Cleaning my camera?

Howdy,

I have an older T1i and have seen some things about having it professionally cleaned every so often.  It doesn't get used all that often but it's definitely older now.

Anyway, does anyone have any recommendations on taking the camera in somewhere to have it cleaned vs cleaning it myself?  If it's something I can do myself, does anyone have any favorite tutorials on Youtube or anything that will walk me through the process?

MY wife called a local camera shop who said they could clean the sensor if it needs cleaning but that we could do all the rest so I'm just looking for advice, info, etc.

Thanks!

I had a Digital Rebel many years ago and used it for sixteen years and never cleaned it aside from dusting the outside of it a few times with a feather duster, took me about two seconds to complete.  It worked great for all this time and never gave me one ounce of trouble.  I always find many business men offering services that are totally unnecessary and attempting to get people to think it is needed.  This is another of those not necessary services that you could easily do without.

Are you seeing a lot of dust spots in your photos? If not, I wouldn't worry about it.

Something like a rocket blower is all that I have ever needed. Just depends on the environments that you shoot in.

This is a rocket blower

Yes, that's the one.

Just go into your camera's menu and select manual cleaning mode so the mirror flips up and use the rocket to blow off any dust. It's also a good idea to hold the upside down so the dust won't fall back into your camera.

Why do you want to "clean" (whatever that means) it at all unless you're seeing a problem in your photos? I've never even thought about cleaning my 650D or prior XSi.

Here's a short video of a guy showing how he cleans his 5D and his 24-105L lens.  I dont recommend trying this, though.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lrdkFXsr5Us