Digital Sensor Cleaning

[Tim Gray]

[font color=\'#000000\']I think the theory is that (some, most, a lot - take your choice) of the dust will end up being blown out of the body.  In practice, in most instances a sensor with a moderate amout of dust can be made useable again with a blow only, reserving the swabbing for the less frequent occasions where a blow doesn't get acceptable results.[/font]

[Tim Gray]

[font color=\'#000000\']a good blow get rid of 90% of my problem, 70% of the time.[/font]

[Jack Flesher]

[font color=\'#000000\']I always blow first and then swab only if absolutely necessary.  Here is another product worth a look: http://www.outbackphoto.com/workshop/photo...ay05/essay.html[/font]

[Bobtrips]

[font color=\'#000000\']I'm thinking 'didger-style' here....

How about a device that attached via the lens mount (air-tight seal) and allowed you to vacuum the interior of the camera?  It would need a filtered air intake so that more dust wasn't sucked into the camera.

I can see a movable pickup tube and a view window....[/font]

[ronf]

[font color=\'#000000\']I am grateful to all who contributed to this topic. I hope it has been as informative to others as it has been to me.[/font]

[didger]

[font color=\'#000000\']It's a measure of my desperation that I've decided to order the full spectrum of Visible Dust products, though the endorsements in this thread are not exactly unambiguous.  I had decided to pass on Visible Dust products several weeks ago because the funky mis-spellings on their site, and the silly reference to methanol toxicity reduced their credibility a whole lot in my estimation.  Well, their credibility still seems a bit marginal, but I'm now desperate enough for another long shot gamble.  I'll let ya know if this stuff works any better than compressed air or gasses or the various marginally effective swabbing things I've tried.

I ordered all the stuff and I'll give it a serious try, so if it works, I'll soon know and if it doesn't it won't be because I only went half way.[/font]

[didger]

[font color=\'#000000\']

I'd estimate that 95% of the people who work up the nerve to try it, eventually realize that the "dread and fear" was only in their minds

Well, I would not argue with this claim, though I never had any particular sense of "dread and fear", but I do have a medium bad scratch on my sensor that makes me realize that a certain amount of dread and fear is not altogether inappropriate.  In any case, it was only after reading all your stuff that my cleaning technique at least got a bit more effective and I can now use my camera and keep it clean enough (barely), even if not without risk.

As for the Visible Dust technique, the appeal here is that it's something completely different, using a principle (electrostatic attraction) that's been well proven in other dust removal applications, such as ultra fine particle removal air conditioning filters for allergenic medical cases.  I doubt very much that the Visible Dust method will remove the kind of glued on garbage that's even difficult to remove with wet swabbing.  However, perhaps a combination of wet swabbing and electrostatic brushing will result in an overall improvement and reduced danger of scratches.  It's worth trying.  If the technique is at all effective, it may be worth doing an electrostatic brush treatment daily, to catch stuff before it has a chance to get glued on harder and harder.  The biggest scratch risk is with glued on stuff because that takes the most pressure with wet swabbing and that obviously creates the most risk of scratches in case there's any abrasive stuff on the sensor.  The electrostatic brushing may also remove tiny abrasive bits before swabbing more effectively than compressed air, which in my experience does nothing but move stuff around rather than giving you a net decrease in the amount of stuff on the sensor.

In any case, I'm glad that you and a few other folks are at least doing your best to provide something in the way of dealing with sensor contamination.  The camera manufacturers seem to think that a dire warning not to touch your sensor with anything and that you should have your sensor cleaned by the manufacturer is a good enough way to deal with the problem.  At least the "free lance" methods make it possible for me to use a 1ds without having it in for cleaning 75% of the time at a cost of thousands of $'s per year.  Better the hassle of swabbing and the risk of an occasional scratch, though I would not consider buying another camera so poorly implemented for dealing with sensor contamination.[/font]

[ronf]

[font color=\'#000000\']As a new DSLR owner I have found the Understanding Series incredibly informative. Re: Digital sensor Cleaning:
I do not understand why the advice is to first blow the dust off the sensor.This leaves it in the camera body to be attracted onto the sensor again.Why not use the sensor as a dust collector and remove it all with the cleaning pad? Am I missing something?[/font]

[61Dynamic]

[font color=\'#000000\']I say forget blowing. You could end up making the situation worse.

