Photographers know there’s pretty much nothing more important than keeping your camera sensor clean, and certain Sony Alpha cameras have a built-in feature to help you out. In this video, Sony Artisan Miguel Quiles shows how you can set up the Anti-Dust Function in your Sony Alpha 7C II or Sony Alpha 7CR camera, and a variety of other Sony Alpha cameras, to keep your camera clean. Watch as he explains it step-by-step below:

Step-By-Step Instructions

The first thing Quiles says to do is push the Menu button.

Next you want to go all the way down to the little briefcase menu option at the bottom.

Then you’ll go into the 13th menu – Setup Option.

Next go over to the Anti-Dust Function.

From here, Quiles notes that you’re going to run into two different options. “You can do a sensor cleaning, which basically will shake the sensor. Any kind of dust or anything that’s on it will hopefully be shaken off at that point.”

But Quiles says what you want to do is go down Shutter When Power Off. “Currently by default, it’s turned off, so when you turn off the camera, you take your lens off, your sensor is going to be exposed, that’s on by default.”

So in order to make sure your sensor isn’t exposed, Quiles says to go in the menu and turn that On. “And it does give you a warning here, ‘Do not leave the device exposed to a strong light source such as sunlight. Do not touch the shutter. That may damage the shutter.’ Very important – you want to make sure that when you have this feature turned on, do not touch the shutte when the camera is off.”

Next Quiles says you want to turn the camera off.

Then he shows that when you take the lens off your camera, you’re going to notice that the sensor is now closed. “And that is your camera shutter, so you want to be careful. You don’t want it to get wet. You don’t want to touch it. But that will help you to keep your sensor clean during those times you’re going to be switching lenses. Whatever the case might be, every time you turn off the camera, that shutter is going to close and it’s going to keep your sensor from getting dust on it.”

See more videos like this one on the Sony Alpha Universe YouTube Channel.