Keep the dust off your lens
If you’ve got a compact camera, you know how bloody annoying it is to have to clean your lens. It’s tiny, and it seems to attract dust as if it was a lamp, and the dust were moths, confused by the lovely, bright source of light. Right? Right? Right.
There’s a ridiculously simple solution worth trying: When you know you’re going to be in a particularly vulnerable situation (a desert, a dusty place, or a night on the lash*, for example), you could do some pre-emptive maintenance: Just cover up your lens with a piece of high-quality scotch tape!
Important: Obviously, only use the following tip if your front lens element (that’s the glass bit) doesn’t actually stick out further than the lens barrel. Otherwise, you’ll make your lens sticky and dirty and the whole point is gone!
Sounds simple? Well, that’s because all the greatest solutions usually are. The better quality your tape is (i.e. the more translucent it is), the better. The best thing, obviously, is that the scotch tape is a hell of a lot easier to clean off than the crinkly, unreachable crevices of your digital compact camera!
Bonza.
*) on the lash is a Britishism for being pished as a newt. Hammered. Whacked. Smashed. Pissed. Fucked. Or, in the parlance of our times: ‘drunk beyond reason’.
Extra special thanks to CalebVaughn for this ridiculously simple, yet incredibly effective tip!
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Insights, suggestions and comments
Actually, a folded sticky note, with the sticky edge out, works even better for me. It gets the dust in the crevasses of a camera or computer keyboard without adhering. It is easier to place and move as well. See what you think!
Won’t that create an even worse problem? Instead of having to clean some dust, I’ll have to clean the leftover glue left by the tape…
Or am I missing something?
The lenses of most compact cameras aren’t sunk in deep enough into it that it would be possible to place a straight piece of scotch tape over the cover without a risk of the tape touching the lens.
I use just a piece of fibre cloth…the ones used for glasses…
Yes, you are missing something. Unless you use the cheapest brand scotch tape you can find AND leave it on there for 2+ weeks, you shouldn’t have a problem with the tape leaving residue behind. Obviously, if you think it might hit the front element on your camera lens, you probably shouldn’t try it. I thought that was obvious. Quit trying to be so critical, it’s a good tip.
Buy a good brand name tape (maybe $3 for a roll that would last you the rest of the year) and don’t leave it on more than a few days. Hell, it’s so cheap, you could leave it on for just one day and you’d be fine.
JD, I’m not especially trying to be critical. It’s just that in my experience with scotch tapes, including good and expensive ones (well, as expensive as scotch tape can be, which really isn’t much), they tend to leave something behind almost always. Even on glass/etc. Even if they were on for a short duration.
Now, true, the amount of glue left will be extremely small in these cases, but it will still be there. And on a lens of a camera, even a little bit would be bad. Not to mention that it will then hold to more dust than the lens would have acquired otherwise.
If it works for someone, that’s great. The tip sounds very good beyond this problem. It’s just that it strikes me as a big problem, and I can’t quite believe that all the scoth tapes I encountered were especially bad, and all the lenses of digital cameras I saw were much more exposed than the majority.
On the other hand, the tip does come from people who have a lot more experience with cameras than I know, so maybe I’m wrong. Good luck to anyone who tries it.
Yes, good luck to anyone who tries. Whilst the tape may not leave residue behind, it may take some of the coating of the lens off with it.
Now, now, folks, take a chill pill!
Obviously, you only utilise this tip if your front lens element doesn’t protrude from the lens barrel. I’ve never had a compact camera where that’s not the case: They are all recessed into the barrel, and so, putting a piece of tape over the front means that the sticky bits are never in contact with your actual lens — That’s the whole point!
Methinks some people did not read the whole two paragraphs or look at the image. What this tip is saying is, put tape over the barrel to protect the glass. The tape should ride on the outside of the barrel and it will be much easier to clean the tape, than the crevices of the lens itself.
I think some of you may be misunderstanding. You don’t put the tape on the front element. You put it the at the end of the barrel so the tape doesn’t have to touch the front element. Now obviously, if your camrea is made so that the front element sticks out further than the end of the barrel, this isn’t going to work for you. This is one of those hit and miss things and it may not work for everyone. But for those it could work for, I think it will work for.
So we can tell those camera manufacturers that they are wasting excessive amounts of money precisely grinding and polishing lenses since even photographing through gum coated scotch tape does not deteriorate the quality of the image. Wonderful idea – NOT !!
There are of course other solutions as well, though tape sounds like a great idea! A bit of glue (careful!) and a piece cut from an overhead foil should work great too! It doesn’t exactly add to the quality of the shot, but it will protect the lens somewhat and reduce dust accumulation.
PhotoMan: Don’t knock it ’till you’ve tried it. Or do you only own one camera that’s so expensive you don’t bring it to parties and such?
I think everybody should own a “crap cam” that they can bring everywhere and not worry too much about! ;)
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