Sensor dust - send it off or DIY

Raptor Mike

Raptor Mike

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My 60D has a lot of dust now and I'm fed up with cloning it out so though it could do with a clean. Touching the censor with anything sounds a bit eekkk to me. Are they more hardy than they sound so I should do it myself, or do I send it to someone like Park Cameras and get them to do it?

If you do your own, any tips please eg what kit you use?

If you send yours off, who too?
 
Try a blower then you won't need touch it?
It really isn't difficult to do a thorough swab clean but ideally watch someone else do it at close hand.
Typically a shop service you will find one or two spots again first time you use it.
It does tend to happen that the act of cleaning with it open for a while can let in a few more specks, but if you can do it yourself you can have another try and keep on top of it.
 
I would avoid wet cleaning unless absolutely necessary, a rocket blower brush and the arctic butterfly i find do the trick nicely, never had to wet clean a sensor.
 
Mike I just ordered some swabs and liquid from visible dust, but my blower got rid of 90% of the junk TBH.
 
you arent touching the sensor, its protected by a layer over it.. its very easy to use a lensklean pen and blower which will remove 99% of dust spots in couple of minutes cleaning.. wet swabs are fine for "stubborn marks" if the blower and lenspen dont do the job completely.

i had to run mine through around 3 times checking each time to see where the remaining spots were but once done was nice and spot/dust free
 
Just cleaned my sensor, with visible dust green swaps ,,, used 4 swabs and still a tiny mark,, how many swaps does it normally take ,, sensor has never been cleaned in 3 years. Are all swabs equal or whats the best ,,, it is simple to do ,, so see no need to send away ,, silly me only bought 4 swabs ,, looks like need to buy in a load
 
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SO I'll be doing it myself then. I've tried a blower but it's nothing like that rocket blower. I could do with a new lens cleaner too so I'll look into a set, I believe lenspen do one. Thanks all, and thanks for the link Dean. I'l take a peek at that.
 
Blowers are only a few quid on ebay or amazon, so definitely stop there first. I hold my camera with the open mount facing slightly down to reduce the likelihood of dust re-settling on the sensor, then give it 6 or 8 hard puffs before popping a lens on (which I also give a quick puff on the mount area) and re-checking.
 
I've found the Rocket Air Blower excellent, and for about 5 years it worked every time. However, when I bought a new camera, rather than the normal spots there were doughnut shaped spots on the pictures. :thinking: Looking on the internet it appeared that these were spots of liquid, :( and no amount of blowing would get rid of them so I had to go to the wet clean option, which I did with Eclipse fluid and Sensor Swabs.

Now be aware that it takes some practice to get good with using the swabs during a wet clean. The first time I did it it made it 10 times worse :eek: as I wasn't careful enough to stop the pad from rubbing the edge of the light box, which dragged a lot of fibres off the pad. Realising my mistake, 2-3 attempts more attempts was enough to clean it completely. :)

As for how many pads/swabs it will take, it will depend on how stubborn the dust is stuck to the sensor. You should get better with practice, but then hopefully it is something you wouldn't have to do that often. ;) I do it when I see spots, but always check for spots before a serious shoot, or I go away on holiday.

It is amazing how you sometimes don't see any spots until someone points them out though. :( ;) :LOL: And once you've found a spot(s) you may be surprised to see those spots on images you thought were OK. :eek:

A portrait photographer who may normally be at very wide apertures may suddenly see a lot of spots when they go to take some Landscape pics at small apertures, because the camera has been focusing through the spots at very wide apertures.
 
I'm surprised that I never see the Sensor Gel Stick mentioned on this forum. I've just bought one and it's fantastic. Two minutes to clean, no fluids no worries about scratches.

Apparently it's what Nikon, canon etc use when you send your camera in for a service.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Eyelead-Dus...d=1409085891&sr=8-1&keywords=Sensor+gel+stick

Have a google for reviews and there are also some YouTube videos about them too.
 
Freshly-charged battery or connect a camera mains adapter before mirror up, because if there's power loss part way through the mirror'll come down on whatever you're sticking in there. Blow first to remove dust with camera facing downwards. Swabs the right size for your sensor.
 
hollis_f said:
Or, just read the numerous 1-Star reviews on Amazon. I think I'd rather use a Brillo Pad.
Click to expand...

You'll always get some bad reviews from people that don't use it correctly or don't read descriptions where it clearly states it doesn't work with certain cameras/sensors.

Did you bother to read the 5 star reviews?

Anyway, it doesn't matter, I use and it works very well.

Oh, I'd be wary of using Brillo pads, they have a 1 star review as well :)
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Johnson-Brillo-Pads-X-10/dp/B000TAR1J4/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1409318473&sr=8-1&keywords=Brillo pads#cm_cr_dpwidget
 
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Blower can blow more dust about though!

Wet cleaning is ok as long as you follow the instructions. Use the right equipment and the right technique and all should be fine!
 
Thanks. Im going to Exeter on Wednesday so will pop in PC world and see what they've got... all the camera shops are in the main city and it's a pain to get to when you can just park outside the door of PC world lol
 
i picked up a speckgrabber off ebay, got a package of 3 tips, fancy cloth, liquid, light torch thing
not used it yet, but its better value from the states, just keep product price under £15 to avoid vat and fees :)
 
Raincloud said:
Blower can blow more dust about though!
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I always keep my Rocket Air Blower in a plastic bag whilst stored so it may not be sucking in dust from its environment should it get squashed. And obviously, if you are using the blower in a dusty environment then you sucking in dusty air, and blowing it out.

