If you travel with a camera, you need to know how to care for it properly, especially if you own high-end equipment. I’m not a professional photographer, but luckily the tips for cleaning and maintaining a camera in good condition are simple. You just need to remember what you cannot use to touch the lens with and which parts of the device to stay away from at the risk of damaging them.

Caring for Camera Equipment on the Road: Do’s and Don’ts

DO: Keep Your Camera in a Proper Padded Bag

The most important thing is to protect sensitive and breakable equipment from jostling and falls. A professional padded bag designed specifically for your camera model is perfect. If you use a different kind of bag, add some extra padding by hand to make it fit perfectly.

DON’T: Clean the Sensors

While cleaning your camera sensor is safe in theory (and professional photographers do this all the time) the risk of damaging the sensitive pieces is too big. I overall suggest you should to minimize the cleaning. Don’t disassemble your camera without proper training and remember that doing this yourself might void the warranty.

DO: Clean the Lens with a Blower First

If you want to do the cleaning and caring for camera equipment yourself, you will need to have a small squeeze-bulb blower. You can use it for cleaning dust and particles of debris from the lens as well as between buttons.

DON’T: Clean the Lens with ‘Scratchy’ Materials

Things you should never touch your lens with include towels, paper tissues and towels, shirts (pants, dresses, jacket sleeves, etc.). Nothing but the softest materials and specially designed camera cleaning tools should come anywhere near your lens as a single scratch can ruin it.

DO: Clean the Lens with Microfiber Cloth

Microfiber cloth is soft and won’t damage the lens if you use it gently. However, be sure to keep it in a ziplocked bag and never use it for anything other than camera lenses