Cleaning Cameras

General[edit]

It's best to clean the camera after the takes and then to do a check the day before you start shooting again.
You're probably putting the camera onto a table while cleaning. Check if the table is clean, dry and dust-free before starting to clean your camera!
Washing your hands and drying them before cleaning the camera isn't a bad idea either ;-) Some are even wearing gloves like the ones below. This is necessary when cutting/cleaning the film, but when cleaning the camera it's kind of paranoid (to me).
Cleaning a camera takes its time! When you do this in a hurry, it might increase the number of scratches or even result in your camera dropping from the table!
Be carefull! The "dust" might consist of sandcorns, too, that'll create nice scratches when incorporating too much force!

Use a dry, anti-static, lint-free cloth to clean the camera's body.
In severe cases use a moist cloth with handwarm water to rub away some dirt. But ensure that no water will be able to get behind buttons or into the optics! The less water the better! And don't forget to dry the camera afterwards!

The standard way is to use a pre-cleaning with a brush, then use some a moist cloth for cleaning and a dry, anti-static, lint-free cloth for dyring.
Hama's lenspen works very well for removing dried fingerprints.
There are some wet tissues that can be used, too, e.g. Hama's "ProOptic"-tissues:
Some gals/guys are even using wet tissues sold for cleaning spectacles since they're cheaper than the ones sold in photo-shops. I haven't heard anything negative about them. Hence it's up to you to decide between "cheap" and "tested at least with photo-cameras".
Hama's "maintenance and care: optics"-section (containing brushes, ... )

Advice needed since this is a tricky part: Using a brush might result in getting the brush in contact with oil/grease, ruining the other parts of the chamber. And using a cloth will result in the camera's smaler parts snagged to the cloth.
Using "canned air" might be stupid idea, too, since it might move the dust from the champer to the shutter/optics.

see "Body"-section
You can clean the battery-contacts with a clean eraser - especially one mounted to a pencil to reach distant parts:
Battery contact cleaners can help if the contacts in the camera have a great amount of corrosion from the battery.
A water and baking soda solution helps greatly to remove battery acid inside the battery chamber.
More advices for removing spilled batteries needed!

Often, on old cameras, the rubber eyepiece will have disentigrated into a black, sticky goo.
A wooden toothpick helps to get out the goop from narrow crevices.
Rubbing alchohol can help if it is used on a q-tip AWAY from any optical surfaces.