How Karl Taylor Cleans His Canon Sensor!

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So this is how he does it ... would you?

capture22.jpg
 
Have done (if that is compressed air) forgot one time to blast out a good bit before I did it though and got a bit of moisture on there....was easily cleaned up with a wet clean. To be honest I have cleaned mine by blowing on it before...no biggy.
 
I actually cleaned mine once 'in the field' by holding it up in a very strong wind.
It shifted a big speck that was lurking to one side no bother.
Blowing on it yourself, need to be aware of a big risk of tiny bits of spit!
 
should point out that when I blew on it myself I almost hyperventilated blowing out air first until my lips were completely dry.....wouldn't recommend it, but had a huge spot of something that must have come from the side and would shift any other way (and was out in the middle of the dales somewhere)
 
I've seen someone blow out using a compressed air can with a micro fibre cloth wrapped around the nozzle. He swears by the method, but I haven't had the guts to follow him, I'll stick to my sensor pen that I'm used to.
 
I was blowing dust off a negative with compressed air in a can like that. The metal nozzle blew off and dented the neg :bonk:
 
I believe the problems with compressed air are a) it's very powerful and you don't want to be blasting the shutter or anything accidentally with it, and b) it's extremely cold and might not do the sensor any good. Not sure about that, but if you don't hold the can perfectly upright and squirt liquid gas over the sensor, it could get expensive.

What's wrong with a little Giottos Rocket Blower?
 
Isn't that WD40 he's using? Good stuff that!
 
Always carry a rocket blower with me and a little cleaning kit. I'd never want to blow comressed air duster in my camera, it can get down to below -50C which could probably kill a sensor. Maybe a very quick shot wouldnt do too much harm.
 
I used to use air cans to clean broadcast lenses and even the mighty expensive Zeiss Digiprimes. Wouldn't ever do it with mine or others lenses now....
 
ChrisH said:
Always carry a rocket blower with me and a little cleaning kit. I'd never want to blow comressed air duster in my camera, it can get down to below -50C which could probably kill a sensor. Maybe a very quick shot wouldnt do too much harm.
Click to expand...

I'm sure I read somewhere that reducing the temperature of the sensor would actually help it, and would create less noise.

Yep, this - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image_noise - seems to confirm it.
 
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The sensor itself would be ok at -50, but there would be a big thermal gradient and related stresses, so you could still get damage from solder joints failing or other stuff cracking. While scientific cameras are designed to be used with sensors at about -110C and work well at these temps, there's a fair bit of extra engineering in letting the whole package work in this manner.
 
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