Sensor Cleaning

[alpine62uk]

I have bought a cleaning kit from Copper Hill Images and have read all the write ups from them but has anyone here used this cleaning kit?

i'm naturally worried about doing this for the first time so would welcome any feed back.

Key concerns are pressure that i should apply and the amount of cleaning fluid I should put on the cleaning swab.

Antony

[pmarz]

I recently cleaned the sensor on my 20d and a real dirty sensor on my friend's 10d with a sensor swab and eclipse and I thankfully had no problems.

[Adam Hicks]

I've cleaned my 20D quite a few times with great success. The first thing I'd tell you is to try a Giotto (sp?) Rocket Blower FIRST. Try to get everything off that way whenever you can. Use the fluid as a last resort.

My sensor had some oily type spots on it that couldn't be blown off, so I used the Eclipse Solution and Pec Pads on a homemade sensor swab to clean my sensor. Just apply enough pressure to make a few swipes of the sensor, but certainly do not press down on the sensor or use any more force than you think is needed to clean the sensor. Let the pad and the solution do the work.

It's not as scary as you think!

Adam

[Jesper]

I'm using the Copper Hill kit too (on my 10D).

Don't worry about pressure. Ofcourse, don't press really hard on the sensor, but it's pretty fixed inside the camera and you can put some pressure on it without ill effects.

Just one or two drops of Eclipse cleaning fluid is more than enough. Don't use too much, you don't want to soak your sensor with the fluid (although it evaporates very quickly).

Don't worry if you don't get all the specks off first time. Sometimes you'll have to clean the sensor multiple times if there are particularly sticky particles of dirt on it.

[alpine62uk]

Thanks for the feedback, I'll will let you know later today how I got on.

Thanks Again

Antony

[charlesu]

I've cleaned my 1D MKII several times wiht the sensor swabs and eclipse. So far, so good. I also have the brushes discussed on Luminous Landscape and Rob Galbraith. The reviews on them have been great but I've not tried them as yet.

Good luck and be careful!

[alpine62uk]

Well, I have done it! All seems to be fine.

I have taken a few shots and only one spot remains fron the 5/6 that was there, even the one that remains I can hardly see now.

it's time for a drink

Antony

[Leigh]

Canon's method: Scroll down to the article titled " EOS PRO DAY 2004" :

http://www.canonians.com/latestnews.htm

They use Pecpads, and, apparently Eplipse fluid, as well.

PS:
I wondered if any of you Brits have tried this UK product which seems to work in a similar manner as the Visible Dust brush products?

http://www.intemos.com/information.htm

Leigh

[tim]

Dammit, I have some dust on my sensor, and a couple of dark spots on my mirror. It's only noticable from about F14 up, so it's not too bad, but i'd like to clean it. I used my tiny hand pump blower thingy and it got some off, but there are some persistent spots that will probably need to be properly cleaned.

Does anyone know a place to buy a good sensor cleaning kit that will ship to New Zealand quickly? Even better if there's somewhere in NZ that sells them for a reasonable price. I just called the NZ distributer of cleaningdigitalcameras.com and he quoted me NZ$200 (US$142) for a set of 12 premade swipes - damn that's expensive!

Copperhill do sell the kits to people anywhere in the world for US$18, which is pretty good. They don't sell the cleaning fluid in their kits though, is "Eclipse" just plain old methanol? I should be able to buy that here. I probably wouldn't get the kit until after the new year if I ordered now, which isn't too bad, so long as I don't make it worse.

[Jon, The Elder]

Hey Tim - go to - www.visibledust.com They have a GREAT way to handle. It is a Canadian company, which might give you an edge.

[HKFEVER]

It is very trouble some of the dust on the sensor, does anyone know who will ship the cleaning pad + the Eplipse fluid to Hong Kong.

[alpine62uk]

Dammit, I have some dust on my sensor, and a couple of dark
Copperhill do sell the kits to people anywhere in the world for US$18, which is pretty good. They don't sell the cleaning fluid in their kits though, is "Eclipse" just plain old methanol? I should be able to buy that here. I probably wouldn't get the kit until after the new year if I ordered now, which isn't too bad, so long as I don't make it worse.

Copperhill do sell the Eclipse

[alpine62uk]

Copperhill do sell the Eclipse

Sorry did'nt realise you are in the New Zealand

[tim]

Thanks SetiPrime, and Antony, :p

[wibbly]

Reading between the lines about Canon's recommendations on cleaning the sensor in their 20D manual, I'm convinced their greatest fear is not about sensor damage as a result of the cleaning process itself, so much as the risk of damaged shutters and mirrors if for some reasn the camera comes off cleaning mode and the shutter closes and the mirror flips down.

The intersting aspect of the content to the link describing how Canon do it (above)

http://www.canonians.com/latestnews.htm

is their process of of cleaning before they use a wipe/fluid. They go to some length to clean with compressed air first - presumably to lower the risk of just moving dust around, and also to remove lose stuff.

J