5. Basic Equipment Care and Maintenance

 Here's a great video on cleaning your camera, by Simon d' Entremont

Cleaning Your Camera

So far as cleaning your lens, it's generally easy with a tissue - especially if you've got a UV filter on, which you should. But, how do you know if your camera sensor is clean? Take a test photo. Use a really large F number, for a really detailed photo, and take a picture of a clear, blank surface, like a wall. Do you see any little black dots? 

That’s dust sitting on the sensor of your camera. If you see no black dots, your sensor is fine. If you do see dirt, you can try to clean it with a puffer brush (a rubber contraption that you squeeze to make puffs of air). Just set your camera for sensor cleaning, take off the lens, hold the camera upside down, and a few puffs should get rid of loose dirt. If this doesn't work, I recommend having a professional clean it.