sensor cleaning

marky.b

marky.b

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not sure if this is the right section, but this is the one with most viewing so here goes
a while ago i plucked up the courage and decided to clean my very dirty eos 350d and 30d sensors
i got about 6 swabs and some eclipse liquid along with some foam things on long sticks. i know it cost me an arm and a leg.
being very grubby i needed several swipes and used all the swabs. ouch they are dear
in the meantime i got an email of Nicholas at copperhill images in the states

http://www.copperhillimages.com/index.php

he wanted to know if i was interested in trying his method. and that he would send me a sample of what they used
basically it consists of a wand for the sensor size and specially pre cut (under strict conditions) pec pads along with the eclipse fluid
well to say it cuts the cost down is an understatment
the eclipse fluid was about 5 times the size of the one i got in the uk.
and enough cut pec pads to clean every camera in the country.
well i just got another bigger wand for my new (2nd hand ) 5d mk1 and more pec prepared pads, along with a pack of 100 pec pads for lens cleaning.
total cost $30 about £21. came today , only took 3 days from usa
anyway here is a b4 and after shot of the 5d sensor.
i did about 4 wet cleans along with the rocket blower
oh and isn't that full frame sensor sexy LOL

for anyone wondering how to get image of dirty sensor
do the white whall shot.
app of about f32 or smaller and photgraphh white wall,
then open image in photoshop or similar and hit auto levels. this will show a propper image of dirty sensor

before clean



after about 3rd wet clean

showphoto.php
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I know, they're brilliant. I have used them before and they get your sensor squeaky clean! I was so impressed. It's amazing how dirty it can get sometimes.
 
interesting reading.

Seems to have made a better job of the top? (the bottom of the sensor as you look at it) Could this be down to not keeping it even?

FITP does a decent set of sensor swabs on here. Im on my 5th pack :)

If it ever gets to the 'wet clean' stage I send it off to Canon.
 
Wow! That was a very dirty sensor! Was that before or after a quick blow with a bulb? I'm just wondering how much of that needed the wet cleaning and how much would have blown off/been removable with a soft brush? Congrats on taking the leap and learning to clean your sensor yourself though.
 
not sure if this sensor ever been cleaned . i bought it 2nd hand last week, but it was in mint condition
the ist image was before rocket blow. but rocket didnt make much difference. just blew away the small hair top right
i always use rocket before to prevent scratch and after a after wet clean, but sometimes it can just move spots around
it pretty much imposible to get rid of it all. i came close on the 30d but then the next swab made it worse again.

i thinks its best to get rid of what you can with a couple of cleans. much easier to clone out a couple of spots in cs5 than hundreds all over the image.
i guess ill do it once a week or so now
with the cost of copperhills stuff. its a no brainer not to
couldnt afford to do it if i bought the ready made uk swabs
i not done may cleans in total. but it gets easier the more you do, and you become more confident doing it
go for it
 
why is every one so daunted by wet cleaning? I was in need of a clean because of two small grease marks, but a £50 cleaning charge soon made me buy swabs and before i knew it job done. followed the instructions to the letter very easy.
 
bopins said:
why is every one so daunted by wet cleaning? I was in need of a clean because of two small grease marks, but a £50 cleaning charge soon made me buy swabs and before i knew it job done. followed the instructions to the letter very easy.
Click to expand...

Because it's very easy to spend ages cleaning, seeing a streak, getting rid of that one, only to have another pop up elsewhere followed by 20 mins of chasing streaks around. Dry clean for me - I'll wet clean when I absolutely need to. My day job involves working with optics a lot more expensive than even L-glass, but my hobby is for relaxation, not wondering whether my cleaning fluid is contaminated!
 
How does this stuff deal with oil smears. I had what I thought was dust and used blower and then arctic butterfly. Improved but I now see what looks like oil smear over the sensor filter. Does not show up to F16 but know it s there and debating whether to buy this or pay a shop £45. Will oil come off with it? I guess it`s from th mirror action - quite new my D700 too;-(
 
jinky said:
How does this stuff deal with oil smears. I had what I thought was dust and used blower and then arctic butterfly. Improved but I now see what looks like oil smear over the sensor filter. Does not show up to F16 but know it s there and debating whether to buy this or pay a shop £45. Will oil come off with it? I guess it`s from th mirror action - quite new my D700 too;-(
Click to expand...

Yes it will - one drawback of using Arctic butterly (I use it too) is that if you allow thee filaments to creep 'out of sight' adjacent to the sensor, it can pick up grease and that will smear across the sensor.
A wet clean gets that off after a couple of goes.

You will also need to wash the Arctic Butterfly brush with soapy water and rinse very well to get the grease off that.
 
a lot of the spots you see are not always dust and grease type spots or similar
no amount of rocket blowing will shift it.
sometimes 2 or 3 wet cleans does the job.
using the copperhill method lets you do this coz of the low cost
using some of the sensor swabs over here can be very expensive
i can now clean after every outing if i want
also the pec pads and eclipse fluid are great for cleaning lenses.
so good value all around
 
I have always used a LENSPEN SensorKLEAR.

Dead easy to use and only around a tenner.
 
I caught some dust on my sensor the other day and decided to give it a good blow with the rocket blower first. That removed all! Saved using a valuable swab when it wasnt needed :thumbs:
 
don`t they just move the dust from the sensor to somewhere else, or do they take the dust away from the sensor.

i have use my delkin mini vacume to remove dust pecs without ant problems

Cheers Steve
 
steve_lyt said:
i was curious , a blower seems to mean move it from where the dust is, I wasn`t trying to say the didn`t work.

Cheers Steve
Click to expand...

Think that's why the Rocket folk recommend holding the camera with sensor downwards whilst giving the blow-job;)
 
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