Dust spots Ahoy !!

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Steve W

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Hi,

Wondering if someone can help...

I just started to see a largish smudge on my pictures (like an unfocused dust spot). So I decided to check the dust on my sensor by setting my lens to 50mm, focused to infinity and setting aperture to f20 and took a picture of a white Photoshop image on my monitor.

When I open the image in Photoshop and do auto levels there are a lot of black spots as well as the larger smudge spot.

I've tried a rocket blower and this has not removed the dust. Any advice on what to do next??

I'm thinking I may need to get a sensor cleaning kit, but not sure what to look for.

Any help much appreciated.

Thanks

Steve
 
If you arent confident to do it yourself, then send it or take it to a shop to be done.
There are hundreds of gizmos and gadgets that can help. Some are better than others.

My D700 needs doing so I bought some swabs and eclipse fluid, but even after 20 goes at it, there is still stubborn dust in the corners. So Ive now bought a Lenspen sensorklear loupe and lenspen sensorklear cleaning pen.
Well, the loupe turned up broken and used, but thats a whole different story, It should be quite good once I get a working one, as the loupe will magnify the sensor so you can see exactly where the dust is and get it with the pen.
 
Thanks for replying.

I thought about taking it to a shop or sending it back to Canon, but as soon as I get back a nice cleaned sensor, there is nothing stopping the dust getting stuck to it again.

How easy is it to clean the sensor, do I need the kit you mentioned ??

Thanks
 
Its not hard, just need to be careful. You can often find its dirtier than when you started if your room is dusty.

I havent tried the sensor loupe yet, cos it turned up broken, but it looks the easiest way to do it.
Ive tried the compressed air vacums, rocket blowers, swabs, sticky pads... The swabs are ok for general dust, but really sticky stuff tends to be too stubborn. The sticky pads are just a bit dodgy, I didnt like them. The compressed air vacum is useless and a rocket blower wil only move the dust somewhere else.

Its about £30-50 quid for a sensor clean, and most of the gadgets cost that much to buy. Its your call really. If you send it in, you know it will come back clean, but of course it will get dirty again at some point.
 
Yeah,

Just been reading about digipads + eclipse fluid and arctic butterfly cleaners. I guess I'm just cleaning the glass IR filter, rather than the actual sensor itself.

What do people think about the Digipads + eclipse fluid option. It seems quiet a straight forward operation??
 
I would start with the Butterfly unless you have grease on the filter. This is lower risk than getting solvent on it. If that does not work (it always has for me), then I would go for a cleaning fluid and pads. Make sure you get the right fluid for your make and model of camera.
 
Personally I have only had to wet clean sensors a few times, mostly everything comes off with a blower and a Lenspen SensorKlear.

If you've got something really stubborn then repeated wet cleaning should shift it.
 
Not sure how I know if the spots are grease or dust, I have about dark black spots (about 20 I guess) and few larger greyish marks that appear on my pictures. I had one of these larger marks before and managed to get ride of it with my rocket blower, but this this time they seem a quiet stubborn.

If I was to get a Butterfly, which one would be sufficient, as I see there are a few different types?

With the swabs, it looks like they come with the cloth around the end of the plastic spatula, after you buy the first set, can you then just get the cloth ends to go over the spatula ??

I think I need type 2 for my 450d, but not sure what type of eclipse fluid I need.

Steve
 
You can buy sets of cloth I believe, but its probably cheaper just to buy the spatulas with cloth on them.

Ive heard lots of bad stories about theose Butterfly brushes, but Ive never used one, so cant give an accurate comment.

According to thier webiste, Eclipse is suitable for all sensors. There were isssues with other brands and certian sensors having special coatings that got damaged by some fluids.
 
Cool I'll get some fluid then.

Where is a good place to get the eclipse fluid and sensor swabs ??

Ta
 
Tom - so that Eclipse fluid you linked to is OK for the D700 then, as I too read some reports some time back that (was it Eclipse1) was taking the coating off the sensor.
I bought some of those spatulas off Ebay for a couple of £'s and bought some pec pad non abrasive wipes which are lint free and ultra soft....these are an example of the type
http://www.warehouseexpress.com/buy...eaning-_-PEC-PADs-10x10cm-100-Sheets-_1001963

Dave
 
Steve W said:
...If I was to get a Butterfly, which one would be sufficient, as I see there are a few different types?...
Click to expand...

TBH, there isn't much in it. They all use similar mechanisms, although the more expensive ones spin faster and may be a little more effective.

