Camera maintainance

With the fast dropping price, more and more folks are moving up from a P&S to something like the Panasonic G3 or alike. A new thing is to clean the lens.

These 4 items are all you need and they can all be found in a local store like Rite Aid etc.:

You need to remove a tip from an automatic pencil and twist it on the air blower, as showing in above photo, if the blower is not dedicated for cameras with a plastic nozzle.

• First thing first, wash your hands with soap. Never forget this step!
• Wear 3.5x reading glasses ($1 in DollarTree) even if you are not that old.
• Use the blower to blow the glass to free up dusts. 
• If you see obvious oily stuff or fingerprints on the glass, use a cotton swab, dip a little bit into the 99% isopropyl alcohol and erase very gently. 
• If the glass still does not look perfect with some haze to you, then use the microfiber clothe to wipe it very gently.  Wash this clothe often with dish soap and then clean water, hang it overnight to dry up and keep it in a clean bag. Take this clothe with you when travel, it should be all you need on a trip.

Never touch the sensor with anything or use your mouth to blow on it. If there are dusts on it, use the blower. How do you know if your sensor is clean or not?

• Change your camera to A mode @ f/22 and manual focus @ infinite.
• Open Notepad on your PC and maximize its window. Aim your camera to the white area and press down the shutter while moving the camera from left to right while keeping the camera parallel to the PC screen.
• Open the photo with PhotoShop, then click on "Image", "Adjust" and "Auto Levels" (or Ctrl + Shift + L).

If the image looks like this, the sensor is clean:

It looks like this if there are some dusts on the sensor:

Sometimes the dusts are not on the sensor, but on the rear or front lens:

The last tip: always use a lens hood! It protects the lens more than anything else can, including filters, and your fingers will have much less chance to touch the lens. One thing I like Panasonic is: the hood can be mounted reversely on the lens, so it is never a hassle to employ one!

BTW, I have only one camera, so all the other photos are from my Stellar phone. I really like the photos out of this phone. Although it is only 3MB, its photos are always very sharp and vivid with great colors, indoor and outdoor, closeup and landscape, never stop to amaze me.

[update] Now I use this brush mostly, plus a blower:

Wash it well with dish soap and dry it thoroughly. Blow the brush before and after each use. Cover both ends and keep it in a carton box, away from dust.