sensor cleaning

[Davie Hudson]

would I be better getting a pro to do it, or alternatively as I imagine it'll happen often (1Ds) do I do it myself?

 

[Darren Turner]

I bit the bullet having never ever done it before, watched tons of YouTube vids, bought a pack of 20 opteka branded sensor swabs off amazon for about £20 at the time, the correct size for my sensor and gave it a bash as my rocket blower was not removing a couple of stubborn dust bunnies.......was really worried at the time but sooooooo glad i tried it, nice clean sensor that cost almost nothing, & nice clean images.

i think i got a quote of £45 to send of the camera for 1 clean, and i heard that many rumors on forums that sensor were coming back not much better that when they got sent, plus its the inconvenience of having to send camera away for a week.

I also Believe that some places do a while you wait service but it seems quite rare to find places that can do this, that way i guess you can check you happy with there cleaning job before paying haahaha

The swabs are individually sealed in packets and have a tiny amount of cleaning fluid already on the swabs, in fact you can only just tell there is any liquid on the swab end, they are quite flexible and you cannot be scared of putting a bit of pressure onto the stick when doing it.

I use 2 swabs and its usually spotless, i have done it about 4 times now and its ready for a 5th (thanks for the reminder)

Daz

 

[Davie Hudson]

cheers Darren, I'll have a look at amazon

 

[Pete Askew]

I do my own cleaning too. It's fairly straight forward and I use the swabs from Visible Dust.

Sensor cleaning system for digital camera.

 

[Hamish Gill]

Yeah, I have tried a lot of these things and I now would only use the visible dust ones!

- - - Updated - - -

'Visible dust'

 

[Dave Green]

Having paid good money twice and just getting the dust moved around a bit - I do my own.

Photosol sensor swabs and eclipse fluid does it for me.

 

[Beth Carter]

i use eclipse fluid and sensor swabs too. though the fuji doesn't seem to collect dust like the 5d mkii did.

 

[Davie Hudson]

thanks for the advice folks, i shall be dealing with it at my earliest convenience

 

[Dan Cattermole]

This will be a good one for me.
I've always used a rocket blower to remove dust and have been fortunate enough not to gain any stubborn dust 'bunnies' (as Darren says lol) on the sensor.
I have taken many 'dust checking' shots in the past (white/black wall etc) and have never spotted anything significant to remove with a swab.
And that suprises me as I've been in places that many shouldn't be with a camera especially on my Urbexing tours.
I will undertake this very soon, but then, do I need to?

 

[Darren Turner]

nooooo seems pointless, if it aint dirty dont clean it ...........

 

[Chris Dodkin]

i use eclipse fluid and sensor swabs too. though the fuji doesn't seem to collect dust like the 5d mkii did.

I noticed the same thing - which makes me wonder.. why the difference?

The fuji sensor is more exposed (no mirror, closer to the lens mount opening) yet seems to collect less dust.

I wonder if the self-cleaning technology is better?

 

[Beth Carter]

I noticed the same thing - which makes me wonder.. why the difference?

The fuji sensor is more exposed (no mirror, closer to the lens mount opening) yet seems to collect less dust.

I wonder if the self-cleaning technology is better?

it's not the sensor size, cause the crop sensor canons were just as dirty as the mk ii. maybe the self-cleaning tech is better or maybe the sensor is made out of something different. no idea what the difference is. one of the new nikons had a big problem with dust, not sure what caused that either.