# Securing a camera collection: rangefinder, bellows and the lens cap that is missing

> Secure cameras: dry, not in a damp leather pouch for long, expensive bodies in the cabinet, write the numbers down.
> Quelle: https://tresorrari.de/artikel/kamerasammlung-sichern · Stand: 2026-10-01 · Tresorrari Redaktion

A collector camera is metal, glass, and often a bellows or a cloth curtain that grows mold in the damp. The number on the body is the proof that it is this piece and not just any one from the same year. In the overview [Security for collectors](/artikel/sicherheit-fuer-sammler) it belongs with the small technical things.

## How it gets away

Cameras barely appear in the Radar under their own word. They are still small, and a known brand is recognized by its shape. You do not leave five bodies on the sideboard when the apartment is open for the afternoon. The pieces with a number and a receipt lie in the anchored cabinet.

## What time does to it

Damp puts fungus in the lens and mildew spots on the bellows. A leather pouch that is itself damp makes it worse. You store dry, with some air, not in the wet corner of the basement, and you check glass and cloth once a year. Batteries come out of the body before they leak.

## The papers

Serial number, lens number, receipt, a photo of the number. The invoice in the document cabinet. One body and three lenses are four lines, not one camera.

## Häufige Fragen

### Fungus in the lens, what to do?

Do not unscrew and clean it yourself. Store dry and ask someone who cleans optics. The cabinet does not stop the fungus if it stands in the damp.

### Does the ever-ready pouch belong with it?

Only if it is dry. A damp pouch is damage, not packaging.

### Are photos of the collection on the table enough?

As a memory, yes. As proof you need the number in the picture and the receipt beside it.