Roger Cicala breaks down the do's (and don'ts) of cleaning your camera gear and workspace

Yes, that's a typical answer if someone mentions Pentax: it's just a gear. If he had mentioned Nikon or Canon, then the answer would have been: of course, what else!

And that's the very typical answer of the usual hilariously insecure Pentax owner. All 3 of you are so proud of yourselves and so ANGRY when someone disrespects the carcass of your brand.

As for what Roger shoots - https://www.lensrentals.com/blog/author/roger/

As I said, he shoots with whatever strikes his fancy because he can. And I would too.

No, at least not yet. Just a few states but that could change. The US has a federal system with 50 states and each state makes their own policies for these types of actions although the national government can later do a nationwide policy. The cleaning materials that Roger recommends are available and there is no better time to be cleaning than when you are social isolating inside your house. His shop may still be open or at least open when the photos were taken.

It will spread, you can't stop it anymore. You can only slow it down and hope there is a vaccin in the meantime.

Like Ebola, the only way to deal with something like this is to isolate the place where it starts to let it die out. Yes, you need the army to shoot anyone who tries to leave that place. Unacceptable of course but this is the alternative.

Luckily, this virus does not kill us all. There will be a next one, much more deadly. Let's hope our leaders have learned something.

I had to postpone my safari on 22nd March as flights to Kenya are suspended . The worst is yet to come with COVID19 but we have to take measures and keep isolated as much as we possibly can.

@TheBlackGrouse: You can't stop it anymore, but you can still limit its death toll substantially. London's Imperial College, which is one of the world's foremost authorities on pandemics, published a report on Monday (cf. https://news.slashdot.org/story/20/03/19/0232245/what-happens-if-the-us-does-absolutely-nothing-to-combat-covid-19) that estimates the result of three possible reactions on COVID-19 for the USA. Do nothing – close to 4 million dead. "Mitigation strategy", to flatten the curve (all symptomatic cases in the US in isolation, families of those cases quarantined, all Americans over 70 social distancing) – 2 million dead. "Suppression strategy" (isolate symptomatic cases, quarantine their family members, social distancing for the whole population, all public gatherings/most workplaces shut down, schools and universities close) – only a few thousand dead, peaking after just three weeks.

Yes, we can limit the number of deaths by slowly building up herd immunity so vulnerable people will be better protected. But still, a total lock-down only flattens the curve to help our health care system cope with Corona.

On average we have 3000 deaths in a flue season. Corona will kill ten thousands of people, even with social distancing, half of the companies closed as well as schools, universities, bars, restaurants, hotels, shops etc. Borders are closed, there are hardly any flights, public transport is very limited, all sports events and other are cancelled. Our economy is not functioning anymore and still the virus is spreading. Hopefully, a vaccin will be ready soon. Otherwise older people have to be socially isolated for years.

In Pennsylvania, USA, I have searched almost daily for a week and no TP is to be found. I am okay for another week or two, after that, if things do not change, I might find myself spending more time in the shower ☹️

Austria. yes! Toilet paper, kitchen paper roll/paper towels are pretty much sold out. It is being restocked, but only slowly.

people are sh*tting their pants because of virus, so i understand why they need lots of toilet paper.

when i was a child, we mainly used cut newspaper sheets for the purpose. so i dont hoard toilet paper but am always on the lookput for optimal newspapers ... many pages, soft paper, not too much print ink on it. lol

Canada here.

Although we're one of the largest pulp and paper producing nations on earth, our grocery stores are still getting cleaned out of toilet paper daily. Then they're re-stocked at night, and the whole thing happens all over again the next day.

Stupidly, the two convenience stores near me, have never ran out.

Like the coronavirus, stupidity doesn't respect borders.

In the US it's a problem (more so in some areas than others but it's still a problem overall). So much so that stores are limiting it to 1 package per household or person at least in most common chain stores.

People are also buying up non-perishables, although not as much as sanitizer and TP (the sanitizer I can understand) where people will buy large quantities but never understood the need to buy excess TP except for those who were planning to re-sell at a higher price online--of which Amazon and eBay and I think CL have prevented people from doing so). The funny thing is that many places are not allowing people to return excess TP and other highly-hoarded items they purchased during their panic shopping sprees, which I think is good. Hopefully will teach people not to hoard in the future unless supply is legitimately scarce.

I know people are panicking in the US and in Europe, but the one thing I don't think people realize is that if we work together (across borders and within our communities) in all aspects we may very well be able to greatly reduce further spread and hopefully contain the virus infections faster, but since everyone is doing the opposite and fending for themselves it's making recovery efforts that much more difficult and drawn out and likely making things worse by anot abiding by things like lockdowns and shelter-in-place. A good example is all the spring breakers who decided to go to FL anyway despite the recommendations to exercise social distancing as much as possible.

@entoman I've dried my hands with toilet paper before and that's a complete waste of time. Maybe if you buy the really cheap stuff that's essentially indistinguishable from a paper towel it would be OK, but Charmin and the like, no, it falls apart upon contact with wet hands.

sirhawkeye - There doesn't seem to be any hand sanitizer left in the UK - all the supermarkets and shops have sold out!

The world has gone completely barmy and many people are behaving really selfishly, grabbing a month's worth of anything they can get hold of, and leaving nothing for others. Stores here are limiting sales of most products to a maximum of 3 items.

