Foo - Photogs--Sensor cleaning

When was the last time y'all cleaned your sensors?
How did you go about it?
Brother uses a low stick tape, and rolls it across his CMOS.
I use chemicals and a Q-Tip.

I'm not sure I ever have.
and what are you doing up at 4 am?

My D-60 cleans itself, somehow. Is that the same thing?

I definitely wouldn't use tape though. :eek:

I'm not even sure it's really necessary unless you're swapping glass a lot, or in dirty environments.

http://www.photosol.com/

I use eclipse and sensor swabs.

In owning it for five years, I have not yet had occasion to clean the sensor on my Canon 20D yet. I do blow it out frequently using one of those squeeze bulbs, and this seems to keep the dust down.

Yeah, I blow mine out too. I haven't needed a wet clean yet.

Every opinion I've seen on line suggests to actually buy a kit with a dedicated cleaning tool and follow the directions to the letter. Few seem to have actually damaged the filter, but a $5 kit versus ruining the camera seems a worthwhile investment.

vtjim, your D60 doesn't actually clean itself off. The sensor has a built in shaker that activates everytime you start the camera, which theoretically knocks off any loose dust. Stuff can still get stuck hard enough to require a blow or even a wet clean.

When was the last time y'all cleaned your sensors?
How did you go about it?
Brother uses a low stick tape, and rolls it across his CMOS.
I use chemicals and a Q-Tip.


My Pentax K20D cleans the sensor evertime I turn the camera on. My old K100D sensor got quite dirty on one outing so I sent it in for a professional cleaning.

http://www.photosol.com/

I use eclipse and sensor swabs.

+1 on my Canon Rebel XT but I wouldn't unless there is visible dust/dirt that shows on your pictures and won't blow off.

+1 on my Canon Rebel XT but I wouldn't unless there is visible dust/dirt that shows on your pictures and won't blow off.

yeah especially with what they cost! you pay for quality though. If you follow the directions exactly, they will remove all the little fuzzy snowballs from your images.

When was the last time y'all cleaned your sensors?
How did you go about it?
Brother uses a low stick tape, and rolls it across his CMOS.
I use chemicals and a Q-Tip.

Are you kidding? He touches his sensor (actually filter) with tape?

I use Eclipse and I used the original Sensor Swab, but it sucked, don't know if the newer version is better. A Pec Pad (which comes with Eclipse) wrapped around an appropriately sized support (like a credit card cut to size) works better.

To check how much dust your sensor has, take a picture of the blue sky at f22 or whatever your smallest aperture is, and then in Photoshop I think you do auto-levels. Or play with the brightness and contrast controls. Dust is an issue when you need small apertures, like a high DOF landscape or when you need to slow the shutter for motion blur pan shots.

Here's an example of how much dust your sensor may have without you knowing it. Shot at f13. I increased contrast of the sky to make it obvious.
http://i47.photobucket.com/albums/f155/tacksharp/Dust_0817.jpg

Are you kidding? He touches his sensor (actually filter) with tape?


http://hrmpf.com/wordpress/235/digital-camera-sensor-cleaning-with-magic-tape
^^^
He does something like that. He's done it a lot and it works for him, I don't have the guts.
I have a bottle of filtered nitrogen I keep in the dark room for blowing off negatives which I use to blow off my sensors. When that doesn't work I use a store bought cleaning kit that amounts to a Q-Tip and chemicals.

My XTi's senser shaker keeps it clean enough for me to not mess with it.

Cleaning the sensor scares me, so I've never done so. It's starting to show, unfortunately. I rarely even clean my lenses for the same reason, even on the cheapie f/1.8 50mm. :P

It scared the crap out of me the first time but if you follow the instructions carefully and take your time, it easy to do. Scary but easy.

http://www.cleaningdigitalcameras.com/

I use a lenspen (different sizes depending on sensor size)
and only resort to Eclipse/wet method as last resort.

Oh that reminds me, a friend of mine uses a sensor brush and he's happy with it.

http://www.visibledust.com/