Raptor Mike said:
Thanks. Im going to Exeter on Wednesday so will pop in PC world and see what they've got... all the camera shops are in the main city and it's a pain to get to when you can just park outside the door of PC world lol
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I doubt you'll find much in PC World, I may be wrong, but I'd be very surprised if they know what you are talking about. Although I've just looked on their site and they have Rocket Air Blowers, and Lenspen's, but nothing to clean sensors I could find.
 
Raptor Mike said:
Thanks. Im going to Exeter on Wednesday so will pop in PC world and see what they've got... all the camera shops are in the main city and it's a pain to get to when you can just park outside the door of PC world lol
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The staff at PC World wouldn't even know what a sensor is. I can guarantee they'll have nothing for sensor cleaning.
 
ecoleman said:
The staff at PC World wouldn't even know what a sensor is. I can guarantee they'll have nothing for sensor cleaning.
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I know lol. I've looked on their website and they have a lenspen kit. Its not a censor kit but a lens kit but it has their hurricane blower. If that doesn't work i'll get a wet censor cleaner, or gel.
 
Ummm thinking on it it might be worth going into LCE or Jessops and get all the kit in one go. If I only need the blower this time I will then have the other if I do need another time.
 
Mike, if you go down the LensPen route, make sure you get the one designed for sensors rather than the general lens cleaning one. They SensorKlear is smaller than the LensPen and is a rounded triangle so you can get into the corners properly. I got several a few years ago from 7dayshop and treat them as a single use item for sensors, relegating them to lesser duties such as screens and filters after they've done the sensor.

Some years ago, I managed to smear an oil drop over my D200's sensor with a wet cleaner and thought I had scratched it... After cleaning my D70's sensor with a SensorKlear I thought "nothing ventured, nothing gained" and used it on the D200 and it managed to get rid of the smear first try.

Pretty sure the Devon Camera Centre stock them - there are bike parking spaces behind Boots, or else try Southernhay. Does mean a trip into town rather than Pyne's Hill but will probably save time in the long run!

ETA, No Jessops in Exeter these days!!!
 
Ah well done nod, I did wonder where u can park bikes in town now since the guildhall stopped bikes going there. What about Mary arches?
 
An important aspect of sensor dust is that the longer you leave it, the harder it can be to remove it. Check your sensor regularly, say once a week if you use your camera often or after every trip if your camera lies idle for any length of time. I do this by taking a shot of the sky through a lens set deliberately out of focus with an aperture of F22. Then I check the magnified image on the screen carefully. By doing this regularly I can get rid of nearly all dust incursions quickly and efficiently with just a rocket blower. On the odd occasion, say, two or three times a year, I've had to do a wet clean. For that I use a single pec-pad wrapped around a home-made wand cut to the right size, dribble a few drops of Eclipse II fluid along the contact edge then two quick wipes over the sensor. Done in a few minutes.
 
Ive never found a blower that effective on any of my cameras. At best it shifts a few spots, at worst it moves existing ones round slightly. Usually it does nothing.

Im about to do my 70D for the first time (had it since march) and im dreading it as the process normally takes me several hours and countless swabs and the first few times it makes the sensor worse than before. I find it a soul destroying task. That's using eclipse and sensor swabs
 
What i was trying to say is that the blower could blow dust around inside your camera onto the sensor!
 
dean messenger said:
you arent touching the sensor, its protected by a layer over it.. its very easy to use a lensklean pen and blower which will remove 99% of dust spots in couple of minutes cleaning.. wet swabs are fine for "stubborn marks" if the blower and lenspen dont do the job completely.

i had to run mine through around 3 times checking each time to see where the remaining spots were but once done was nice and spot/dust free
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Not strictly true for all sensors it seems.
After a visit to an air show last weekend my pictures looked like the planes had been attacked by anti aircraft flak :D
I have done the sensor but talking to a guy who does them for Park Cameras seems what you are talking about is a low pass filter
which has been removed from Nikon on certain models to improve picture quality, seems mine is one of them but it's
ok it survived (y)
 
I'm not sure of the construction of sensors that have done away with the low pass filter but I would be surprised if there was nothing at all to protect the microlenses even if it is simply a very thin piece of glass.
@Richard, I think the reason why a rocket blower doesn't work for you, and you have so much grief when finally getting around to cleaning your sensor is that you leave it too long before doing anything about it and the dust has a chance to stick to the sensor. As for a rocket blower blowing dust onto the sensor, yes, that is possible, but holding the camera with the lens opening downwards whilst using the blower will lessen the chances of that happening.
 
I've used the Lenspen SensorKlear and it works a treat. I was very apprehensive before I undertook a clean, but it's simple and easy to use
 
Raptor Mike said:
Ah well done nod, I did wonder where u can park bikes in town now since the guildhall stopped bikes going there. What about Mary arches?
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Pretty sure Mary Arches and the Harlequin car parks both have bike spaces, as does the one underneath Broadwalk house (off the top end of Southernhay, enter S'hay from Paris street). Personally, I street park on Southernay or behind Boots. Drop me a PM before an Exeter trip if you fancy a cuppa - my treat!!!
 
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