Sensor cleaning - anyone used this

Great bit of kit, bought mine from Amazon, £29. Same item. Does the job just fine!
 
Mystery57 said:
thanks guys - previously Ive just used a blower brush but I think this time a bit of fluid is called for.

Must admit I like the idea of a loupe, as I find it hard focussing close up with my eyesight so have had to resort to magnifying glass before which is even more cumbersome
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It's not fluid, it's a dry clean. Works just as well, in fact it means there is no risk of smears.
The loupe is a very handy tool, shows you where the worst buunies are, and tells you if you got em!
 
Barry - fishing for info based on experience here - looking at some other adverts which use fluid they claim non smear.

Using dry as you do yourself, do you find it necessary to apply more pressure to remove certain spots, as if so I would be a little wary of pressing too hard.

All feedback on this welcomed

thanks everyone
 
wontolla said:
It's not fluid, it's a dry clean. Works just as well, in fact it means there is no risk of smears.
The loupe is a very handy tool, shows you where the worst buunies are, and tells you if you got em!
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How does it deal with pollen and oil?
 
Mystery57 said:
Barry - fishing for info based on experience here - looking at some other adverts which use fluid they claim non smear.

Using dry as you do yourself, do you find it necessary to apply more pressure to remove certain spots, as if so I would be a little wary of pressing too hard.

All feedback on this welcomed

thanks everyone
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No pressure needed, (well, hardly any) just a light touch. It cleans mine fine as I said. Just inspect it after the first wipe, then if needed, do it again. I had to do it 3 times the first time, and my 40d has auto clean!

twist said:
How does it deal with pollen and oil?
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Why would you get oil on it?
If you had seen my sensor before cleaning, then after, well, I was at first shocked at the ammount of dust (and other stuff) then chuffed it was so clean.
 
Some shutters throw oil for the first thousand odd actuations. If that works like a pen and you clean pollen or oil with it, surely next time you try using it all you'll do is transfer the old (difficult to remove) muck to the sensor. Advantages of a proper wet clean is you throw the swab away with all its muck and use a new (clean) swab next clean, avoiding adding to the problem.
 
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When you put the pen back in its holder, there is a little pad that it rest on. You give the pen a little turn and it's clean again.
NEVER seen any oil on my sensor!
 
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I've got one of th pens and the loupe and TBH think try are a pile of arse, but others use them with out complaints.


The loupe doesn't appear to focus correctly, so you can never actually see the sensor and the pen didnt really do much.
I've had two of each and both were the same.

I much prefer the visible dust swabs with some eclipse fluid.
 
wontolla said:
When you put the pen back in its holder, there is a little pad that it rest on. You give the pen a little turn and it's clean again.
NEVER seen any oil on my sensor!
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So the little pad gets full of muck, if by some minor miracle theres no muck on the tip it picks it up from the pad. Congrats, but that doesnt mean everybody else has never had oil on their sensor. Different products are made for different muck. A lenspen aint going to effectively clean pollen or oil.
 
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I've got the exact same kit and for general dust cleans it's fantastic, I've used it on half a dozen bodies and never had a problem. If I got some oil or very stubborn dirt on my sensor then I would opt for getting it cleaned professionally or get some swabs and fluid and do it myself.
 
twist said:
So the little pad gets full of muck, if by some minor miracle theres no muck on the tip it picks it up from the pad. Congrats, but that doesnt mean everybody else has never had oil on their sensor. Different products are made for different muck. A lenspen aint going to effectively clean pollen or oil.
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Whoa there fella, the OP asked if anyone had used it and for some feedback, which I have and did. If you dont want to use it, then dont. :shrug: It works for me is all.
I never said anyone else didnt get oil on the sensor, just that I hadnt.
Climb down and say something constructive!
 
The OP never stated what kind of dirt was on the sensor, I supplied a link to various methods of cleaning various sensor 'dirt', you stated in post 5 it works just as well as a wet clean when in fact it doesn't, it works okay for dust and that's about it. You went on to ask about oil on the sensor, I replied.

My posts were constructive, even when replying to your query. I'm not saying its a bad product, as previously stated different tools for different cleaning, the OP needs to identify what's on the sensor first before spending money and making a big mess with the wrong tool.
 
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TCR4x4 said:
I've got one of th pens and the loupe and TBH think try are a pile of arse, but others use them with out complaints.


The loupe doesn't appear to focus correctly, so you can never actually see the sensor and the pen didnt really do much.
I've had two of each and both were the same.

