Sensor cleaning??

[John Morrison]

Check out Jessops website. Those 'before' and 'after' pix don't inspire much confidence in their sensor-cleaning service!

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Harry Harrison]

"The viewfinder of your camera may have dust inside it – this exists within the interior of the camera, we won’t be able to clean this, but this shouldn’t affect your image quality."

 

"shouldn't"?  How about "won't".

[ReeRay]

50 quid for a 1 hour service (with spots remaining) !!

 

I pay 5 quid here in Thailand and get a cup of coffee whilst I wait, and the sensor is pristine afterwards. 

 

 

[MDM]

3 minutes ago, Harry Harrison said:

"The viewfinder of your camera may have dust inside it – this exists within the interior of the camera, we won’t be able to clean this, but this shouldn’t affect your image quality."

 

"shouldn't"?  How about "won't".

 

It might if you can't see through the viewfinder because of the dust. I will stick with Fixation. 

[Harry Harrison]

Actually, Jessops aside, I've always got on very well with the Visible Dust Arctic Butterfly brush. I thought it was rubbish at first but I was using it like a brush, then I realised that you whizz it for a short time which spins the brush at high speed to gain a static charge, and then just a single very gentle pass over the sensor before repeating as necessary. The dust particles are drawn to the brush and then dispersed next time you whizz it.

Edited September 18, 2019 by Harry Harrison
correction - drawn to the brush, not sensor

[sb photos]

1 hour ago, John Morrison said:

Check out Jessops website. Those 'before' and 'after' pix don't inspire much confidence in their sensor-cleaning service!

 

 

These days my D750's have the same lenses on most of the time, so in around 18 months I've never had to wet clean as with older cameras that had regular lens changing. If a rocket blower doesn't remove dust, wet cleaning is quite straight forward and there's no down time. Jessops never ever inspired confidence.

 

Edited September 18, 2019 by sb photos

[BidC]

1 hour ago, John Morrison said:

Check out Jessops website. Those 'before' and 'after' pix don't inspire much confidence in their sensor-cleaning service!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

They cleaned one of my cameras sensor last year, and did a good job .... (charged £25)

Edited September 18, 2019 by BidC

[Sultanpepa]

It really depends on the person doing the job. I 'wet clean' it myself now.

[Matt Ashmore]

48 minutes ago, Sultanpepa said:

I 'wet clean' it myself now.

 

Yeah.. just hold it under the kitchen tap... works fine!  😁

Edited September 18, 2019 by Matt Ashmore

[Harry Harrison]

I've never had to wet clean but because I do tend to change lenses quite often there is dust inside the film chamber which I find is more difficult to remove than dust on the sensor but will inevitably end up on the sensor at some time or other. I sometimes use a sticky pad made from masking tape so long as it's nowhere near the sensor, a rocket blower seems to just move it around. I saw a Leica sensor cleaning video where the chap had a nice desktop lab vacuum pump but he was in a clean room with a white coat etc. otherwise the air you suck out is liable to be replaced by dust in the air drawn in to replace it.

[Harry Harrison]

Without wishing to come across as a Visible Dust rep, the 7x magnifying loupe with a ring of LED lights is excellent at showing what the problem is.

Edited September 18, 2019 by Harry Harrison

[Mr Standfast]

I've found he cleaning method depends on the dust.

 

Dry dust goes away with a blower, but sticky dust, like pollens usually needs a wet clean.

 

I bet the Sony RX100 users are chuckling...

 

[sb photos]

36 minutes ago, Matt Ashmore said:

 

Yeah.. just hold it under the kitchen tap... works fine!  😁

 

Isn't that the Jessops method? Seriously, I suspect the quality of their sensor cleaning varies from store to store, depending on wether its undertaken by an experienced person or a Saturday lad.

[Sultanpepa]

1 hour ago, Matt Ashmore said:

 

Yeah.. just hold it under the kitchen tap... works fine!  😁

 

😂I bet there's someone out there that's tried that.

[CAROL SAUNDERS]

Fixation for me also for sensor cleaning.

 

Carol

[Mr Standfast]

https://www.shutterbug.com/content/how-not-clean-your-camera-unless-you-need-really-expensive-paperweight-video

[Allan Bell]

I once had a Nikon D750 which required a shutter change/renewal. Nikon recall. Previously the sensor had been in pristeen condition. When camera was returned there was muck all over the sensor. They did offer to clean it for free if I returned the camera. (Should think so too.)

