since 1981, he gained an LBIPP in 1990 from the British Institute of Professional Photographers so he has first hand experience! He worked for a newspaper for over 12 years dealing with flat copy and digital images.



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