Photography Explained Podcast
Photography Explained Podcast
Rick McEvoy
What — I Have to Clean My Camera Gear? Really?
19 minutes Posted Jul 17, 2026 at 10:00 am.
The thing quietly ruining your photos might not be your settings.
Hello and welcome to episode 237 of the Photography Explained Podcast
Tip 1 — Clean your sensor first. It's the only thing that affects every single photo.
Tip 2 — Your front lens element — treat it like the precision glass it is.
Tip 3 — The camera body — a five-minute job that's worth doing.
Tip 4 — Contacts, straps and filters — the ones it's easy to skip.
Tip 5 — Your camera bag. The cleaning job that protects everything else.
Tip 6 — The only cleaning kit you actually need.
Quick Recap
What if I use a phone to take photos?
What Do I Do?
Here's Something for You to Do, Dear Listener
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Send us Fan Mail 🧹 Your camera gear is dirty. And dirty gear is quietly affecting your photos in ways you might not even notice — a smudge on the lens that softens everything, a speck of dust on the sensor that shows up in the same spot on every single sky you shoot. In this episode I cover exactly what to clean, how to clean it safely, and — probably most importantly — what not to do. Because the damage usually comes from cleaning too aggressively, not from leaving things alone. In this epis...