5 tips for cleaning and maintaining your photography equipment

posted Monday, January 22, 2018 at 1:00 PM EDT

Jay P. Morgan of The Slanted Lens has five tips for cleaning and maintaining your photo and video gear. It's the new year and the perfect time to perform routine maintenance and create new organizational habits.

It may seem a bit surprising - although it does make a lot of sense - but Morgan's first maintenance is to take all the gear out of his cases and bags and clean the cases themselves. If you take your gear to a lot of places and utilize the same carrying gear, that gear is going to collect dirt, grass, maybe even a few rocks here and there. Whatever grime is in your case will find its way onto your gear, so it's great to keep your bags clean!

After cleaning whatever you use to carry your gear, it's time to inspect your camera, lenses and accessories. Personally, I always keep an air blower and microfiber cloths in my backpack, but I also use compressed air to clean less sensitive equipment. One of my biggest pet peeves is being out in the field and grabbing a filter only to find that I hadn't properly cleaned it. To see the rest of Morgan's tips, check out the video below.