Cleaning 1DsMkII sensor with 'Visible Dust' equipm

[francois]

I'm not sure my comment will help but I have mixed feelings about Sensor Clean. Yes it works but using the VD swabs seemed to bring back some dust specks. I could clean the "new" specks easily with the brush, though.
In fact, I'm not sure if Sensor Clean is better or not compared to Eclipse fluid/Spatula.
Anyway, in your case, I would proceed (with Sensor Clean) with caution and not overdo it. You should be able to get a almost clean sensor.

Francois

[Geoff Wittig]

I second Jack's comments. For me Visible Dust's brush works like a charm with dust specks, but on rare occasion I get some oily streaks on the sensor that the brush just smears. This (so far) comes off instantly with the older sensor swab/eclipse technique.
I don't shudder with anxiety quite so much when using the brush as when I have to (gently!) scrub the sensor with a swab or spatula.

[CJD]

Phew !

And I thought I was the only one who has suffered from black steaks/grease coming from inside of a 1Ds - thankfully not on the sensor, but on the mirror.  Like Pom, I too was cr*pping myself when it happened.  

Must say I've been very pleased with the whole visible dust system, though I'm aware price for the brushes may be some what "inflated" - but hey, it has saved me a lot of hassle trying to source my own.

[DarkPenguin]

Petteri Sulonen's article on using art supply brushes for cleaning your sensor.

Try at your own risk.

[bjornaagedk]

The sensor of my 1DsMkII (bought new 3 months ago) needed cleaning the first time, so I bought the Visible Dust brush and Sensor Clean solution and tried using the brush exactly as shown in the video demo.
The result was not as good as I hoped for. Still some dust back, but now also two or three thin lines, looks like thin shadows.
I don't think is is scratches, but the next step must be to use the Sensor Clean solution.
But... honestly spoken, I am afraid of ending up with something that is much worse than what I have now.
What are your experiences with Sensor Clean???

[Jack Flesher]

If it's normal dust, I use the brush (well-charged) and this gets about 98% of the crud.

If it's really dirty, I use the brush first, then follow with Eclipse and a spatula, then finish with the brush.

Biggest problem I've had is the 1Ds2 seems to use a black grease for something inside (probably the mirror swing points) and globs of this has gotten onto my sensor in the past.  And FTR if you have not run across it yet, grease is a royal PITA to clean off a sensor.  Fortunately, this happened only a few times early on and has not re-surfaced.

[Ben Rubinstein]

Had the same thing exactly first time I cleaned the sensor on my then just bought 1Ds. Visible dust left streaks. I was cr-pping myself. The 1Ds series seems to throw shutter grease onto the sensor, what you are seeing are the lines caused by the bristles passing throgh a blob of grease. It comes off with the other type of method though it would be a good idea to clean your brush which will now have gunk on it.
In general I've found with visible dust that you may need more than one clean to get close to a totally clean sensor at 1-200%. At some point it's now worth sweating every tiny speck visible against a clear sky at f22.

[Jack Flesher]

DISCLAIMER:  I have not tried the following myself so cannot endorse it, but offer it to those possibly interested.

I have a friend who was significantly put off by the price of Visible-Dust's brushes.  So he went to an artist supply store and bought high-quality synthetic brushes designed for oil painting.  He then bought the brush cleaning tablets from VisibleDust and ran these new brushes through his dishwasher per the VisibleDust tablet instructions.

He claims they work great as sensor brushes.  Oh yeah, the brushes cost him about $5 each...  

And apparantly, the sensor brush cleaning tablets are smaller versions of "Electosol" dishwashing tablets.

All FWIW only,