We are being encouraged to get groceries delivered, but the supermarkets have all delivery slots booked up for 3-4 weeks ahead.

If this madness carries on, I can see the government introducing food rationing.

My chances of finding any milk in the local shops are about the same as my chances of a Canon R5 parachuting down from heaven into my eager hands!

Again, I think some people are regretting their panic buying now since they are having a hard time selling and price gouging people online like they had planned to do. Not to mention some of the smarter ones are probably realizing with a global recession on the horizon, they probably should have held onto their cash rather than try to make a buck or two off someone in a time of emergency.

I'm not talking so much about for photography, but getting things taken care of so you can live on less and not feel the burden of debt. If you don't have debt,. I'd still recommend people start stashing money, and not in things like retirement (obviously because the markets have nosedived, and may drop more as time goes on).

Panicking is what is going to make things worse (as it already had) and things may just get worse yet still. WE all need to work together, put aside blame and finger pointing because at this point, it doesn't matter where it started. We will greatly increase our efforts to get through this if people (individuals, local communities, and nations) work together towards a common solution/effort.

Never! Gotta keep my camera clean to photograph the end of the world, don't need food though, you can have that.

What do you soak in hand santizer and then clean with toilet paper? Never mind.

I think the main worry, whether justified or not I can't say, is that you could touch a person or object that harbours the virus, and then transfer it to your camera. Having done so, the virus could theoretically transfer when the camera comes in contact with your eye, nose of mouth.

@entoman. It is for this moment, that tilty-flippy screens were invented that can be used at waist level or arm-length, away from your face :-)

noyo - Yeah, the problem is what are we going to photograph, when most of us are stuck indoors?

Right now I really envy people who live in the countryside, as they can go out in the fresh air and enjoy themselves without risking bumping into people and spreading the virus.

entoman - if I think of something, I'll let you know.

Fortunately, I live on the edge of a town and can be in the countryside in minutes, plus there are lots of green spaces and trails nearby.

Unfortunately, many people want to get out in the spring sunshine and breathe fresh air, so it was actually really busy with walkers today. The danger is of people who don't respect the personal space or safety of others, whether through ignorance, carelessness, selfishness or arrogance. Some of us cannot take that risk.

noyo - Unfortunately, although I'm only about 3 miles from the forest, the only way to get there is by bus or train to the nearest village, so I have a choice between walking a mile to the station and catching a (probably empty) train, or catching a bus that will probably have half a dozen old people on board. Or I could walk 3 miles through a busy housing estate. Spoilt for choices!

tbcass - I did until about 12 years ago, but then I set up my wildlife tour business, and consequently I normally spend so much time abroad that I can't justify owning a car of my own, although I do occasionally hire one.

I'm tempted right now to buy one just to get me around in the UK, but if I did so, and then found that travel restrictions became tougher, it would be money wasted. Several EU countries have already enforced self-isolation to the point where you can get arrested and imprisoned for leaving your own home!

Yeah that sucks, I don't drive and it's basically impossible to go anywhere now, well unless I want to meet COVID-19.

@entoman

Just checking some photos @ f/11 I realized that I miss that on Fujifilm. I found 2 wholes on my sensor!

Now besides producing a medicine for the virus Fuji have to make another camera for me too.

@entoman - that's a pretty lame statement.

Come on entoman. I really thought you were getting better....

@entoman - what I mean is that everyone knows Canon automatically writes out their dust particles so you don't even know your sensor is dirty until you realize that your file size is shrinking.

stevo - haha! :-)

Canon cameras only perform a sensor-vibration when switching on and off, to shake off particles. They don't automatically map dust particles and write them out, although this can be done manually at any time by the user. I believe that the vast majority of other brands, including Sony, give the user the same option to manually map and write out dust.

The big difference is that with DSLRs (of any brand) the likelihood of dust reaching the sensor is much less because of the greater flange to sensor distance, the mirror, and the shutter which is always closed except during exposure.

Mike -

Forgive my little joke at Sony's expense, I try to remain brand-neutral but on this occasion the baddie inside me got out! :-)

@entoman - I wasn't sure if you were playing at first, but then I thought maybe you were. Hence my lame attempt at play.

As for dust, I don't have good data points personally because I went from a D600 to an A7 and the amount of particles on my sensor immediately dropped bu a factor of 1/1000.

Welp, at least the DPR comments section is still healthy, no shortage of brand bashing yet!

Impulses - Just trying to inject a little humour ;-)

@entoman, people who have dust on their sensor are obviously very unhappy bunnies. They should use Olympus, never one single spot since my E1 almost two decades ago.

themountainphotographer - ah yes, the famous Olympus illusion - the sensor is so bad that you can't even see the dust spots....

(another bad joke, sorry!)

Ouch! That was bad.

You know what they say, practise makes perfect.

I'll keep trying. We all need to lighten up a bit and have a laugh to take our minds off of you know what.

So feel free folks to take the micky out of my dinosaur Canon DSLRs!

Entoman, a further advantage for the Sony user is that the weather sealing, previously thought to be substandard, is actually genius, allowing any cleaning agents applied to camera exterior to also sanitize internal parts!

Pressure washer here. I strap it to my car wheel and do both at once.

Don't use sandpaper on lenses! It's only for sensors.