Egypt4u

I took the HS50 and stopped at the park, took the camera out and darn it all the outside lens protector fell off and onto the ground. It didn't get obviously dirty and I momentarily debated putting it back on to protect the lens debating mentally would it be cleaner to put it on or cleaner to keep it off?

I finally got back into the car, pulled out the cleaning/buffer cloth cleaned the lens that hit the ground and put it back onto the camera and then took it off and cleaned it all again when I got home.

Started me thinking though - should a camera (the DSLR Nikon) ever be professionally cleaned? As in take it to a camera shop and have it cleaned and tuned up? Kinda like a car. I take the car in and have it tuned up periodically as per a schedule.

I'd say the Nikon has had normal wear and tear. I take it out, it has been exposed to dust, dirt, rain - all sorts of weather. I've kept it protected and I've surface cleaned it but I've never "looked under the hood" so to speak.

Whatdya think? Should it go in for a tune up?

LLL, in all my years and all the cameras I have had I have never done much more than to keep the whole outside of the camera clean with a brush. I always have a skylight protector on the front so the lens never gets dusty and it is easy to just remove and clean that lens IF necessary. If the camera lens does have any dust I just remove in a circular motion with a proper soft lens brush and also a puffer.
As for inside, you can just use a puffer or a can of compressed air (designed for the purpose). The mirror and sensor can be cleaned with the soft brush then puffed to remove any loose particles.
I think the best message is, keep the outside clean and only go inside if you have a problem like dust on the mirror or sensor on the DSLR. You cannot get inside the bridge camera (HS50)

I agree with all of the above and would only say that all cameras that have a mechanical shutter (pretty much all DSLR cameras) will have an estimated life. This varies from camera model and manufacturers and is usually in the high thousand say 90,000 operations and as high as around 160,000, surprisingly enough high price does not always guarantee more reliability of the shutter mechanism. To that end many camera manufacturers will recommend that the shutter mechanism is replaced at certain intervals, this is expensive and it is usually only professional photographers who bother to do this.

I have never gone INSIDE the camera to try and clean it. Mostly I just keep the outside clean but I did wonder 'if' it was a thought to actually give the inside a go-over. Both of my cameras are refurbished and really for the $$ I paid for them I'm not sure they're worth what it would cost to have them professionally serviced. I don't know this cost but for some reason I just have the feeling it would be high(er) than I'd care to pay BUT if it was something that everybody routinely does then I'd think about it. (Only started to thinking about it in the first place when the outer lens on the HS50 fell off! UGH - wish I'd noticed it was loose in the first place)