Sensor cleaning advice after a Jessops nightmare.

GreenNinja67

GreenNinja67

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Terry
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Took my Canon 5DMK2 into Jessops Birmingham Wednesday for a 2 day £30 sensor clean and was told the chamber would be cleaned as well.
Great I thought.

Took a reference photo of blue sky at F20 before I took it in and paid the £30 upfront.

Picked it up yesterday lunchtime and took another shot of the blue sky and there were more dust spots than before I took it in!

Sales assistant wouldn't have it that a "trained professional would cock up the cleaning and suggested it may have been caused by me since the clean.
"In 2.5 hours and I've been at work all morning????"

So the manager was called, I showed him the reference photos I'd taken and he agreed that the sensor was dirtier than before I took it in. He offered to have it cleaned again ready
for me to collect once I'd finished work at 6 o'clock.

So 6 o'clock comes around and after collecting the camera again I took another shot of the sky to find it's even worse!!!
Manager suggested the camera is "full of dust" and every time I take a shot the mirror action causes more dust to collect on the sensor, to which I replied "I've taken over a 1000 shots on this camera since buying it 2nd hand, including changing lenses on the beach and not once have I detected the sensor getting dirtier".

I mentioned the fact that his sales assistant said the chamber would be cleaned as well and he said "I doubt that, we don't offer that service, only a sensor clean with a carbon brush".

So, got a refund and am needing a reliable place to take or send it to undo their cock up. I've made it slightly better as I had 1 sensor swab left and have used that with Eclipse fluid but it's not anywhere clean yet.

Does anyone have a suggestion? I'd like a wet clean this time obviously.

I've found a company called H. Lehman in Stoke-on-Trent who are a Canon authorized repair centre. Any knowledge of their work please?
 
Lehmann have a good reputation on here.
Something odd in it getting dirtier every time.
Can't see @ChrisH letting it get full of crap. He's too pernickety for that.
Have you tried the regular route. ..blower then sticky pads then swab?
I'm about to do mine. You've got me worried.
 
Buy some more swabs and fluid then do it yourself, loupe is also a good idea so you can see exactly where the muck is

Sounds like they have dislodged some of the crap that lives in the mirror box, trying to clean that is like opening Pandora's Box

No doubt muck on the focus screen too, it can be cleaned, but it's more delicate than the sensor and remove it with the proper little tool (yeah, I know it's actually the low pass filter before someone corrects me)
 
I'm not suggesting Chris let the camera get dirty. There were only about 4 or 5 spots on there but wanted it clean. I'll post some shots here so you can see the timeline.
 
Send it back to me i'll do it for you for £50

On a more serious note I too would recommend Lehmanns and they are not far from you if I remember correctly.

" CLEANED WITH A CARBON BRUSH !! " I would never in a million years use one of those on a sensor, and would NEVER trust Jessops to do it.

I told you at the time to stop being a pussy and do it yourself. Unless your a Jessops muppets you won't damage the sensor.

Invest in some genuine PEC pads and Eclipse fluid. Do it yourself, I've cleaned that sensor a few times with no scratches and leaving NO dust ☺
 
@mickledore

Just remember to follow the instructions. You dab the sticky pad very gently, then 2 drops of fluid at most on the pad. Hold the pad almost vertical and swipe the sensor one way, same in the other direction.

There is no mystic art in sensor or lens cleaning, neither any magic art in keeping your kit immaculate. It's just down to taking your time and taking care :naughty:
 
ChrisH said:
@mickledore

Just remember to follow the instructions. You dab the sticky pad very gently, then 2 drops of fluid at most on the pad. Hold the pad almost vertical and swipe the sensor one way, same in the other direction.

There is no mystic art in sensor or lens cleaning, neither any magic art in keeping your kit immaculate. It's just down to taking your time and taking care :naughty:
Click to expand...
Thanks. It's pretty easy to do.....the second time. First is a bit nerve wracking for fear of doing it wrong but it really is easy.

BTW. No driving for me till 20 June!!!
 
I'm another one that is a diy cleaner. Got it done locally once and it was worse, done it myself sense then.
 
@mickledore

Driving can wait, I can always come over to you and do something local if you get bored. I was going to go to either a 40's weekend or a steam fair today but it's been raining like mad.

I'm off to Crick canal boat show no matter what tomorrow.

Anyway back to the sensor cleaning. I think a lot of people worry too much. They forget that unless the camera has been modified there's usually an anti aliasing filter in front of the sensor. That filter is made of quite hard glass. Unless your careless and don't use sticky pad or a good quality brush first then the chances of scratching the filter are very miniscule. Eclipse is just some kind of solvent degreaser, if you use too much and saturate things you can get it between the filter and sensor but you'd have to be careless.

Yes I agree that first time you do it you may get the collywobbles but go easy, use loads of fresh pads and fluid and you'll get the job done. Just remember not to get flippant next time you do it and rush.

I've looked at those sensor clean pens many times over the years but always fear putting dust back on if the pens getting tired, at least with the wet method you should never reuse a dirty swab.
 
Thanks for the info guys.

@ChrisH please don't think this reflects badly on you mate.
Every camera picks up dirt on the sensor, I just wanted it perfect and didn't want to send it away. More fool me. I'm thinking of emailing Jessops customer services as I was left feeling lied to and treated very badly.

