Test using dust-aid sensor cleaner

At Birmingham's NEC event (see recent post) I bought some Dust-Aid DSLR camera sensor cleaner. Today I tried it out on my Pentax's K10d and istD and on my Canon EOS5d. The latter came from Canon with a dirty sensor that did not respond to my blower brush - I don't have to change lenses on this camera so it's foing to be interesting to see what happens.

I had to use a special Canon Cleaner lower tack pad on the Eos5D and the Pentax K10d. I used the same pad to do both. I used the standard pad on the Pentax istD.

This is the Canon EOS5d before...

and after

Sorry, the sky had changed! Still, a dramatic improvement with just one or two smaller marks remaining.

Here's the Pentax istD before (note bottom left)


and after


Still some specks remaining but the biggy has gone.

On the Pentax K10D the change was more subtle so I'm not reproducing the results.

At Birmingham the guy who sold me the Dust Aid said that greasier dust could remain and you needed to use Eclipse to remove that. We can see thta in the above. And the K10D with its self cleaning sensor would be expected to expel looser dust so maybe that is what happened here - what was left on the sensor was the trickier dust spots anyway.

(Note all photos are of a section of the image)

So at least now I have three relatively clean sensors. I'm particularly pleased with the Canon which had not responded to the blower brush. But will it stay clean, even though I will not be removing the lens? I've read elsewhere about manufacturing debris in some EOS5d's causing all sorts of problems. Hopefully I have a clean one now.

DSLR sensor cleaning - the Scotch tape moment

I'd tried with Sensor Swabs, Pec Pads and Eclipse and despite success sometimes, on other occasions my DSLR has suffered from dust which was never picked off but simply moved around by the cleaning process. Since I was up against a different quality of dust, I was going to have to try something new to defeat it.

I regarded the Scotch tape cleaning idea it as a joke at first - a mischief wished upon DSLRs in the same way that viruses wreak havoc with PCs. The very suggestion that Scotch tape be used to clean this most delicate of devices seemed absurd. But there it was, being used not only by photographers on discussion boards that were unknown to me but now by respected photographers on the Alamy Pro forum.

I found this link:

http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1034&message=16542910

What I needed was apparently Scotch Magic Tape, 19mm wide (which apparently matches the width of the APS sensor) product code 810. The tricky bit is getting it gently to lay across the sensor while trying to avoid it sticking to other bits of the cameras innards.

Here is someone who suggests that the tape leaves a residue:

http://www.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1020&message=13423020

But if there is any then the residue is apparently easily removed by Eclipse.

Warning! Here's a test which says 'no don't do it...'

http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1036&message=20529061

As does:

http://www.cleaningdigitalcameras.com/methods.html

But my sensor is fine. It's as clean as it's ever been and no discernable Scotch tape gunk. I am happy.

Making sense of DSLR sensor cleaning

Three months ago I cautiously used an air compressor to try and remove dust from my digital SLR CCD sensor. That it did very successfully, only to replace it with a fine coating of lubricating oil that I had not remotely suspected to be present.

This being a Pentax DSLR, and fearing the worst, I took it to the Pentax service centre in Langley near London. I was told that it could not be cleaned, it needed a new sensor and that I should right the camera off because replacing the sensor would cost more than a replacement camera.

And that I did - for three months anyway - until I started researching this area when I tried to clean my assistant Son's sensor with a blower brush carefully following the instructons in the Pentax manual. But the cleaning just made things worse - the dust that was there was gone, only to be replaced by a greater number of new particles....

Research on the web led me to a story of how someone in the USA had been through a similar experience. Apparently this blower brush (or at least the older cheaper versions of it) is notorious for blowing rubber particles onto the sensor. He took the camera to Canon who did not write it off but did give him a bill for about $300....

I did not tell Son about this (fearing it would freak her out, just a little!) but advised her to go and get it professionally cleaned. This she did - for £25 - and now all appears to be well. I promised to get a Pec Pads / Eclipse cleaning kit for the replacement Pentax I bought and to take care of hers.

But then I remembered the written off camera! So with nothing to lose and with an inkling that perhaps the service centre bods are not quite as expert as they are cut out to be, I went to work on my sensor. I first used Pec Pads folded around the smoothed off end of a flexible plastic knife to soak up the excesss droplets. I then applied Eclipse using the same device, getting through about 12 Pec Pads. Finally I used a Sensor Swab with Eclipse to finish the job. After an hour I had a new camera!!!!

Yes, change the oil in your BMW and you may invalidate your warranty - but it is something you can do perfectly easily yourself with the right tools. Same goes for sensor cleaning - don't let the instruction manual / service centres freak you out into thinking that you can't do it yourself. Just get a cleaning kit and follow the instructions carefully.