Powder got into the retracting lens barrel of my Canon S95—does it self-clean, or should it be serviced?

Question

I used a Canon PowerShot S95 to photograph Holi, and some colored powder landed on the retracting lens barrel and in the groove around the flash housing. I mean the cylindrical lens housing, not the front glass element.

Does this type of compact camera have any kind of self-cleaning or wiping action when the lens retracts, or can powder get pulled inside? If powder may have entered the camera, is professional cleaning the right next step?

user1620 · Accepted Answer

Hopefully you have wiped the stuff before turning the camera off, otherwise there is probably some of it inside it.

There is nothing self-cleaning here and neither is this camera sealed against dust and particles from entering. It's a great camera you have, so I would bring it to Canon for a cleaning. They will take the camera apart and clean it. Here this service costs a bit over $100 CDN.

If you intend to exposur your camera to elements like this, it will quickly become expensive, so I recommend investing in a weather-sealed or waterproof camera for those occasions. Unfortunately, there are very few such cameras with manual controls other than DSLRs which also require weather-sealed lenses to be sealed.

Powder got into the retracting lens barrel of my Canon S95—does it self-clean, or should it be serviced?

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