Luminous Landscape Forum
Equipment & Techniques => Digital Cameras & Shooting Techniques => Topic started by: Justinr on May 20, 2015, 10:53:10 am
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Anybody got any ideas where swabs for FF sensors can be got at a sensible price?
Cheers!
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Anybody got any ideas where swabs for FF sensors can be got at a sensible price?
Cheers!
I've never found them at what I consider a sensible price! I typically use the Sensor Swabs and believe full frame is Type 3 and they run like $37 a box of 12.
I will say, a little preventative maintenance can almost preclude wet cleaning, except in exceptionally dirty shooting environments. I use a Rocket blower regularly and a dry anti-static brush routinely to keep dust bunnies from getting 'welded' to the surface.
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I've never found them at what I consider a sensible price! I typically use the Sensor Swabs and believe full frame is Type 3 and they run like $37 a box of 12.
I will say, a little preventative maintenance can almost preclude wet cleaning, except in exceptionally dirty shooting environments. I use a Rocket blower regularly and a dry anti-static brush routinely to keep dust bunnies from getting 'welded' to the surface.
The anti static brush sounds a good idea but alas, it is the dirty conditions that are my downfall, this sort of thing is very often the environment I find myself in -
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I met a repairman once who told me the blower bought him a boat for all the cameras he's dismantled when they blow crap on top of the focus screen, LCD, prism, etc. when he has to tear into them to get it out. He thought they were a godsend for his business as some people get a bit hyper in their use.
I bought some expensive butter-fly brush (A brush that spins to fling off stuff and build up some dirt attraction charge, or so they claim.) and found it streaks my sensor bad. I think the bristles pick up lube off the mirror box or shutter and then smear it. Some of the water-based sensor cleaners then turn it into a nice magenta streaky mess which needs a swab and Eclipse fluid to get rid of.
I doubt if you can beat the swabs. I put three drops of Eclipse on the ends, blot it quickly on a Pec-Pad tissue, and go at it. Then look at it under a 7x lighted loupe and see if stuff remains. I save the old swabs and flush them with Eclipse and blot and store them for later use if it wasn't a big mess of oil, just dust. I watched a shop clean a sensor once using some rubber-looking spatula and the girl wrapped the tip with a Pec-Pad. That's probably the cheapest way to go short of buying swabs (You may be able to unwrap some of them as they are tied with a small rubber band and cut the pec-Pads to fit too.).
I also made a small silicon hose that goes onto the end of the vacuum cleaner to suck out small shards of bayonet metal and whatever else is sometimes stuck in that flock paper. Seems it takes less cleaning by sucking out all that junk. No doubt some crud comes from manufacturing too. Those sticky-gel pens are really good to clean the flock paper of junk too. I never used them on the sensor as it spotted mine, so they were relegated to flock paper cleaning instead.
Some outfit around S.F. sells a lot of camera cleaning supplies. Micro-Tools or something like that.
SG
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I met a repairman once who told me the blower bought him a boat for all the cameras he's dismantled when they blow crap on top of the focus screen, LCD, prism, etc. when he has to tear into them to get it out. He thought they were a godsend for his business as some people get a bit hyper in their use.
The Blower is for cleaning out the mirror box and, of course, needs to be done with care. I change lenses with the camera pointed down and take other precautions from a prevention standpoint. Even using the anti-static brush on the sensor needs to be done If your screw it up, you can get grease on the brush and then smear it on the sensor.
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I've tried them all and none work for me.
I now use cheap Q-tips. Way better.
You provably think I'm crazy but that is what they use in camera centers.
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I've tried them all and none work for me.
I now use cheap Q-tips. Way better.
You provably think I'm crazy but that is what they use in camera centers.
Thats exactly what I've found works best for me too.
I've bought all sorts of expensive cleaning stuff, they all seem to have one thing in common, the sensor is dirtier after cleaning than it was before. After the last buterfly swabs I used I had such bad streaks I used Qtips and alcohol (all I had handy). Job done, thats how I clean them now.
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I've just had to Google 'Q Tips' as I hadn't a clue what they were, we call them cotton buds over here and I had toyed with the idea of using them but was worried about stray strands being left on the sensor. But anyway, according to Wikipedia they were originally marketed as 'Baby Gays'. Can't see that working nowadays.
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I remember my first digital, a Canon Mark 5, which had "sensor cleaning"- so you did not nee to clean it manually, right? Needless to say, it was a hell of a mess when I realized my error. My local shop cleans sensors for free, which is the best deal in anybody's town.
