Sensor cleaning

realspeed said:
About the worst thing you can use is a rocket blower irrespective of what others say,
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And why do you think all the others do say that a rocket blower is the ideal first tool? Because in the vast majority of cases it works. It certainly does for me. Perhaps I'm just a little more careful to not get a ton of dust inside the mirror box.
 
Darkstar said:
The battery was on Full and he had it on bulb setting other than that don't know what happened .
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:eek:

Best argument yet for doing it yourself ;)

Blower brush with camera facing downwards should get any loose bits out - I've never had it add to the crud. So far, I've managed with a dry speck grabber but if things get too bad for that, I will go down the wet swab route. Don't do what my brother did and wrap the swab with a bit of 'lens cloth' and paint your sensor with lint :lol: (I shouldn't laugh).
 
dannyjo22 said:
Which loupe do people recommend?

http://www.amazon.co.uk/GGS-DSLR-Se...YPK4/ref=sr_1_9?ie=UTF8&qid=1332082321&sr=8-9

http://www.amazon.co.uk/GGS-Adjusta...LQ/ref=sr_1_16?ie=UTF8&qid=1332082321&sr=8-16

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Lenspen-SKL...DIE8/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1332082321&sr=8-2

Or any others I should be looking at?
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Personally, I give it a clean and then pick up a torch and magnifying glass to have a look. If there's anything still showing after a clean and a test shot, I mentally flip and reverse the image to determine where the dirt is on the sensor and give it another go. This is probably more relevant if you are using something like a speck-grabber rather than a method that cleans the whole sensor.
 
weybourne said:
I mentally flip and reverse the image to determine where the dirt is on the sensor
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Shouldn't you flip but not reverse as you are viewing the sensor from the other side? Took me ages to work out where I was going wrong the first time :)
 
ChrisH said:
Ian, it should have been in Sensor cleaning mode not Bulb.

I hope he paid for the repair because thats pure lack of camera knowledge and was negligence. The man clearly didnt know what he was doing.


Martin I have an unopened cleaning kit for a 40X if you want to bring your camera round one evening after this week I'll show you how to do your own for £20 and you can take the rest of the kit home with you. You should get at least one or two more after we do yours. I only live in Wythenshawe. I do my 5d2 and 1d3 myself.
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Thinking back not 100 percent sure it was not on sensor cleaning mode but do remember him saying he usually did it in 10 second bursts on 20 second exposure
 
Darkstar said:
Thinking back not 100 percent sure it was not on sensor cleaning mode but do remember him saying he usually did it in 10 second bursts on 20 second exposure
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20 second exposure is not sensor cleaning mode and is still therefore explicitly the wrong way to do it. If the shutter closed and the battery was good, it is highly unlikely that it was in sensor cleaning mode - even more so if he usually chances it on a long exposure.
 
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Darkstar said:
Thinking back not 100 percent sure it was not on sensor cleaning mode but do remember him saying he usually did it in 10 second bursts on 20 second exposure
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Never, ever let this person near your camera again. Indeed, I don't think he should be allowed to handle anything pointier, or more technical, than a crayon.
 
Darkstar said:
Thinking back not 100 percent sure it was not on sensor cleaning mode but do remember him saying he usually did it in 10 second bursts on 20 second exposure
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Unbelievable.
 
I have now made my mind up to clean my own sensor, and as I am a pretty practical person I cant forsee to many problems and have been looking on here http://www.cameraclean.co.uk/products.php?cat=Sensor+Cleaning+Tools+-+Wet for the cleaning kit, the swabs are about £40.00 for 12 swabs..which I am not to worried about, but when checking to see which are the right swabs for my camera..it shows the same swabs for my d90 and my d40 but then a different swab for my D300 which will start to make it expensive for the initial outlay... are all swabs like this or are there any different makes that are more universal...

Also is there any type of sensor loupe that is better than others..

Steve.
 
Thinking back not 100 percent sure it was not on sensor cleaning mode but do remember him saying he usually did it in 10 second bursts on 20 second exposure
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I actually just died a little inside.....

Is there any real consensus on which cleaning kit to use? My 1DS should arrive today and I want to make sure its squeaky clean!
 
I amazed that someone in a shop would try to clean the sensor on bulb mode...not a great recommendation for using them.

I bought 10 Digipad sensor cleaning swabs from Amazon for £10.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00581EIGI/ref=oh_o00_s00_i00_details
I read the instructions in my manual (D7000). Full battery, Sensor Cleaning Mode (on my camera this can't be selected at least than 3/4 battery strength), wipe once with one side of the pad, once with the other. It took me a second for each wipe...I wanted it to take longer as I'd thought it was complicated. Spotless results...I have 9 swabs left, at £50 a time I could make some money!

Not to make you feel bad but anyone else reading this thread should just do it themselves, very straightforward and takes less time than it took me to write this comment.:thumbs:
 
I use the method explained by RobertP in the tutorials http://www.talkphotography.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=9766&highlight=copperhill
The ebay seller is still selling the Glue spreaders, 10 for £2.52 inc postage.

Regarding the rocket blower, I always put the camera on a tripod facing down and blow out the mirror box for some time, I then leave it for the dust to fall out and finally lock the mirror up and blow onto the sensor. Most of the time that is enough.
I also make sure that the rear elements of my lenses are clean before putting a lens on the camera so that I am not adding dust.
 
This is my experience with sensor cleaning;

Not long after I first got my camera, nearly 18 months ago, I noticed there were a couple of spots on the sensor & what appeared to be a faint fingerprint! I just presumed it was there from manufacturing process & hadn't been cleaned/inspected thoroughly.

I had a rocket blower, but that didn't clean the spots away (they only showed against bright sky, so cloned em out)

After a few weeks I bought another lens & one of those wet cleaning kits (what a faff to use & a bit daunting for a newbie! )

After the initial cleaning all seeming well for a few months, then I became a little frustrated when I noticed a couple of dust spots again, which I couldn't shift with the rocket blower! So I got out the kit i'd bought & again reluctantly cleaned the sensor (using another 1/3rd of those expensive swabs )

This time I couldn't seem to get it `squeeky clean`. It was as though there was a film of grease on the sensor, almost looked like oil on water does in the sunshine.
From that day my pics just lacked that pin-sharp quality that I knew my lenses were capable of. By this time though, Autumn had arrived & good light was in short supply, so didn't think too much of it. (tbh I was HOPING the light WAS the problem I think )

On now to a couple of months ago, so I decide to clean again (sigh) using up most of the remaining swabs, only to find the same result! NO WAY could I get it smear free & myself completely happy with my bird pics. The feather detail was just not quite as sharp. So beggar it, I finally accepted defeat & took it into a local camera store 2 weeks ago. They cleaned the sensor & focusing screen (possibly the mirror too). Dropped off, then collected within 90 mins.....SORTED! :cool: The best £35 i've spent. I wish i'd done it last year instead of buying that expensive kit & suffering 6 months of frustration.

I also learned that some of the `cleaning fluids` don't have an infinite shelf life, so maybe mine was part of the problem too?

So in future, apart from changing lenses as carefully as poss, i'll occasionally be using the rocket blower, speck-grabber/actic butterfly DRY methods etc.
IF/when dust specks get bad enough that they annoys me & I can't easily remove them, i'll be taking it back to the store for them to do it.

Sorry for the long winded post, but thought it might help others who are fairly new to Dslr's so you can decide whether `do it youself` or pay up. I know which I now prefer ;)
 
Had my first DIY clean and removing the dust was a success with a wet dust wand kit. I have a blob though that's bugging me, oil? I can't shift it at the minute?

Worth taking it to a professional?
 
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