How To Clean The LCD

category: Cameras • 2 min read

The 3 inch LCD on the Canon 7D is beautiful, it’s so bright and sharp, it’s gorgeous. I don’t know about you but on my Canon 7D, the LCD screen gets dirty quickly on the left side where my nose is squashed when I take/make photos. It’s not just that the LCD is big and is 900+ thousand pixels, that makes the LCD so good, it’s also the coating that is “somewhat” anti-reflective and improves both the whites and the blacks.

What’s needed to clean the LCD:

  1. 2 clean, soft, lint-free cloth. I buy mine at Costco, but they also have them at Home Depot…
  2. Distilled water is better or regular cold tap water that sits for a couple of hour. That’s to let the chlorine evaporate.
  3. 99% pure alcohol, also called isopropyl alcohol, from the drugstore. I bought a small bottle 10 years ago.
  4. A small measuring cup

Or instead of using water, alcohol and a measuring cup, you can go to your nearest computer store and buy an LCD cleaner spray for around $15.

How to clean the LCD:

  1. Turn the camera off. The LCD screen should be cool. If it’s not cool, then wait until the LCD screen cools down.
  2. Dust lightly the LCD with the first cloth. If there is no visible smudge/snort after the dusting, you are done.
  3. Make the cleaning fluid: ½ water with ½ alcohol. Or use an LCD cleaner from your favourite computer store.
  4. Dip one end of the first soft cloth in the solution. Squeeze out the cloth so that it’s damp but not soaked. The liquid should never drip. Never spray the liquid on the LCD, always spray on the cloth.
  5. Gently wipe the LCD with the damp cloth.
  6. Use the second cloth, the dry one, to dry the LCD screen. Do not leave any moisture on the LCD. That’s why you need 2 rags. The moisture will eventually attack the LCD coating.
  • Always use a clean cloth. Dirt stays in the cloth and will scratch your LCD screen.
  • Never use paper towels. It will scratch the LCD coating.
  • Never use Windex or any other glass cleaner, they contain ammonia to reduce the streaks. The problem is that the ammonia eats the LCD coating.

Canon Nikon