Sensor cleaner

[Phil Robinson]

Can anyone recommend a sensor cleaner other than the swabs and fluid.
They work OK most of the time but there are often a few specks still left after a clean.
I have seen Lenspen and Speckgrabbers advertised, for picking off individual bits left over. Has anyone tried anything like that?

 

It's not such a problem shooting stills at f5.6 but I'm doing a lot of close-up videos at f22 now and dust is a nightmare.

Thanks in advance

Edited February 22 by Phil Robinson

[Rebecca Ore]

Do you have one of those LED lighted magnifiers for the sensor?  Whatever else you use, you need that to really see the dust.  Mine went bad after a number of years, and I haven't replaced it, or really cleaned the sensor thoroughly since.   The sensor cleaning Lens Pen works but needs a blow out afterward.  Never tried Speckgrabbers,   Some of the sensor brushes are good for dust without depositing cleaning compound on the sensor.  Wet cleaning requires lots more swabs and cleaner than advertised.   If it's not pollen, sensor brush and blowing with something that filters incoming air is useful.  Sticky dust (pollen being the main offender but fern spoors might also be a problem) needs wet cleaning.   Also, clean the back of the rear lens element and the barrel -- blower, brush, lens wipe.  f/22 puts a lot in focus.

[spacecadet]

I have always got on well with swabs and fluid, a few drops, then two wipes and check, repeat as required. I've never needed more than 2 goes, usually.

In fact now my Eclipse fluid has run out, it's now colossally expensive so I need a recommendation for a replacement myself. My IPA has too many bits in it.

Agreed that video is much more problematic, spotting being hardly possible.

Edited February 26 by spacecadet

[Harry Harrison]

59 minutes ago, spacecadet said:

My IPA has too many bits in it.

You can get 99.99% IPA pretty easily and cheaply online. Eclipse isn't that expensive, you don't need much, 59mls for £12.99. Visible Dust do fancy swab kits with one or both of their sensor cleaning fluids ('Plus' for oily residues) but you only get 1.15mls of each. Presumably that's a US equivalent otherwise you'd have thought they could have stretched to 1.5mls. Eclipse will leave a residue on a perfectly clean mirror so maybe that contains something to make it stay around for longer than IPA would. I use IPA for lenses on lens tissue or very fine sections of microfibre cloth but I'm not sure about sensors, but then my Eclipse hasn't run out yet. I'm going to have to try and deal with a spot near the edge of my sensor that has so far refused to be shifted by normal means. That's a bit scary but I'm getting a bit tired of spotting it out in Lightroom, and that isn't always possible if it ends up in a difficult place. My plan is to put a very small spot of Eclipse directly on it (or maybe distilled water) and then leave it for a bit to soften, but then I've had that plan for several months now.

 

Hmm, Eclipse say "Eclipse lens cleaner is the highest purity lens cleaner available. It dries as quickly as it can be applied leaving absolutely no residue."

Edited February 26 by Harry Harrison