I have used the swabs on occasion in the field, but only in emergencies.
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I've tried them all and none work for me.
I now use cheap Q-tips. Way better.
You probably think I'm crazy but that is what they use in camera centers.
I use the Swabs when gentle cleaning is all that's needed, but I've had to bear down with a Q-Tip more than once too. Never done any damage, though I did wince a bit the first time I had to scrub an Olympus E-M5's floating sensor.
-Dave-
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I remember my first digital, a Canon Mark 5, which had "sensor cleaning"- so you did not nee to clean it manually, right? Needless to say, it was a hell of a mess when I realized my error. My local shop cleans sensors for free, which is the best deal in anybody's town.
I have used the swabs on occasion in the field, but only in emergencies.
Lucky you, around me it's around £30-£50 (about $45-$75 ish) and takes days.
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I've just had to Google 'Q Tips' as I hadn't a clue what they were, we call them cotton buds over here and I had toyed with the idea of using them but was worried about stray strands being left on the sensor. But anyway, according to Wikipedia they were originally marketed as 'Baby Gays'. Can't see that working nowadays.
So what is the commercial name in USA or in UK. QTips is a brand http://www.qtips.com (http://www.qtips.com) if I'm not wrong.
Anyways is hilarious how something so common have different names in different places.
What I can tell you is that even the feel as you swab it is so soft.
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So what is the commercial name in USA or in UK. QTips is a brand http://www.qtips.com (http://www.qtips.com) if I'm not wrong.
Anyways is hilarious how something so common have different names in different places.
What I can tell you is that even the feel as you swab it is so soft.
They are just known as Cotton buds, there is no commercial name as such.
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I've been watching this thread with interest.
Use of CottonBuds/Qtips sort of freaks me out.
If there is anyone reading this in Vancouver, B.C who uses this method, I'd love to meet up and find out how you really do this...
Cheers
Andrew
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They are just known as Cotton buds, there is no commercial name as such.
"Cotton Buds" or "Cotton Swabs" are the actual name. "Q Tips" is a Johnson & Johnson brand name for cotton swabs.
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Aren't Q-Tips sort of lint-ey for sensor cleaning?
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Aren't Q-Tips sort of lint-ey for sensor cleaning?
Why, yes, yes they are, though you can get lint free swabs that are not Q-Tips! Obviously, I have not worked in some conditions that others have and I may not have as much continued use as others, but I've been cleaning sensors for 10 years and have yet to have to 'scrub' a sensor clean. I'm not anal, but I do practice decent preventive techniques to keep the sensors as clean as possible. Hence, I find a weekly or after heavy use pass with an anti-static brush is usually enough.
BTW, it is tissue, not Kleenex too! :)
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This thread is very cool. Good therapy for relaxing and cleaning sensors! :D
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Why, yes, yes they are, though you can get lint free swabs that are not Q-Tips! Obviously, I have not worked in some conditions that others have and I may not have as much continued use as others, but I've been cleaning sensors for 10 years and have yet to have to 'scrub' a sensor clean. I'm not anal, but I do practice decent preventive techniques to keep the sensors as clean as possible. Hence, I find a weekly or after heavy use pass with an anti-static brush is usually enough.
BTW, it is tissue, not Kleenex too! :)
A day at the office - :(
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A day at the office - :(
Every been to a youth softball or baseball game in the south. The dirt is clay and turns to powder and when they drag the field you think you might have landed in a middle east sand storm.
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Aren't Q-Tips sort of lint-ey for sensor cleaning?
Actually is the total opposite. With the "official" tools I always get spots and solution traces left everywhere, with cotton swabs you don't, remember the come very tightly thread.
The cotton swab is really smooth while swabbing, with the sensor swab it is not as much.
After using them a blow with the rocket blower is recommended.
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My son want's to come to work with you...
I shoot these with my TSE 24.
Next day it wouldn't shift...
Sensor was fine though.
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Aren't Q-Tips sort of lint-ey for sensor cleaning?
You must choose the ones with the tightest wind, so to speak. :) Some are obviously more fluffy…don't use those. Once coated with cleaning fluid the tighter ones don't unravel or shed. I've used 'em only when more standard cleaning has failed to do the job. Also, to note, the last time I had to clean a sensor was over a year ago. My Oly E-M1's sensor has never needed cleaning/brushing in ~18 months of use.
-Dave-