I may just buy some more pads as I've got nearly a full bottle of the fluid left.

The good thing with Lehmans is: "As part of our sensor cleaning service we will also clean the camera view finder and replace the camera screen if required."

This seems like a good thing to have done the first time and I shall do the subsequent cleans.
 
I've got it better, but have run out of pads.

I may give it a go.

Would be peace of mind for me to let Lehmans take a look at it too after having those monkeys sod about with it.
 
Don't worry mate no offense taken.

I think mentioning a lens pen was a faux pas on their part. Your paying £30 for a wet clean as far as I'm concerned not some half a55ed job.

That's a great offer from Lehmanns, you domention the cost but it's easy to ruin the focus screen if your not careful.
 
@SsSsSsSsSnake

You would just have to take the same care, it's all about finesse and not rushing. Follow the normal steps, blower or very soft brush. Then wet pads.

I use brushes from Hobby craft, if I remember correctly they are super fine sable. I cover the ferrule with heat shrink tube. The are half the cost of photo brushes and just as good. I was told about them by a 40 year seasoned photographer.
 
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There is no better method than doing it yourself ,like yourself I got ripped off with a half day to clean your sensor job that came back just as dirty as before ,I then learnt how to do a wet clean myself and now would not let anyone else attempt it on my camera's .
What made it even worse was the we need it for the afternoon or as in your case a couple of days ,and then finding out when you d.i.y that it takes all of five minutes max .or often a lot less
 
As many have said, save the money and learn to do it yourself.

Within 5 minutes of it being "professionally" cleaned it could be grotty again.
 
I know how to do it myself. I cleaned my D700 sensor before I sold it.
The point is I wanted it professionally cleaned as its a camera I want to keep for a while. Unfortunately Jessops are s***.
 
GreenNinja67 said:
I know how to do it myself. I cleaned my D700 sensor before I sold it.
The point is I wanted it professionally cleaned as its a camera I want to keep for a while.
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What exactly is your point there, Terry? That your cleaning is good enough for something you're getting rid of, but not good enough for something you're going to use yourself? A strange distinction if I may say so.
 
Maybe not worded the best there droj agreed. (Been on the p*** tonight).

I wanted a professional to clean it to ensure it was done correctly, especially as Jessops said the chamber would be cleaned as well. Something I couldn't do effectively.
 
Professional and Jessops are not two words I'd put together.

I have to say Manchester Jessops get top marks from me for sales and giving a good deal though. I wanted an XT-2 body and 100-400 with teleconvertor. The 100-400 comes as a kit with the 1.4. I couldn't get the kit anywhere and as it's nearly £300 less than separates I'd given up hope. Jessops had one of each as separated but dropped the lens and teleconvertor to the kit price making me a huge saving.

There seems to be few true professionals in our hobby now so where possible I always like to learn how to do things myself.

The first picture after cleaning proves a point about lens pens, that's one huge smear in the corner. As for chamber what flip in chamber ? You just blow that out with a duster with the mirror in its normal position.
 
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It's disgraceful Chris. Not surprised they went under the first time if this is their conduct.
Also insinuating I was a liar really p***ed me off.
Shame as their part ex rates are better than wex or mpb.

I shan't be using them again and will be advising all I know to go elsewhere too.
 
By the way I'll go on the CPS site this week and deregister the kit, then you can register for free CPS. That way if anything goes wrong it's a 3 day turn round for repairs and checking.
 
GreenNinja67 said:
It's disgraceful Chris. Not surprised they went under the first time if this is their conduct.
Also insinuating I was a liar really p***ed me off.
Shame as their part ex rates are better than wex or mpb.

I shan't be using them again and will be advising all I know to go elsewhere too.
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You should have showed 'em your Avatar pic and said get it wrong and this is what i turn into :LOL:
 
Yet another example of how bad Jessops are!

I have had recent bad experiences of both their Exeter and Bath shops. I thought that Dragon's Den Peter Jones had taken them over - Surely he can do better than that!

Very poor customer service and more expensive than other retailers - There is absolutely no point in using Jessops for anything whatsoever! [/rant]
 
If they weren't there maybe there'd be no camera shops... like where I live.

PS.
Dust bunnies are sadly an inevitable part of life. Years ago I had my 20D cleaned by Canon and all they did was move the bunnies about, since then I've done it myself and that is IMO the best thing to do. DIY.
 
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woof woof said:
If they weren't there maybe there'd be no camera shops... like where I live.
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....There's no camera shop in the nearest town to where I live either but several within a 50-mile radius and a really excellent one 65 miles away.
 
RedRobin said:
....There's no camera shop in the nearest town to where I live either but several within a 50-mile radius and a really excellent one 65 miles away.
Click to expand...

Yup, all of which makes getting to a bricks and mortar shop in York or Newcastle a once a year day out thing for me.

I'd love a Jessops in town.

And on a related note... my GF is Thai and we were in the shopping centre in her home town in April, there were three camera shops almost in a row and they had everything... Canon, Nikon, Sony, Olympus, Panasonic and probably more too... in stock. Made me quite jealous.
 
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