If you have a point and click camera, there is really no way you can maintain it. The only thing is to treat it like any other electronic, gently and with care.
It’s a complete different story if you have a manual camera or a older style camera. The ones don’t have much plastic on it. First of all, like a old car, you have to use it at least once every month to make sure all the function in the camera works. You don’t have to run any film through it, you just have to dial it into different speed and different aparture and click it several times.
If you have any older style camera that’s slr (single lens reflex). And you think the mirror is dirty, don’t you even think about cleaning it yourself. There are many mirrors broken that way and it’s a lot more expensive to deal with broken mirror than dirty mirror. The same thing apply to all medium format camera that use mirror inside.
If you have a camera that you can remove the lense from camera body. You need to be careful and put it somewhere it’s dry. Rust is the worst thing that could happen, you simply can’t do anything about it once it started to rust.
If you are not sure how to clean the camera yourself, be sure not to use any detegent or chemical on it. Use only Q-tip or a slightly damp cloth on it. You don’t have to worry about cleaning it as much.
The best way to take care of your camera is to take care of your lens. The quality of lens can effect the image outcome also the sharpness of the picture. The best way to do it is to get a lens cap to protect your lens. For those of you who have a Pentax, Nikon, or Canon, it’s easy to purchase a UV filter for your camera. It’s a good way to protect your lens. In case your accidently drop your camera, the UV filter will protect your lens. UV filter is also a great filter to use in outdoor photography to get rid of glare and enhance the color of the sky.
If you have a digital camera, there isn’t really much you can do about it. You could always wipe it with a dry, clean cloth to get ride of any unwanted dust or dirt on it. But there is not much you can maintain. One thing you need to take care of is the battery and the memory sticks (or cards). Remember not to over-charge your battery. Let it run out before you recharge it again. When you over-charge the battery it can very easily ruin it and also it would have shorter and shorter amount on it. Some cell phone has a de-charger which emptys a battery for you so you can completely recharge it for better usage. I’ve never seem anything like it for digital camera. You can also take care of your camera by take good care of the memory sticks. They usually comes with cases for storage.
For all of your camera, it’s not good to just sit it out, it’s good to keep your camera in normal room temperture or a little cooler if it has a lot of plastic parts on it. I don’t know about other states or countries. When I lived in South Africa and left my camera in my parents car for 30 minutes. The camera melted onto the leather seat and was not possible to removed and strip the leather off the seat. Which didn’t make him too happy since it’s his brand new BMW.
It’s always good to buy a case for your camera. To keep the dust out and also the unwanted moisture. It doesn’t have to be a expensive case, but if you want to spend money to protect your camera equipment, get a hard case with foam inside.