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The camera sensor cleaning mistake you don't want to make

The camera sensor cleaning mistake you don't want to make

A speck of dust on your camera's sensor can negatively affect your photos, but it's important to avoid this cleaning mistake so you don't damage your camera.

This mistake could damage your camera and ruin your photos.

If you often swap lenses on your camera, it's almost inevitable that some debris will end up on the internal sensor. It's not the end of the world, so long as it's not something abrasive like metal shavings or grains of sand. Whether you spot the speck of dust on the sensor after reviewing photos or cleaning your camera, it's important you resist the urge to dislodge the dirt by blowing directly onto the exposed sensor with your mouth. If you do, you might end up introducing a bunch of moisture into the element via your spit.

Your spit can turn into hard-to-remove stains on the sensor that show up in all your photos, making the problem you started with worse. You may even have to seek professional help to get it cleaned, unless you have the know-how to do a wet-clean using a dedicated cleaning solution. Instead, here's a better approach to cleaning your camera sensor that doesn't involve your mouth.

To start, it's a much better idea to use the built-in sensor cleaning feature that most modern cameras offer.

In brief

This mistake could damage your camera and ruin your photos. Whether you spot the speck of dust on the sensor after reviewing photos or cleaning your camera, it's important you resist the urge to dislodge the dirt by blowing directly onto the exposed sensor with your mouth. Instead, here's a better approach to cleaning your camera sensor that doesn't involve your mouth.

This is the opening of the story, shared with credit to Engadget. The rest of the report — with every detail — continues on the publisher’s website.

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