Paul D'Andrea Photography

What Not to Keep in Your Camera Bag

While at an introduction to the D300 class that Robert’s Imaging hosted, I spoke with another photographer who had purchased a D300 to replace her ruined D70. It turns out she had packed some tissues in her camera bag and the lint from the tissues spread through her bag, getting into her camera. She tried cleaning it, even had it cleaned professionally, but the fine lint got behind the low-pass filter.

I like to be prepared for just about anything. When on a critical shoot, like a wedding, I pack spare alkaline batteries (in case someone’s P&S dies), a small sewing kit, a small roll of gaffer’s tape, and, of course, tissues.

Usually I just put a few in a pocket; sometimes with a lens cap though. I hadn’t ever thought much about this, and a little lint on a lens cap may not be that big a deal. Still, from now on I’ll put the tissues in a small sandwich bag. I know there’s small travel size packs of tissues, but why add one more item to have to keep stocked in the photo equipment? We’ve always got tissues and always have plastic sandwich bags…

Commercial photographer in Indianapolis, IN.