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Sensor Cleaning


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Can anyone recommend any of the current sensor cleaning kits on the market, for full frame? Or should I take it to a profi?!

I have just one stubborn bit of dust that the in-camera dust remover will not remove. It is easy to spot on photos but it is messing up some of the video work I am now doing.

Thanks  :)

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I use the Visible Dust range of sensor cleaners including the wet clean pads and anti static brushes. Never a problem after many years of use. A few drops on the pads, wipe one each way and usually all clean. Currently using a Canon 5D MK11.

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Funnily enough I have just cleaned the sensor on my wife's D600 a couple of minutes ago...there are many videos on the web showing how to carry out the job..but I do mine like this:

 

 

1. Make sure the battery is fully charged as you dont want the mirror coming down half way through the job.

2. Clean around the lens with rocket blower and clean brush before taking the lens off.

3. take lens of with mirror down and give the mirror etc a gentle puff with the rocket blower ( some people will say dont use a rocket blower inside a camera, but I choose to )

4. lock the mirror up for cleaning and give the sensor a gentle puff with rocket blower.

5. apply a couple drops of eclipse fluid ( or what ever is your choice) to a sensor cleaning pad ( I use sensor swabs )and gently wipe the sensor across and back then throw the swab away ..dont use the swab more than once..

6. lens back on set camera at f22 point at the sky take picture and inspect for dust bunnies..

 

the whole jobe shouldn't take more than 2 or 3 minutes..

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The sensor is covered by a filter so it's not that delicate. Provided that you are careful, as per Steve above, there's very little risk.

 

I used Sensor Swabs and their fluid with 5D and 5DII, Never really got it completely clean, but that camera attracts dust like a magnet, so back to spotting after cleaning in any event!

 

Crop sensor cameras seem much less troubled by dust, neither my 450D nor the NEX have anything like the problems that I experienced with FF.

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thanks for the recommendations everyone, taking a look on Amazon.de now.

I did use to clean my own sensor when using a Canon 5DI, but have never actually needed to clean my MkII for some years. Can't remember what I used last time, but searching on the forums here I decided it was the old forums where products were discussed, so apologies if this is a repeat post.

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The sensor is covered by a filter so it's not that delicate. Provided that you are careful, as per Steve above, there's very little risk.

 

I used Sensor Swabs and their fluid with 5D and 5DII, Never really got it completely clean, but that camera attracts dust like a magnet, so back to spotting after cleaning in any event!

 

Crop sensor cameras seem much less troubled by dust, neither my 450D nor the NEX have anything like the problems that I experienced with FF.

Strange you should refer to dust free cropped sensors. Like yourself I shoot Canon. My 5D MKI was an absolute dust magnet. The MKII is a lot better with the dust removal shaker. However, on both my APS-C and micro 4/3rds cameras I have yet to see the remotest trace of dust or dirt despite these cameras amounting to 75% of my shooting. And I change lenses a lot!

 

I wonder why?

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http://www.digipad.co.uk/ but when I ordered them they were slightly cheaper on ebay.

Quite right, of course, you can't really search the old forum on account of its lack of existence.

Old less friendly forum.

 

http://www.alamy.com/forums/framehelper.aspx?g=forum

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I use the Visible Dust range of sensor cleaners including the wet clean pads and anti static brushes. Never a problem after many years of use. A few drops on the pads, wipe one each way and usually all clean. Currently using a Canon 5D MK11.

 

Yeah, i use the Visible Dust Arctic Butterfly..... I use that first and hen the swab with Eclipse cleaner. I've had the arctic butterfly for a few years now and it is excellent.

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Take a look at Just Ltd (www.cameraclean.co.uk) where kits are available; and if you also buy the pec pads (never cut them always use whole)so as to reuse the paddles the eclipse fluid lasts for many cleans.

As stated above it's only the filter we are cleaning (no experience of cameras without filters and they may need to be treated differently)and the procedure outlined by Steve B is simple.

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However, on both my APS-C and micro 4/3rds cameras I have yet to see the remotest trace of dust or dirt despite these cameras amounting to 75% of my shooting. And I change lenses a lot!

 

I wonder why?

 

I've had a Panasonic GH1 for three years and never once needed to clean the sensor.  Nor with my six month old GX1. I've always assumed the Panasonic sensor shake system must be marvellous!

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Just had a quick look at the old forum, the first post I read had people ending up with an argument ;-( !!

 

No it didn't.

 

dd

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All sensors have a cover glass - if they say they don't have an AA filter, it does not mean the sensor is bare, it will have an IR/UV cut glass filter which is not an AA filter. Only large format sensors which need separate IR or AA filter assemblies have a bare sensor. One sensor found in DSLRs is bare, and that's the Foveon in Sigma models where the IR filter is mounted ahead of the mirror.

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I have found cleaning sensors to be a fairly simple process 

I use a good quality nylon artist brush and a cut down small spatula 

The brush I "Charge" by blowing over it with a clean dry compressor, canned air or a blower brush. Then just sweep the sensor to get 90% of problems removed.

For more stubborn blobs or smears dip the tip of the brush in pure alcohol  let it almost dry and swab the sensor with that 

If you need to wipe smears off then get some disposable glasses cleaning swabs from your chemist and wrap one round the spatula 
carefully wipe the sensor with that.

Using non photographic items costs a fraction of the photographic stuff and does exactly the same job 

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I'd want to be sure what the specs swabs were made of. PEC pads are not too costly and that's what the purpose-made swabs use. £12.95 or so isn't too bad for a kit that I'm sure will last for dozens of cleans.

But I agree, some of the prices are a bit fancy- microscopes and the like. I don't need to see the specks, I just need to remove them.

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thanks for all the info everyone. I did get some of the Visible Dust cleaners on the basis that I could buy them locally. I really should have read the instructions though! I guess I put way too much fluid on the swab and ended up with far more spots than I had been trying to clean off. I ended up using the rest of the swabs trying to improve it but still was left with a mess. Finally I took the camera into Calumet Berlin, left it overnight, tested it the following day to find they had managed to clean up many spots but left me lots of new ones. I took it back in today and got them to do it again whilst I waited, thankfully I now have a beautifully clean sensor. 

I will be happy to clean my own sensor in future but I will next time pay more attention to the instructions - will order some digipads now so I have them ready for when needed!

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