Camera help for a numpty

[RosscoPCole]

Currently I have an Olympus Pen epm1. I love the size, but am finding that the quality of the photos has dropped and they appear very subdued and lacking in vibrancy. I do not want to use Photoshop to alter all my pictures.

This could be that the sensor needs cleaned. I've never done this before, how do I go about it?

What kit do I need to do this and clean the lenses? Would this make a big difference? How do you store your lenses I don't want a special camera bag. Would lens cases make a difference?

Help!

[Janesy B]

Are you sure the camera hasn't lost whatever preset that was giving you images that you were happy with? You'd need to get the sensor really grubby before it made any impact on the quality of the images.

[TheRainMaker]

Try to do a factory reset, like above cameras don't "normally" degrade in that way.

Sounds like you may have changed the colour balance (if your camera has that).

[GetCarter]

Won't be the sensor. Make sure you haven't changed the white balance. Set it to auto. (Though in bright sunlight you are likely to get very washed out images on auto).

I know you dan't want to use Photoshop (or similar), but they are invaluable in making up for the stupidity of cameras.

[The_Jackal]

Have you switched it to shoot in RAW? You will get what the actual sensor sees rather than it's own tweaked/brightened/sharpened version. RAW always looks relatively duller than the jpg presets.

[markmullen]

Exposure compensation set by accident giving underexposed results?