Digital Camera Maintenance and Care Tips

It was indeed an eye-opening time interviewing a reputable veteran and award-winning specialist in the field of broadcasting equipment maintenance and repair. Afolabi Oladunjoye is the Technical Director and CEO of Techmania Technologies Limited, a Sony-accredited service centre dedicated to repairing all professional broadcast equipment. In this article, he shares priceless tips that will help Camera Users save huge sums of money and avoid unexpected camera problems that arise because of inadequate maintenance and care.

WHY DO YOUR NEED TO MAINTAIN AND CARE FOR YOUR CAMERA?

In the medical world, they say with genuine concern that “prevention is better than cure”. If we are to rephrase this in the broadcasting technologies parlance, it would come off as something close to “maintenance is better than repair”.

Perhaps not just better, even cheaper!

As I spoke to the ace Broadcast Service Technician and Sony-certified Engineer, Afolabi Oladunjoye, the first thing that was stirred in my consciousness was a renewed commitment to the culture of quality maintenance.

It’s so easy to forget that if you don’t spend ‘that’ penny or time to maintain and care for your gadgets, you are likely to spend 10-fold of the same resources in repairing them, or even getting new ones.

MAINTAINING IS SAVING!

What’s the benefit of buying a good gadget with your hard-earned money only for you to enjoy it for just few months or a short span of years?

Now, here’s what; camera damage is not usually a ‘sudden death’ experience or a one-time event, but actually a gradual cumulative development of faults; a little neglect here, a little misuse there.

Afolabi Oladunjoye drove this home as he explained that years ago, cameras used to be very bulky, but they are now made lighter and more fragile. He continued “…cameras come with a cooling fan and a processor and there’s a high tendency for dust to clog this cooling fan or cover up the processor if not the camera is not well maintained’.

CARE TIP 1: Regular Cleaning

A professional camera user must cultivate the habit of moving about with a small brush or a soft or light cloth material for cleaning the essential parts of a camera such as the Lens Mount, Camera body exterior and more.

CARE TIP 2: Always Remove Battery

While emphasizing the importance of this, Afolabi shared an example of how a camera user kept his camera in a room several years ago without removing the battery. It happened that some flood hit the area as water entered the room and damaged the camera board simply because the battery was not removed. This underscores the need for camera users to always remove battery when camera will not be used for some time.

CARE TIP 3: Always Check Your Lens and Camera

A good advice from the Panasonic-trained maestro to camera handlers was, ‘Don’t let your lens stop working before you care for them’. He explained further, “occasionally remove the contact point between lens and camera and clean with a spirit and soft white clothing”. He strongly recommended further that there’s a need to always wipe the lenses and never leave them uncovered as this may lead to what is known as ERROR 01 in Canon where it indicates that there’s no contact between camera and lens.

CARE TIP 4: Take Note of Your Shutter Counts

In DSLR Canons and Sony Camera, a shutter ‘jumps up and down’ for every click of the camera. Unfortunately, most camera handlers hardly pay attention to their shutter count which is necessary because careful monitoring and observation of your shutter counts can help you know when you need to change the shutter.

FINAL WORDS

Afolabi Oladunjoye asserted that most Camera Operators in Nigeria do not schedule time for maintaining their equipment. “What they fail to realize…”, he argued, “…is that the fact that a camera works fine at the moment does not mean the camera is in good condition”.

Again, the parallels are obvious; that a human looks fine on the outside at the moment does not mean that such is medically fine on the inside.

Below is a summary of the tips you have learnt from this eye-opening piece, it’s time to start practicing each of them in order to maximize your camera’s functionalities and improve its lifespan.

1. Regular Cleaning
2. Always Remove Battery
3. Always Check your Lens and Camera
4. Pay Attention to Shutter Count