Good grief the sensor is dusty!

Cyclops · Post by **Cyclops** » Tue Jan 06, 2009 5:33 am

I bought one of those rocket dust blower things from Giotto to shift the dust off my sensor but as you can see it didn't work! Note the V shaped smears on the right-you can actually see those when you take the lens off and put it in Cleaning Mode. I don't know what it is but I hope its possible to remove them. I'm told its a professional cleaning job but surely one can get those sensor pens and things for this?

nto · Post by **nto** » Tue Jan 06, 2009 6:17 am

Larry, I clean the sensor in these days, with adhesive tape canvas blue(product Tesa), but I checked with filter, no glue residue presence, recommended alternative and expensive commercial kits for sensor.

adhesive like product here

edit: add link

mgoodm3 · Post by **mgoodm3** » Tue Jan 06, 2009 8:54 am

I sent my D200 into Nikon when mine got all dusty. I now have a sensor brush, but I haven't used it yet. They do make wet cleaning kits for sensors.

rjlittlefield · Post by **rjlittlefield** » Tue Jan 06, 2009 10:36 am

Ouch!!

Larry, the smears look like the tip of the blower actually touched the sensor. When you get things back to working again, take care to avoid that.

See http://www.cleaningdigitalcameras.com/ for discussion about how to clean sensors. Pay particular attention to their recommendation to read everything before starting.

The method I use is their #1, Sensor Swab™ and Eclipse™. As they say, it's not cheap, but it works well.

If you go that route, be sure to check whether your camera needs the older methanol-based Eclipse or the newer Eclipse E2.

I use wet-cleaning very rarely. My Canon 300D is almost 5 years old and over 50,000 exposures. I've wet-cleaned it maybe 5 times. The rest of the time I just blow it off, no contact.

I made the mistake once of using a CO2 blower, supposed to be photo quality pure CO2, absolutely no oil, etc etc. That was a complete disaster -- I don't know exactly what happened but it left persistent little spots all over the sensor. It took Eclipse and two swabs to clean up that mess!

--Rik

mgoodm3 · Post by **mgoodm3** » Tue Jan 06, 2009 10:53 am

Canned air blowers are pretty evil. I got into trouble in two ways with them.

1) Blow too much and you can cool everything off and get condensation.

2) They use a propellant. If you get the blower too close to the object some of the propellant doesn't fully evaporate and it will spot things up. Need to hold the blowers a fair distance away to ensure good results.

rovebeetle · Post by **rovebeetle** » Tue Jan 06, 2009 2:20 pm

rjlittlefield wrote:The method I use is their #1, Sensor Swab™ and Eclipse™. As they say, it's not cheap, but it works well.

I used that as well with great success. My good old D1X seemed to actively gather dust and I had to swab the sensor every 3 months because it looked like someone had dumped an ash-tray in the mirror box

.

I never once cleaned my D200 in two years and only had one small dust particle. And, I am a very frequent lens swapper.

My D3 I have had 7 months now, also without necessity for cleaning yet. During this year I will probably give the camera to NPS for cleaning (it is free for members once a year).

However, what I regularly do is use a rocket blower to clean the mirror box when swapping lenses.

Adhesive tape: this method gives me the creeps ...

Cheers

Charles Krebs · Post by **Charles Krebs** » Tue Jan 06, 2009 3:13 pm

Adhesive tape: this method gives me the creeps ...

There's at least one "commercial" product that uses adhesive properties, but my understanding is this should not be used with cameras that "shake" the filter to knock dust off.

DaveW · Post by **DaveW** » Tue Jan 06, 2009 3:24 pm

Be careful what sensor cleaning fluid you use to clean the D3 etc. The newer Nikon's (and Canon's etc?) now have an Indium Tin Oxide anti static coating that can be removed with the old sensor cleaning fluids.

Sometimes this can affect the image, but sometimes the damage is invisible and your sensor simply gets dustier quicker once it is removed.

http://www.earthboundlight.com/phototip ... aning.html

http://www.bythom.com/cleaning.htm

Also, unless the camera is connected to a power supply always ensure you have a fully charged battery before sensor cleaning or the shutter may close on you.

In theory you should get a warning beep several seconds before the shutter closes, but somebody on another site claimed he did not hear it on his D200 and it closed on him whilst he was still cleaning and so damaged the shutter. If you hear the beep get out of the mirror box immediately.

DaveW

Cyclops · Post by **Cyclops** » Wed Jan 07, 2009 2:28 am

rovebeetle wrote:

However, what I regularly do is use a rocket blower to clean the mirror box when swapping lenses.

Yea i got one of those but found it about as effective as an ash tray on a motorbike!

Mike B in OKlahoma · Post by **Mike B in OKlahoma** » Wed Jan 07, 2009 4:27 pm

I also use a Giotto blower (which I find useful, but it can't handle everything) for basic cleaning, and eclipse cleaner + pec pads for tough spots.

My understanding is that you can help avoid the dust particles that are glued on by making sure your sensor is clean before getting into a situation where there is condensation or high moisture on the sensor--As it evaporates, it sometimes bonds particles more tightly onto the sensor. Of course, it is easy to say that, and harder to do sometimes.

I do know that I made a mess of my sensor once when I took the camera out of overnight storage in my cold car trunk, took it into a nice warm humid reptile house at the zoo, and changed lenses....Big mistake, in addition to merely fogging up the viewfinder, it did make everything that was on the sensor at the time really difficult to get off.

The newer DSLRs with vibrating sensors and such to help minimize particle deposition really do seem to help. I love my 40D, and will get one of the new 5D Mark IIs when I'm convinced they have the bugs out of it.

Harold Gough · Post by **Harold Gough** » Thu Jan 08, 2009 12:31 am

My career started as a microbiologist (bacteriologist, to be precise). Manipulation of live material greatly depended on contamination being mostly controlled by gravity.

If the camera is pointed downwards when detaching the lens and when locating a lens being attached, the problem should be minimised. The avoidence of rapid movement of the lens as it approaches or is pulled away from the body would minimise air turbulence, the other cause of contamination with dust.

Harold

Cyclops · Post by **Cyclops** » Thu Jan 08, 2009 3:13 am

rjlittlefield wrote:Ouch!!

Larry, the smears look like the tip of the blower actually touched the sensor. When you get things back to working again, take care to avoid that.

--Rik

Oh no those marks came with the camera,and are visible if you remove the lens and put it into cleaning mode. Remember that this camera is second hand and I haven't paid for it yet so i have to be extra careful

rjlittlefield · Post by **rjlittlefield** » Thu Jan 08, 2009 9:57 am

Cyclops wrote:
rjlittlefield wrote:Larry, the smears look like the tip of the blower actually touched the sensor. When you get things back to working again, take care to avoid that.
Oh no those marks came with the camera,and are visible if you remove the lens and put it into cleaning mode. Remember that this camera is second hand and I haven't paid for it yet so i have to be extra careful

Oh. Well, that changes the picture.

In that case, the smears look like the tip of somebody else's blower touched the sensor. Maybe they even scratched it.

Buying this camera before the sensor gets clean would be quite a risk.

--Rik