Toronto Photography Meetup Group

I wanted to revive the sensor cleaning discussions of the past. Having found a few dust bunnies on my focusing screen I tried my blower first. IT wasn't complete. I was hoping to find a Nitrogen (not CO2) based blower/canister somewhere but haven't found it yet. Then I tried the arctic butterfly but found it removed a few large hairs after first moving them around. It's over priced and cheaply made. The brushed have to be re-used over and over. So I left the focusing mirror as is in very good but not perfect condition.

I next checked and found I had some dust bunnies on the sensor. So I tried blowing them off with my rocket blower. They didn't budge after several attempts. So I am back to trying a brush. I decided I can make my own sensor cleaning brush like the arctic by using a little coffee frother. It's the same thing. Attaching a high quality, synthetic artists brush to it. I am working on this project. Going to get a brush this weekend at the local art store. This is of course all dry methods which I prefer to do first.

I also heard of copper hill supplies. I like their web site generally. I like the sensor sweep. Seems reasonable and fairly easy. They sell a nice brush too and suggest 'charging' it with a blower brush instead of a battery operated device like the arctic. Much more economical. I think I will try the copper hill system doing it dry first because I have some concern about the chemical they use.

What I am concered about would be how some of these chemicals leave a residue/film. I read methonol based product was the better type to use. I am not sure what copper hill is however. I could email them and check.

Just wondering what others experiences are with sensor,mirror or focusing screen cleaning?

I use Eclipse Fluid and Pec Pads wrapped carefully around a small silicon spatula that has had the tip cut to the right sensor width. Be very careful not to touch the mirror with anything besides air as they can scratch very easily.

based on recommendation on this forum, i bought the copper hill sensor cleaning kit and have since cleaned my sensor a couple of times.

even though i am a complete idiot at cleaning anything, i think to have gotten a hang of it.

of course i am an amateur and only have a D90, so if (god forbid) i manage to screw it up, it's not that huge of a loss. Given that i would have had to get it cleaned 2-3 times since i got it, i would have spent upwards of $250 at Nikon, which is a third of the camera's price.

I am also averse to dealing with nikon canada ever since they refused to take my money to clean my D40 a few years go due to it being US purchased. What a terrible thing for a global company to do to its customers. Back then, vistek got it clean on their 2nd try.

I also use the CopperHill method with the supplies Metrix mentioned. It takes some practice and patience but it's not anything that will ruin your camera. That reminds me my camera is due for a cleaning.

A couple tips. Always use new Pec Pads and use 2-3 drops on it and perform in a relatively clean environment.

As far as I can tell copper hill is recommending using their sensor sweep swab rather than their 'pec pads'. Based on another link I found, someone else has already tried a method where you buy your own artists/makeup brush and use it after charging it with a blower. They also show a method of testing the brush on a lens filter by swiping it across a few hundred times and verifying what residue, if any, the brush leaves. Sounds like the best bet.

http://www.prime-junta.net/pont/How_to/ ... ensor.html

Pec pads are cheap while sensor swabs are not. I started out using swabs. The first time I had to clean my sensor using 5 swabs afterwards 1 or 2 swaps would do. The newer self cleaning sensors might need different techniques.

I use an Arctic Butterfly brush and it works much better than a blower on its own. I also have the loupe as well, and can see the difference the brush makes. Using full frame bodies, I only have to do swabbing every 8 months or so (also depending on lens changes).

Just to let you all know, i just completed cleaning my sensor. All went very very well. Here is how I did it.

I bought:
1. artist brush:Q Series 2F Gold water media. Made in India. Wolfitts.

This brush has absolutely no 'lint' on it after you uncover it. I swiped the fibers across the blunt edge of a chef's knife many times and no residues whatsover came off of it into the air. I was viewing under bright side sunlight today and didn't see a speck of anything come off the brush. It's also very very soft and delicate. It is also synthetic. Also, it's not expensive. About $5.

2.CO2 canisters from Henrys. Don't use anything else like dust off or the stuff and G&T. You have to use CO2 or nitrogen but that is hard to find. I used two canisters of the 3 for this job.

Process:
AFtger removing the plastic covering of the brush, the fibers all seemed to be pressed tightly to together. To loosen them, I swiped the fibers several times against the blunt edge of a clean chef's knife. Upon very close observation in sunlight, there was absolutely NO residues or fibers of any kind coming off. I also happened to have bought a second brush of a different kind and tried this first. But it had lots of fibers and glue stuff coming off so i got rid of it.

Next I prepared my camera for cleaning as per instructions. I used the CO2 blower on the tip of the brush for about 5 seconds to statickly charge it. I then opened the shutter for cleaning. I knew where to wipe the sensor because I knew where the spots were located. That is where I concentrated my brushing, rather than on the whole entire sensore which was just fine. After the first swipe I took picutres but the sensor dust bunnies seemed to be spread from a dot to a thin long line. I guess it wasn't dust but oil from the shutter mechanism inside the camera. But it did look a lot thinner.

I repeated blowing the brush with the CO2 blower and once again went into the camera and wiped from left to right focusing only on the area which had the oil drop. It got thinner and so I repeated this several more times. I also focused on two more areas on the opposite side of the sensor also. Always removing the brush, blowing CO2 all over it and only then re-inserting it.

After about 7or 8 passes I was finished and the sensor turned out perfectly.

HOpefully this will last a long time and I dont have to resort to wet cleaning. I think that would be my last resort if I could not lift off the oil.

SENSOR BEFORE: (top right)


SENSOR AFTER:

I don't know about Henrys CO2 capsules specifically but I would advise against any kind of canned gas for sensor cleaning.
Most of them have all sorts of oily residues and water. Not the stuff you'll want on your sensor.

Any tips for cleaning the mirror?

The canned 'dust off' canisters of compressed gas that you can generally buy for lens cleaning or computer cleaning contains chemical which could damage your sensor. Yes that is why I chose a CO2 canister. There is nothing inside the canister other than pure CO2. There is no moisture or other propellents. Therefore a CO2 canister such as the one I purchased is safe. Although I never sprayed the CO2 right onto the sensor. It's too strong of a pressure in my opinion. So I would suggest using a CO2 canister or if you can possibly find a nitrogen canister then that would be even better.

Just got my copper hill images sensor cleaning kit with the liquid, sensor brushes etc. I bought the sensor swipe brush also before I decided to do my own sensor way of cleaning. I got this kit in case I needed to do a wet cleaning which I didn't. It also comes with a slinky ?

Anyways just to let people know that the kit cost $12.75 to ship here. But on the box, they only payed 5.79 ! Why? I guess another company over charging for shipping. Again it's discouraging so I would keep this in mind.

The brushes and swipes come inside their own plastic packaging but it's quite obvious that there is a lot of dust in there and small fiber stuff to begin with. I wonder if it makes cleaning more difficult ?

I have not used this or plan to use it soon but as I said in the future I would use my own cleaning method unless I absolutely felt I needed to use the wet method.