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What is the AC Adaptor needed for when cleaning the CCD?
This is simply the AC adapter so that you can run your camera from AC without requiring the use of a battery. Most digital cameras come with such an adapter. The reason it's recommended is that in case your battery should run down during the cleaning operation, the mirror coming down onto your cleaning swab or fingers could damage the mirror or mirror control mechanism. However, if you're sure your battery has plenty of charge, then an AC power failure while using an adapter is probably a more likely danger.
I don't want to repeat all the stuff I've reported about my sensor cleaning problems and the various good and less good cleaning methods I've tried. Sensor swabs and Eclipse fluid are pretty effective in most cases, but not 100% effective. I've found that the electrostatic brushes from
VisibleDust work quite well and with less danger of scratching the sensor than doing frequent wet cleaning. I got a scratch in my sensor during the first two weeks of owning my 1ds camera because my sensor became extremely contaminated very quickly and lots of cleaning efforts didn't provide very satisfactory results. I find that a combination of very careful Eclipse fluid swabbing and the sensor brush is remarkably effective. Also, the Visible Dust chamber clean system appears to work very well to prevent contamination. Please refer to my current sensor cleaning thread in the lenses and equipment part of the forum. For lots more details you can search for the several other very comprehensive sensor cleaning threads that have been on the forum recently. Many people seem to never have serious sensor contamination problems, but if you're one of the less lucky of us and you have occasional major sensor contamination, the more information you have, the better.[/font]