The only horror stories I have heard about them are from numpties who have not switched the motor off before putting it into the camera body. :cuckoo:

You can achieve a similar effect using a sable brush if you can induce a static charge.
 
nikonuser said:
Tom - so that Eclipse fluid you linked to is OK for the D700 then, as I too read some reports some time back that (was it Eclipse1) was taking the coating off the sensor.
I bought some of those spatulas off Ebay for a couple of £'s and bought some pec pad non abrasive wipes which are lint free and ultra soft....these are an example of the type
http://www.warehouseexpress.com/buy...eaning-_-PEC-PADs-10x10cm-100-Sheets-_1001963

Dave
Click to expand...

Well I bloody hope so, As my D700 sensor is now covered in it.

Their website seems to think its ok

http://www.photosol.com/solutions.htm

http://www.photosol.com/eclipseproduct.htm
 
The digipads website looks a bit sparse, did you get yours without any issues?

For example there are no "terms and conditions", "privacy policy", or "contact number" and no sign of their registered VAT number.

Steve
 
They arrived within 2 days. Not the greatest of quality though. Ive just tried to do my sensor again, and its ended up dirtier then before again.
I also ordered another sensor loupe from amazon which arrived just now, and to be honest thats a pile of crap too.

Im just gong to send my camera in and get it done properly. Ive spent almost £100 this week trying to get it clean and its worse than it was.
 
Do you think that is because of the digipads lacking quality or the Eclipse fluid ?
 
I think its the pads, they seem to deposit more fibres than they pick up. Maybe better quality ones would do a better job perhaps?
Plus I have some really stubborn stuff in the corners thats just not shifting no matter how hard I scrub.
 
Yep, they are the ones for a 450D
 
Has anyone used the dust aid... Dust aid

I've been reading the Just ltd web site and say star with blower then, use the Dust aid, and after this, if there is still dust then use a swab like this kit swab kit
 
Yeah I tried them once. I didnt like them much though, just felt like they were going to pull the filter off.
 
Thanks Dave, just read that site, its basically the wet clean method.
So it's saying just look for dust and try and remove first with air, then don't use things like the dust aid but instead do a wet clean.

What pec pads and stick do you recommend, I guess they would be cheaper than the photosol swabs ??

Here is the image I took of my dust.

dust_sm.jpg
 
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Ah, that sounds like a plan, maybe I'll get some photosol swabs first and then get the glue stick and use the photosol swabs as templates.

Actually, can you re-use the photosol swabs by removing the end cloth and replacing it with a cut down pec pad?

Oh I was going to use a LED head lamp, I assume shinning this onto the sensor will not damage it.
 
Sorry, I have never used the photosol swabs so dont know if you can replace the ends with pec pads
you could just use the glue spreaders but cut them beforehand to 14mm which is the width of the Sensor Swipe for your camera
 
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Just bought some glue spreaders from my local shop for £1.49 (I quickly measured them and they seem to be exactly 14mm wide) and have ordered some 100 10x10 pec pads and some eclipse fluid. So hopefully I should be okay. I found a very good tutorial sensor cleaning so I'll follow that.

Thanks for all your help

Very much appreciated
 
Let me know how you get on as I might have to do the same on my D80.

Thanks
 
Okay, no problem. The pec pads were out of stock so I should be getting those later this week maybe early next week so you may not here from me until next week.

Steve
 
Glad you got sorted Steve, yes, let us know how you go on, first time can be very nerve racking
Dave
 
Hi guys,

There was a bit of a delay in me doing this as we decide to move house, so I had lots on my mind for a few weeks.

Anyway that is ticking along now so I decided to clean the sensor "glass".

I made up the pec pads as in this post Sensor Cleaning - My Copperhill Style cleaning

I used about 8 pads, the first 4 I used I think I pressed a bit too lightly as I still had some dust marks. After the 8th go and checking the image I now have no dust posts at all left (even when I auto stretch the image in PS) :D

It's actually quiet easy and is no way as daunting as you think. I found that 2 drops of fluid was a bit too much, so on the second 4 I used 1 drop which seemed to work better.

Steve
 
Steve W said:
Hi guys,

There was a bit of a delay in me doing this as we decide to move house, so I had lots on my mind for a few weeks.

Anyway that is ticking along now so I decided to clean the sensor "glass".

I made up the pec pads as in this post Sensor Cleaning - My Copperhill Style cleaning

I used about 8 pads, the first 4 I used I think I pressed a bit too lightly as I still had some dust marks. After the 8th go and checking the image I now have no dust posts at all left (even when I auto stretch the image in PS) :D

It's actually quiet easy and is no way as daunting as you think. I found that 2 drops of fluid was a bit too much, so on the second 4 I used 1 drop which seemed to work better.

Steve
Click to expand...

Great stuff. I have used RobertP's method (link above) for a while now.
There is a "footnote" in his post which does suggest that E2 only needs 1 drop.
 
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