 

Cleaned it myself as it was quicker.

 

Allan

 

[Allan Bell]

1 hour ago, Mr Standfast said:

I bet the Sony RX100 users are chuckling...

 

I think it was Wim said he had to have a rx100 sensor cleaned one time.

Allan

 

[Bryan]

Not had to wet clean the sensor of my Sony a6500 as yet despite changing lenses every other shot. Things have moved on since the days of, for example, the Canon 5D mk1 which seemed to go out of its way to find dust to attract to the sensor. The mk2 is a whole lot better, but the little Sony is remarkable. Maybe the action of a DSLR mirror sucks the stuff in, and mirrorless, although counter intuitive, appears far less prone to the problem.

Edited September 18, 2019 by Bryan

[Allan Bell]

1 hour ago, Bryan said:

Not had to wet clean the sensor of my Sony a6500 as yet despite changing lenses every other shot. Things have moved on since the days of, for example, the Canon 5D mk1 which seemed to go out of its way to find dust to attract to the sensor. The mk2 is a whole lot better, but the little Sony is remarkable. Maybe the action of a DSLR mirror sucks the stuff in, and mirrorless, although counter intuitive, appears far less prone to the problem.

 

Also zoom lenses are a major culprit.

 

I carried out a test on both my Sony A7's and the A6000 and found lots of crud which caused me to spend a lot of time removing spots etc. from images before uploading to Alamy. Going to have to spend some time cleaning sensors tomorrow.

 

Allan

 

[John Gaffen]

Fixation every time for me! They also clean the outside elements of  any lens attached to the camera backs  you bring in. For a small charge they will do this for other non-attached lenses too. 

Edited September 19, 2019 by John Gaffen

[sb photos]

22 minutes ago, Allan Bell said:

 

Also zoom lenses are a major culprit.

 

I carried out a test on both my Sony A7's and the A6000 and found lots of crud which caused me to spend a lot of time removing spots etc. from images before uploading to Alamy. Going to have to spend some time cleaning sensors tomorrow.

 

Allan

 

 

I have found that very subtle dust spots didn't always show easily on light blue skies shot at F16. When using a MacBook Air for lightness, as it doesn't have an IPS display as per retina's, I always keep the display parallel to my face to ensure brightness accuracy. If using the Air to check for sensor muck, I would angle the display right back so the light blue sky darkened considerably, this made any dust/muck easier to see before removing and eventual sensor cleaning.

 

Re zoom lenses, the old trombone action type could pump in no end of dust. I suspect newer lenses can still cause problems. If you went back to primes that would likely cause more issues when lens changing. We just have to live with it and keep the sensors clean.

[wiskerke]

12 hours ago, Allan Bell said:

 

I think it was Wim said he had to have a rx100 sensor cleaned one time.

Allan

 

 

Yep. Twice.

By the official repair contractor for Sony. Which also has been the Canon one for ages.

If I remember correctly it cost 65 euro. Which would be expensive for a normal sensor clean, but not for one where the body has to be disassembled. So my guess is that the disassembling is not all that complicated and the sensor may not have to be calibrated afterwards. Or that's also uncomplicated.

Now why or how the dust got inside, I don't know. From another mishap I know that there are some barriers between the various plastic tubes that even do more pumping/air sucking than most of the old zoom lenses. It may have been some sort of fluff already present inside the camera, like from a light baffle or one of those barriers. I did ask at the time, but got no straight answer other than: it's very much a routine thing. Which in turn somehow did nothing to reassure me 😁.

 

wim

[Inchiquin]

18 hours ago, Bryan said:

 

Things have moved on since the days of, for example, the Canon 5D mk1 which seemed to go out of its way to find dust to attract to the sensor. The mk2 is a whole lot better

 

 

My Mk2 has suffered badly from oil spots for years. I had a really good clean done a few years ago by an experienced guy at Dale Photographic in Leeds which removed them for a little while but they soon came back. I've just learned to live with them. On clear blue skies they're easy to clone out, on most other backgrounds they aren't noticeable.

 

Alan

[Allan Bell]

17 hours ago, sb photos said:

I have found that very subtle dust spots didn't always show easily on light blue skies shot at F16.

 

I use LR and use the spot removal tool (Q). Go to bottom left of image screen and tick box where it says "Visualise" and move slider next to it to extreme right. BOOM.

 

Allan