Midgeycity
Posts: 40
Location: Newton Stewart, United Kingdom
Registered: 6 May 2006
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Sensor Cleaning
Posted: 5 Dec 2006 at 18:00 GMT
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I have been using a Nikon 8800 and FC-E9 combination for some time now but have also begun using a Pentax 1stDL2 and 10-17 fisheye and now have to deal with dust on the sensor. No matter how careful I am changing lenses I still manage to get it.
I wondered how you all deal with this problem. I bought a ridiculously expensive kit consisting of four spade shaped cleaners (to be used only once apparently!!) and a very small container of methanol for nearly £30 – seemed extortionate to me.
Does anyone have any views please – as a spectacle wearer I have some very good alcohol based cleaning sachets which cost about £0.05p each – would these not suffice??
Many thanks
Alan Love
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DorinDXN
Posts: 1695
Location: Timisoara, Romania
Registered: 14 Nov 2006
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Re: Sensor Cleaning
Posted: 6 Dec 2006 at 19:26 GMT
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Hi Alan,
I think those sachet could be ok IF those are manufactured/packed/stored in such conditions so no contains any foreign abbrasive part.
It's nothing special with that glass over the sensor, in fact what you cleanning is a glass not the sensor itself.
The only danger there is scratching not because is easy to scratch, but because beeing at such proximity next to sensor a scratch can affect images on sensor.
My advice for anyone who must clean his camera's sensor is practice BUT NOT on his camera and NOT on others's of course.
Try to simulate those difficult conditions first.
Try to find/buy a piece of glass (easy to scratch) about of the same dimensions and put that piece of glass in bottom of a little box (paper, plastic or so) in such way to have the same kind of difficult acces to clean, and practice on that glass (not with expensive cleaners but with those much cheaper).
First put some dust on that glass then examine carefully that glass before and after your cleanning, with a magnifying glass or even make some good macro pictures.
Over the internet you may find advices to "press a little hard" when cleaning.
That's the bigest mistake that one can do!.
Even if you use a 100% sterile sachet, that very dust which you try to remove could scratch the glass if you press just a little to hard.
Instead try to wait and give some time for that alcohol to solve and detach those particles. It's nothing clued there is just a simple (in most cases static charged) attach.
Let's say that I'm a dust particle on that sensor glass. You put that cleaning sachet over me. After a while (5 sec or more) I'm happy in that alcohol and I'm easy to move right and left with your sachet, and the time come when you may want to lift up that sachet.
Now is the important moment of cleanning because I have two choices
1) to stay on your sachet
or
2) to stay on your glass.
And no one knows wich choice I made.
So try to not lift up that sachet. Instead slide to the lef or right (the sachet texture and alcohol keep me in sachet when you sliding) in such way to push me over the edge of that glass, Even If I manage to stay on glass at the edge, I'm not over the sensitive area of sensor and you not take me in your picture.
hope that help,
Dorin
p.s. excuse my english
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Midgeycity
Posts: 40
Location: Newton Stewart, United Kingdom
Registered: 6 May 2006
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Re: Sensor Cleaning
Posted: 8 Dec 2006 at 15:38 GMT
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Hello Dorin
Thank you for that.
The procedure you describe is basically what I do - only I intend doing it with a less expensive cleaning solution and maybe resusing the cleaning swab.
I will give it a try next time the dreaded dust appears and see what happens
Kind regards
Alan
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DorinDXN
Posts: 1695
Location: Timisoara, Romania
Registered: 14 Nov 2006
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Re: Sensor Cleaning
Posted: 8 Dec 2006 at 17:03 GMT
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Midgeycity said: I intend doing it with a less expensive cleaning solution and maybe resusing the cleaning swab.
Hello Alan,
Reusing (means to use more than one time) is no good, please don't reuse. used=contaminated=abbrasive
Less expensive way may work (but try first on other glass).
..
and now have to deal with dust on the sensor. No matter how careful I am changing lenses I still manage to get it.
Try to use a custom made case for camera in which the camera is in position with the lens oriented downwards. May sound scarry but may help preventing dust to acumulate on sensor and do even 'automatic' cleanning when walking or travelling (by car or so). That case of course must protect lens first.
hope this help,
Dorin
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Midgeycity
Posts: 40
Location: Newton Stewart, United Kingdom
Registered: 6 May 2006
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Re: Sensor Cleaning
Posted: 13 Dec 2006 at 12:37 GMT
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Hello again Dorin
Thank you for your further advice. I am still dust free at the moment so have not had to put anything to the test.
Thank you also for your guide to the NN3 (My NN3 is better than yours) which is most useful as I have just taken delivery of a NN3 to use with a Pentax 10 - 17 set up. Your tips are most helpful as indeed are those by John Houghton (and others) to be found elswhere in the forums.
Kind regards
Alan Love
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David Marine
Posts: 37
Location: Austin, TX, United States
Registered: 24 Dec 2006
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Re: Sensor Cleaning
Posted: 24 Jan 2007 at 17:28 GMT
updated: 24 Jan 2007 at 17:31 GMT
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Alan,
I too have constant dust on my sensor from switching lenses.
After doing a lot of obsessive reading on the subject I bought and use The Arctic Butterfly 700 brush. It is expensive, but not relative to the cost of the camera or the time it would take to post process the dust away.
The URL is: www.visibledust.com/products.php?PID=1
The brush is motorized so you can spin it before using, which removes any dust on the brush and statically charges it to pick up dust from the sensor. Most importantly, it is soft and cannot damage the sensor, and it is reusable and self cleaning.
I use it frequently and it always removes any dust that is at all visible in a normal image. I say normal because there have been, from when I first purchased the camera, very minor specs adhering to my sensor that only show when I shoot an image designed to show dust on the sensor. This is done by shooting a white full-screen image on my LCD panel with the lens out of focus and stopped all the way down to f22. I then post process it to increase the contrast considerably. With this approach anything consequential or not to real images jumps out.
I do not worry myself over such specks that are not visible if I instead take a focused shot of a blue sky. That way I won't accidently wear or damage the sensor by obsessively over-cleaning with something other than the brush and, more importantly, I will live longer! 
Hope this helps.
- David
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Midgeycity
Posts: 40
Location: Newton Stewart, United Kingdom
Registered: 6 May 2006
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Re: Sensor Cleaning
Posted: 28 Jan 2007 at 18:01 GMT
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Hello David
Thank you for your advice. I see the Arctic Butterfly 700 is available in the UK for £45 (approx $88). It's actually only twice the cost of the four non-reusable swabs I complained about in the first post.
I'll give it a go.
Many thanks
Alan
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