Full Frame Camera Co.

Tips for taking care of your hired lenses

Tips for taking care of your hired lenses: If you’re hiring lenses for your next photography project or shoot, you’ll need to make sure you’re taking good care of them, on and off set. Full Frame’s collection of lens rentals are available for hire and delivery to London or anywhere else in the UK, as are all of London lens rentals, to help keep it easy and ensure that they’re delivered to you, rather than you having to traipse around the city to pick them up.

So seeing as your lens hire is making its way to your chosen address, how can you ensure that you are taking the best of care with the equipment?

Ensure your lens is clean

If you want to make sure your lenses are clean, don’t use your saliva or breath. It will only make it worse. The safest way is to use a blower to get rid of any dust and residue. If that doesn’t work, try using a lens brush, but we recommend a lens brush with camel hair. Camel hair will be less harmful for the lens – but keep in mind that any kind of brush can pick up materials from the air and where they’re stored. Keep in mind that a hire house will be able to tell if the brushes you used were abrasive or have ended up adding more debris to the camera lens.

Store your lenses properly

Make sure you store the lenses away from dust, other chemicals and being shaken around. That way, they’ll stay sharp and be in good condition for future use. Buy a hard case for your lenses and buy a case for your camera, too. If the lens comes with a soft case – be extremely careful as they are not the best kind of storage for outdoor shoots or certainly not for travelling.

It’s important to ensure the lens case is kept relatively clean, especially on the inside. A random tip: don’t take your lens out of the case during transit as much as you might want to – this is a surefire way of increasing your chances of dropping the lens.

Protect your lenses from damage

Before your lens leaves London, or even when it’s with you, make sure you take all the appropriate care measures, both on and off set.

Be careful when handling the lens. Don’t touch the glass with your bare hands or knock it about too much, or even get too close to it. Proper care of your lens is an essential part of keeping it in good condition – if you don’t, it will deteriorate and you’ll have to replace it eventually, which is a major waste of money.

Just as you wouldn’t leave your laptop unsupervised on a coffee table, don’t do the same with your camera and lens on set.

Dusty Lenses

Dusty lenses, even for the very best lenses, are an absolute nightmare to work with. When you first get your lens on, you will notice that the optics inside are a little cloudy, and you’ll need to clean your lens if you want to get the best out of it. There are some workarounds for lens dust if you plan to use your lens off set, such as using a gentle air-jet blower with a fine mist to clean the lens – but again, take great care with any non-manual lens blowers or air blowers, ensure they are recommended or compatible, and always follow the instructions.

Ensure the lens is in excellent condition and you will find that it may effectively work with it in spite of any miniscule, barely-noticeable dust.

Tips for taking care of your hired lenses - clean off Smudges

Plenty of lenses and kit are available for hire in UK from Full Frame Camera Co, so you’ll have no shortage of lenses to choose from. You also have a wide choice when it comes to lenses, from hiring rare Ironglass lenses to the Canon 200mm.

When you’re sharing lenses, there’s a good chance that they’ll end up with smudges if the lens has been handled or used by someone in your team. Be careful when you clean the lens, to ensure that you don’t ruin the next shoot for consistency. As a force of habit, you should always be storing the lens in the proper case, and carry the case safely in between shoots. We shouldn’t have to say this, but don’t use a carrier bag.

Debris

It’s not just dirty smudges that can build up over time, but lens debris as well. If you come across this, it’s important that you clean it, remove it, and store the lens in its proper case. If you’re cleaning the filters, only use a soft-bristled brush and an air blower, following the instructions provided. Bristles leave marks on filters so you need to be extremely careful when cleaning.

Fingerprints

Fingerprints can be found all over lenses, even on the filters. And when they are transferred from your body to the lens, they can transfer to the film or sensor and result in blurred photos and amateur footage.

While it’s quite difficult to clean the lenses on camera, you could try cleaning the lens with the lint cloth – and also around the lens – before shooting to ensure that there is as little lint and random dust as possible.

Do you have any more tips for taking care of your hired lenses? Connect with the Full Frame Picture Company on social media, we would love to hear from you!

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