If you want to really do it properly, get a LensPen.

Only if it looks like it’s dirty or smudged on the screen after opening the camera and see what it can see. I had more of a habit wiping the lens down every single time when I used a real camera since you couldn’t just check by looking through the lens.

It’s not as detrimental as you think.

If you take a dedicated camera, put it on a tripod, and shoot it at like f22, yeah, you’ll clearly see a spec of dust or a smudge in a shot. But shoot with a wide open aperture (like your phone usually does), and its essentially invisible.

And then that little imperfection gets AI’d away by all the computational frame-stacking your phone does for every shot.

In other words, your phone’s images so processed that one spec of dust doesn’t really matter.

And even on RAWs from a mirrorless camera, it’s the least of your problems, with things like shot noise, motion blur, lens distortion, botched settings and other imperfections all having a much bigger impact on the final image.

I don’t clean the lens every time, only if I notice that it’s dirty through the onscreen preview.

Yes, I do. You’re not the only crazy person. If I don’t wipe it, it looks blurred, smudged, or get that weird effect where it looks like I have astigmatism.

I wipe it off if the picture is out of focus

I have never cleaned my phone’s camera.

I don’t. I feel like every time I slide it into my pocket and pull it out, the lens gets a quick wipe. I also wipe down my phone with a little dab of isopropyl alcohol when I get home, so it kinda keeps it from getting filthy buildups.

Maybe if the photo “matters” but generally no.

Bonus that iOS detects that and tells you to wipe your lens if you’re trying to take a photo with a filthy phone.

Can’t get dirty if there’s already tape over it.

I don’t think I’ve ever wiped my phone camera lenses.

The case I use has a lip around the camera module that keeps it recessed, so they never really touch anything. Looking at them now, they’re perfectly clean.

I usually lick the lens clean. makes for some great photos when someone asks me to take a photo of them with their phone.

No. I don’t normally do things to get my camera dirty in the first place. Plus the inside of my pocket seems to do a good job at keeping it clean.

I carry a glasses cloth with me 24/7 for my glasses but, also using it on my camera lenses if I’m photographing anything mildly important

Nope. Don’t notice anything