Tutorial Sensor Cleaning - My Copperhill Style cleaning

I just ordered a 'cleaning kit' from warehouse express.com, I got the one specialy for the 400d (which will hopefully have correct version of eclipse fluid)
Kit Contents:
4 x Sensor Swabs,
10 x Ultra soft Pec*pads,
1 x sample bottle of Eclipse Cleaning Fluid,
1 x Case, with full instructions

Should arrive in a few days, hopefully i'll be able to report back some success after using it :)
 
How often should the sensor need cleaning? I've never done mine :)
 
Dan Leach said:
I just ordered a 'cleaning kit' from warehouse express.com, I got the one specialy for the 400d (which will hopefully have correct version of eclipse fluid)
Kit Contents:
4 x Sensor Swabs,
10 x Ultra soft Pec*pads,
1 x sample bottle of Eclipse Cleaning Fluid,
1 x Case, with full instructions

Should arrive in a few days, hopefully i'll be able to report back some success after using it :)
Click to expand...

The kit has arrived, but im not sure whether its eclipse or eclipse e2 fluid. I know i cant use eclipse on a 400d.
Where can i buy e2? warehouse express where i got the kit dont seem to stock it.

edit: ordered from http://www.cameraclean.co.uk. Although i must say, i got a rocket blower this morning, and it seems to hae removed about 90% of the dirt anyway, so i might not use the swabs yet. Ill be able to check properly once my battery is recharged
 
Shorn said:
What does recalibrating actually involve ?
ps what excuse could I give :)
Click to expand...

Here is Canon's explanation on how they recalibrate cameras:
http://www.cps.canon-europe.com/kb/detail.jsp?faqId=1131

My reason for needing it done was that my 30D very slight backfocused. It was not a problem until I wanted to use a nifty fifty wide open. But because of the smaller depth of field it was less forgiving and so made it unusable.

Michael.
 
Dan Leach said:
Quick question.
I take it the image is flipped on the sensor, so lots of dirt on the bottom of the sensor will produce crap on the top of the final image?
And i take it it flips left-right as well?
Click to expand...

I believe so yeah - thats the theory I was working with when I cleaned mine and it seemed to work :)
 
Jimmy_Lemon said:
I believe so yeah - thats the theory I was working with when I cleaned mine and it seemed to work :)
Click to expand...

So the dots on your ceiling appeared in mirror image on your sensor then JL :LOL: :D
 
Wow, i cant believe how easy that was :)
My E2 fluid arrived this morning, and even though i have a giant hangover i thought id give it a go. I dampened the swab with fluid and made about 5-6 passes over the CCD, the slapped a lens back on and tried it.
Perfect, well almost, there is still 3 very small insignificant bits near the edges, but nothing like it was before

Before (i know this pic is paper and not sky like it should be, but it still shows the dirt)
dust.jpg

And after
dust3.jpg


Cool :) :D
 
is that auto levels in photoshop too? if so very impressive :D one slight smudge I would be tempted to try and shift:
smudgeqz2.jpg
 
Jimmy_Lemon said:
is that auto levels in photoshop too? if so very impressive :D one slight smudge I would be tempted to try and shift:
Click to expand...
That one was not auto-levelled, when i tried that it went all mad and purple.
So i did another, at f20 of a blue sky and it auto levelled ok.
I can see more dust now, but its still much much better than it was before
dust4.jpg


:D

This sensor cleanin malarky is easy as pie. Ive been worried for days about attempting it :)
 
Just finished cleaning my sensor for the first time - thanks to Rob for the excellent guide & advice (y) As long as you are careful, I'm sure people shouldnt be too scared of trying this (took me a massive amount of tries before I noticed any difference - won't tell you how many because its just embarrasing :LOL:) was incredibly irritating when I got rid of one stubborn dust spot & another few mysteriously appeared :bang:
Cheers again Rob (y)
 
Well I've just ordered:

Pec pads
Glue Spatulas
Eclipse (1)
electrical tape
stanley knife
tweezers

I love ebay :D
 
Well matt has come home from work today and as we speak is trying to clean his sensor I am sure he will let you all know how he got on later. Hopefully he hasnt been taking lessons from Janice ;)
 
haha - I am sure he will be fine. If I managed it, then it cant be hard!
 