Although this is a great site, this is a much better article on sensor cleaning.[/font]

[poliwog]

[font color=\'#000000\']The blower removes grit which could get caught in the swab/brush and trash the sensor. Same reason for blowing off your lens before using tissue.[/font]

[Tim Gray]

[font color=\'#000000\']I've had the sensor brush for a couple of weeks, (only one cleaning though).  Definitely did a better job (I think) than a swab (certainly faster) even without doing the whole chamber clean thing.  I say "I think" since at the same time I used, for the first time, an optical grade CO2 blow so some of the improvement may have come from that.[/font]

[Jack Flesher]

[font color=\'#000000\']I'm thinking 'didger-style' here....

How about a device that attached via the lens mount (air-tight seal) and allowed you to vacuum the interior of the camera?  It would need a filtered air intake so that more dust wasn't sucked into the camera.

I can see a movable pickup tube and a view window....[/font]

[font color=\'#000000\']FWIW, I actually set up a small bench vac set up with a tube just larger than the lens opening.  In short, while it sounded like a good idea, it didn't work in the end.  I even tried leaving it running near the opening while I blew.  This worked better, but it was really no more effective than just blowing.[/font]

[Bobtrips]

[font color=\'#000000\']FWIW, I actually set up a small bench vac set up with a tube just larger than the lens opening.  In short, while it sounded like a good idea, it didn't work in the end.  I even tried leaving it running near the opening while I blew.  This worked better, but it was really no more effective than just blowing.[/font]

[font color=\'#000000\']The problem with this approach is that while you probably are sucking out the resident dust, you're sucking in dirty air.  Replacing dust with dust.

For a vacuum cleaner to work the incoming air would need to be filtered.[/font]

[didger]

[font color=\'#000000\']I have only one problem with the blow first or last idea; namely, I've never had the slightest improvement with any blowing effort, and that includes 40 PSI from a commercial compressor.  At best blowing air has made things no worse, but sometimes blowing air (from a CO2 can or from a compressor) has made things substantially worse.  Maybe there are times when blowing air (or some gas) onto the sensor actually helps, but I haven't seen such times myself.

Swabbing is also only marginally effective in my experience (with a 1ds), but at least with enough effort you can end up with quite a lot of improvement (and in my case also a medium bad scratch).

There appears to be no really effective and risk free sensor contamination cure that works for a 1ds for every type of shooting.  Alas.

A combination of vacuum and ultra filtered compressed air would probably work, but you'd have to be in a clean room environment and with very tightly controlled conditions.  We can only hope that Canon will eventually wake up to the fact that there's a real problem and do something effective about it.  I don't find much use or consolation in the warning in the manual that we should avoid touching the sensor with anything and that any real cleaning should be done by Canon.  Yeah, right, about once a week in my case and maybe half the time while I'm about 3 hard days of backpacking from the nearest post office.  Phooey!![/font]

[Nicholas]

[font color=\'#000000\']Didger,

I think you're doing the right thing regarding the cleaning of your sensor and I'd be very interested in your results. By the "right thing", I'm inferring that this is a tool that appeals to you and seems very simple to use.

As you might well know, I am a strong advocate of methanol swabbing and have done everything in my power to take the "mystique" and "mass hysteria" out of this very simple process. I'd estimate that 95% of the people who work up the nerve to try it, eventually realize that the "dread and fear" was only in their minds and then go further and actually be embarrassed looking back on their paralysis. You might remember this same sort of sequence of emotions when you were learning to swim as a child or when you drove a car for the first time.

That being said, what may be a piece-o-cake to some people is not so easy for others, and I've come to realize this fact more and more. For example, there was a fellow some time ago who couldn't understand why his swabbing was not cleaning up his sensor dust. After some back and forth in one of the forums, it comes to find out that he didn't even know if his swab was on the sensor or not; so, in effect, all he  was doing was "flailing" about in the chamber with his swab! This is a TRUE story that I won't link because it would cause much further embarrassment. The point is that he was either not cut out to attempt this task OR he was very, very ill-prepared for it, OR (probably) BOTH.

I do belive that methanol swabbing with a proper tool is the ONLY way at present to dislodge the most stubborn glued-on dust specks in an extremely safe, time-tested way.  But, again, we all have to choose the method and tools that make us the most comfortable and confident.

Good luck,
Nicholas
CMOS Cleaning[/font]