I much prefer the visible dust swabs with some eclipse fluid.
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Looked into getting the loupe and most reviews say its a waste of money. So opted for the visible swabs and fluid. Do a great job, found I needed the edge swabs as well to get the crap from the corners.
 
surfg1mp said:
Looked into getting the loupe and most reviews say its a waste of money. So opted for the visible swabs and fluid. Do a great job, found I needed the edge swabs as well to get the crap from the corners.
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Good to hear the corner swabs work, was wondering. thanks
 
I've recently got the same kit (bought separately) and I also got the visible dust vswabs and fluid. So far I've used just this kit and not needed to do a wet clean. I can understand about the cleaning tip and reuse, but surely this is just the same for the comparable dry cleaner from visible dust (arctic butterfly), if there was oil/pollen on the sensor you would get this on the arctic butterfly brush tips and smear it across the sensor on the next clean?

A single use wet clean swab and fluid does stop this issue but in some ways they are not comparable products. Having completed a dry clean with the lenspen i think i would less apprehensive the next time but I'm sure when i do the wet clean i will worry until Ive done the first one. I may think differently once I've done it and then go blower then wet clean the next time. From everything I read whilst researching sensor cleaning it said blower, dry clean then wet clean. If you are happy with blower then wet clean and it stops this issue then that's good too. What is the risk to the sensor if you put too much fluid on a swab? If instruction are red and followed it should not be a problem. Its always good to hear both sides of the argument.
 
I bought some isopropyl alcohol from the chemist to clean the Arctic-butterfly.
 
twist said:
different tools for different cleaning, the OP needs to identify what's on the sensor first before spending money and making a big mess with the wrong tool.
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This is good point, if your not sure what the marks are (dust, oil, pollen) its best to go for a cleaning method that's designed for all of the above marks. This goes for the swabs too as there are different fluids designed for different stains. It does say on the lenspen sensorklearII ' to target dust particles and remove then easily and safely', whilst my visible dust swabs with vdust plus fluid are marked for both water and oil stains. Don't forget there are different sized swabs for different sized sensors, you need to get the right ones for your sensor.
 
You can always spit on the sensor, then rub it off with a bit of tissue & polish off with a dry cotton-bud.:D




.


I'm joking btw! ;)
 
Sorry OP for diversing but I was down my local camera shop and asking what they use for sensor cleans, I got the expected reply which was visible dust products and eclipse. He then said one of the biggest problems they have is getting the yellow fluff from dusters out of the mirror box where people have tried to clean the sensor with a yellow duster??
Thought he was joking but believe it or not he was totally serious. OMG!!
 
twist said:
So the little pad gets full of muck, if by some minor miracle theres no muck on the tip it picks it up from the pad. Congrats, but that doesnt mean everybody else has never had oil on their sensor. Different products are made for different muck. A lenspen aint going to effectively clean pollen or oil.
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A proper wet clean with swabs and IPA managed to leave horrendous smears across my D200's sensor - enough to render it all but unusable. In fact, I thought I had FUBARed the low pass filter by scratching it. The smears were oil droplets which had been diluted by the IPA but not removed. I then bought a SensorKlear from 7dayshop to deal with my D70's bunnies and tried that on the D200's "knackered" sensor as a dummy run - lo and behold, the "scratches" disappeared! I bought a few (pack of 5 IIRC) of the pens and use them as a one shot solution for sensors - after the sensor use, they get relegated to filters, lenses, screens etc.
 
Nod said:
A proper wet clean with swabs and IPA managed to leave horrendous smears across my D200's sensor - enough to render it all but unusable. In fact, I thought I had FUBARed the low pass filter by scratching it. The smears were oil droplets which had been diluted by the IPA but not removed. I then bought a SensorKlear from 7dayshop to deal with my D70's bunnies and tried that on the D200's "knackered" sensor as a dummy run - lo and behold, the "scratches" disappeared! I bought a few (pack of 5 IIRC) of the pens and use them as a one shot solution for sensors - after the sensor use, they get relegated to filters, lenses, screens etc.
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Should've used smear away or similar, again, right tools for the job. I had oil on my sensor and used a very cheap (but excellent) kit by Opteka, first pass left only light oil smears, second pass removed them easily and I still have loads of swabs and other bits left over. Generally when smears occur and its not oil it just means you have used to much fluid, a second pass with 1 drop sorts it.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Opteka-Clea...0C/ref=sr_1_11?ie=UTF8&qid=1363168156&sr=8-11

Dont get much fluid (poor bottle seal I think) but for the price you get loads of other bits so I can always buy a cheap bottle of eclipse when it runs out.
 
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This thread has shown what a minefield it can be !!

Thanks all for the contributions - this time I was lucky, I manually did the cameras automatic sensor clean 4 or 5 times in succession, and this seems to have cleared the little round marks that were showing on bright areas of pictures.

Most importantly though I have learnt that there are different applications for different kinds of debris in the camera, and all have their good and bad points regardless of cost.

Important thing seems to be to ask and not panic !
 
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