Yeah it was easy peasy, got a little obsessive though, kept doing an auto levels and moving the slider so the thing went almost fully white and wanted no marks whatsoever, but got it as good as I could and left it at that.

As long as you take your time making up the swabs, in a clean environment (and don't use a rocket blower after swabbing because it just puts dust right back on there) its fine.
 
Thanks for the tutorial RobertP but looking at the pecpads and eclispe solution's website they say 'PEC*PAD is not recommended for cleaning the CCD. It is not the same material used in the Sensor Swabs. PSI does not approve or warranty the CCD or any camera part from any damage caused by using non approved products'. But since you done it on your camera it should be safe?
 
I don't warrant it either ;)

If you sell a product for one purpose and people start using it for another then the disclaimer is sensible. Doesn't mean it won't do the job and I will continue using the same method. Work clean and I can't see there being a problem. As always it is down to you to decide what is best for you.

Read the warranty on the expensive swabs and I'll be amazed if anyone could meet the conditions of proof required so doubt you can have much assurance from it.
 
Well i've just purchased the glue sticks and have pec-pads at home now i need to get the cleaning solution.

Which eclipse solutiona re you using for your 5D out of interest as i orignally heard/read you should use E2 but now the website recommends the original Eclispe :thinking:

My 5D is only a few months old and i can see that the sensor is getting dirty :(
 
If its the 5D I *believe* It's the E2.
 
I've just ordered some stuff from WE to try and clean the ming from the inside of my camera. If only I could get rid of the crud on the focus screen too.
 
I have only used the rocket blower on the 5D so far. I will get some E2 so that I can wet clean it if and when it needs it.

Dry methods like blowers and special brushes can do the job just fine. Wet is the only way if you have sticky dust like pollen.
 
Warning!!!!!

I got bit heavy handed with my 5D and rocket blower and somehow finely scratched the focus screen with the tip of the rocket blower :( so when i look through the view finder i see some fine lines like hair in my camera :( Never had this problem with the 350d, 20D and 30D, so not sure what happened. Can't be bothered to change the focus screen as it's not affecting the images and i'm being a 1cheap scape' ;)
 
Nice one Robert. My sensor is much cleaner, not perfect, but I'm not going to push my luck. I even used the same gear and whipped the focus screen out for a clean. Not perfect by a long shot but better than it was.
 
dsc000378rj0.jpg

:crying:
Remeber kids.. don't change lenses on the beach.:( Ive tried a blower, but it seemed to make it worse. *waits for payday to buy Pec pads*
 
woah, that's worse than mine, a LOT worse :eek:
 
Being a complete noice to cleaning sensors - would it be wise to clean the sensor if its small grains of sand? Wouldn't the pecpad + solution sort of scratch the sensor(or glass in front of the sensor) when cleaning?
 
Think I'd agree if it really is sand. I would have thought sand would blow off as it is not sticky (unless you have just come out of the sea :) )

If it is sand and it won't blow away then maybe a brush type system might get it off. Have to say it looks like pollen but better safe than sorry.
 
It could be anything tbh. I change lenses fairly often in lots of different situations, so its probably a mixture of stuff. It had occured to me that pec pads might not be a good idea if its hard contaminates. I did try cleaning it briefly with a very soft art brush, but unfortunately I didn't have anything to charge it with, so it didn't really help at all. Ive also tried my blower, but its only a tiny one which simply didn't have enough blow to do anything usefull. So you guys recon a decent sensor brush and compressed air?
 
Well I tried using an art brush. Made sure it was completely clean, size and dust free. I then sprayed it briefly with compressed air to get rid of any final dust particles etc... I then nearly had a heart attack. The brush still left streakes. I think it must have been moisture from the compressed air or something, but it left streakes that stayed and showed up on pics. To cut a long story shots, I did what I wouldn't recommend anyone to do (Damn my impatience) and cleaned the sensor using non cotton cottonbud sticks (if that makes sense) They're like cotton bud sticks, but not made of cotton, and are a lot less fiberous. Not ideal by any stretch of the imagination, but there results seem fine. I know there are still a few bunnies in the pic, but im not going to fret too much and its a hell of a lot better than before. (Ive adjusted the levels to get the bunnies to stand out as much as possible, even more than using auto levels.)

Before
dsc000378rj0.jpg



After
dsc0005fe4.jpg


Edit; And thats using F36, which I almost never stop down to anyway.
 
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