I pulled out my old canon eos 300d the other day to have a bit of a play with it as I am considering selling it. To my horror I discovered it wouldn't switch on. This is strange as I normally make sure the batteries are charged. So I swapped in the spare battery and still no joy. trying not to panick I went looking for the charger and couldn't find it!

I eventually found it in a bag of filters I haven't used since switching to digital that were stashed in the garage. I charged both batteries up and much to my relief the camera is working fine. It raises a question though, I know that just like a car, one of the enemies of cameras is lack of use but how little use is considered damaging?

I have a swathe of prime lenses that I love for their optical quality but don't get out of the bag much these days as they can't match zooms for convenience and with a young son too look after oportunities to go out and spend time with photography are getting thin on the ground. This means that I am usually taking photos of family events etc but this also means that the primes usually don't get used. To keep them in good working order I know that proper storage is important and I know that I should pull them out of the bag and use them every now and then.

The question though is how frequently does this need to be done and what should I be doing to keep the lenses in good working order? My prime lenses are my pride and Joy and I would hate to see them break because I was too busy to look after them.